Mr Bin Hammam was undertaking a separate campaign to retain his position on FIFA's powerful executive committee, which decides World Cup host countries. Les Murray. Credit:SBS As part of this, Mr Hargitay launched an apparent dirty tricks campaign against Mr Hammam's rival, Bahrain football boss Sheikh Salman. In April 2009, Mr Bin Hammam granted an exclusive interview to Mr Murray, in which he claimed Sheikh Salman had been buying votes from Asian football associations. The allegation became a crucial part of Mr Bin Hammam's campaign. In a subsequent invoice to Mr Bin Hammam, dated April 14, 2009, Mr Hargitay said his services included "co-operation with SBS TV, development of storyline, supply of core information, editorial input and raw data for further research".

He later wrote to Mr Bin Hammam saying: "The TV investigative team has started their work full speed ahead. They want to air the programme on May 3 for maximum impact. They are working with the full support of our team — all coordinate centrally between my team and Les Murray at SBS." The day after Mr Hargitay's invoice was lodged, on April 15, Mr Murray used his position on FIFA's ethics committee to launch a complaint against Sheikh Salman, adding that he had been able to find more evidence to corroborate the vote-buying claim. In his letter, Mr Murray said Mr Bin Hammam's allegations had come to him in his "professional role as a journalist for SBS television". He added: "The interview has not been put to air by SBS but its publication is imminent." Ultimately, the interview with Mr Bin Hammam was never aired after SBS' lawyers raised defamation concerns.

Mr Murray strongly denies he was part of Mr Hargitay's "team", or an active participant in events, saying he made the ethics complaint as "a matter of duty and conscience". No adverse findings were ever made against Sheikh Salman, a member of Bahrain's royal family, though vote-buying and human rights abuse claims continued to dog him until 2013, when he was elected as Asian Football Confederation president. Mr Bin Hammam has since been banned for life by FIFA from any involvement in football for repeated "conflict of interest" violations, particularly over bribes he offered to win support for Qatar's bid. Mr Murray was part of the FIFA ethics committee that investigated Mr Bin Hammam and made adverse findings. In 2009, though, the allegations and the ethics complaint threw Sheikh Salman's campaign into chaos, according to an email from Mr Hargitay to Mr Bin Hammam. "Dear brother, today was an eventful day on all fronts: the Korean FA got literally BOMBARDED with phone calls by five of our own team members – all high-standing journalists with excellent reputation – and hordes of additional media picked up the ethics committee filing as well (we made sure they did).

"The poor press officer at the KFA literally nearly broke down when our last caller ... battered him about ethics, corruption, bribes etc." In the email, sent on the same day as Mr Murray made the ethics complaint, Mr Hargitay was able to inform Mr Hammam of the Ethics Committee chairman's initial response, which says in part: "Thank you very much for your message. It sounds very serious". An SBS spokeswoman said: "Mr Murray was not part of any team except that of SBS. Mr Murray does not have any control over what other people say and was completely unaware of that." She said the recently retired broadcaster had interviewed Mr Bin Hammam "as a genuine and entirely journalistic exercise". He later had his allegations about his rival confirmed by another source, the late Jose Mari Martinez, then president of the Philippines Football Association, she said. "Though the interview was withheld from going to air, as a member of the FIFA ethics committee and as a matter of duty and conscience, Mr Murray reported Bin Hammam's claims to the committee. Hargitay made no suggestion that Mr Murray report the matter to anyone."

In the AFC election, Mr Bin Hammam ended up defeating Sheikh Salman 23 votes to 21. Days afterwards, Mr Murray emailed Indonesian ethics committee member Dali Tahir​. "I thought Mohamed would win by a bigger margin," Mr Murray added. "It was obvious that some people had betrayed him. By the way, the Kuwaitis have told one of our reporters that they intend to report me to the ethics committee. I hope they are joking." The Australian World Cup bid attracted just one vote, as the Qatari bid won the right to host the event. Football Federation of Australia said it had "no evidence" to suggest Mr Hargitay was working for Mr Bin Hammam at the same time as he was being paid by Australia. In 2010 when Fairfax Media revealed the $11 million in taxpayer funded fees and bonuses Mr Hargitay and fellow FFA consultant Fedor Radmann​ stood to receive, Mr Murray strongly defended the pair, describing the reports as "appalling journalism". "I don't see a problem with that kind of money being spent on strategists and lobbyists," Mr Murray said at the time.