Police assess Australia's 2022 World Cup bid Published duration 4 June 2015

image copyright Getty Images image caption Hosting a World Cup would have been a boon for Australia's growing love of the round ball

Australian police are investigating corruption claims surrounding payments linked to the country's failed bid for the 2022 Football World Cup.

Part of Australia's bid included funds for a stadium upgrade allegedly stolen by Fifa official Jack Warner.

Australian football officials say their bid was "clean". They received just one vote, losing out to Qatar.

Mr Warner was one of 14 people arrested after a US corruption investigation dubbed a "World Cup of fraud".

Those charged allegedly accepted millions of dollars worth of bribes and kickbacks over 24 years.

The US's wide-ranging criminal case also led Fifa President Sepp Blatter to resign.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) will assess whether a A$500,000 ($387,000; £252,000) payment made to Mr Warner in 2010 by Australian football officials broke any Australian or international laws.

'Clean bid'

An AFP spokesman said the agency was "currently evaluating allegations of the misappropriation of funds from Football Federation Australia to FIFA" but would not comment further.

image copyright Getty Images image caption Frank Lowy nurses a "bitter grievance" about Australia's failed World Cup bid

Football Federation Australia (FFA) chairman Frank Lowy has written an open letter to fans distancing the organisation from the Fifa corruption scandal, while admitting the FFA had "made mistakes".

"We ran a clean bid and we are proud of that but it wasn't a level playing field and therefore we didn't win it," said Mr Lowy.

"I will always be bitterly disappointed about the outcome," Mr Lowy wrote.

"On a personal level, since 2 December 2010 when Australia received just one vote in its World Cup bid, I have nursed a bitter grievance," he said.

"We ran a clean bid. I know that others did not, and I have shared what I know with the authorities, including [US lawyer] Michael Garcia who undertook a two-year investigation into the 2022 World Cup bid," Mr Lowy wrote in the letter.

Swiss authorities have separately announced they would investigate the allocation of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, awarded to Russia and Qatar respectively.

Meanwhile, former top Fifa official Chuck Blazer has admitted that he and others on the executive committee agreed to accept bribes in conjunction with the choice of South Africa as 2010 World Cup host.