Australia's 2022 World Cup bid cleared of deception
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Australia's 2022 World Cup bid organizers have been cleared of allegations that they attempted to mislead the government with "dual accounts" to hide spending of taxpayers' money, local media reported on Sunday.
After lurid newspaper reports this week had claimed the Australian bid had sought to hide the true use of government millions funding the bid, the government itself wrote to Football Federation Australia (FFA) on Saturday to confirm an inspection of FFA accounting books had found no evidence to support the allegations.
Fairfax newspapers had claimed to have balance sheets that showed one set of accounts prepared for the government, and another "internal" set revealing secret expenditure.
"Allied to figures showing the cost of employing various foreign consultants to guide the bid, the headlines reverberated around the world and have caused a great deal of damage to the bid's standing," the Australian reported on Sunday.
But it emerged on Saturday that FFA CEO Ben Buckley requested a meeting with the government task force helping to run the bid to demonstrate its probity, and offered to have the reports to the government independently audited.
According to The Australian, the task force's deputy secretary, civil servant Richard Eccles, wrote to Buckley on Sunday confirming the government had no concerns over the allocation or the reporting of the tens of millions of public funds that are bankrolling the World Cup bid.
The letter also made clear that the level of detail in the FFA's financial reports to the government was specified by the task force, refuting allegations in the Fairfax news papers that bid organizers had given misleadingly vague figures to the government.
"We note your assurance that the document that is referenced in several media articles over the past few days was an internal and informal planning document... we note that the contents of this document align with the reports provided by the FFA to the Taskforce, and we accept your assurance that the existence of the planning document does not mean the FFA maintains 'dual' financial reporting and records," Eccles wrote.
The FFA chiefs immediately went on the front foot, accusing the Fairfax group of "outrageous" reporting "bordering on the defamatory", after a series of articles that seemed designed to damage the bid beyond repair.
"We sought a meeting with the government when these allegations were first put to us, and we opened up our books in full for them to examine them," Buckley told The Australian on Saturday.
"The allegations that we have been keeping a so-called dual set of accounts and have sought to hide activity from the government are outrageous, they are unsubstantiated, misleading and bordering on defamatory.
"We're delighted that as a result we now have a clean bill of health from the government and that they are perfectly happy with the reports we have given them. We will continue to disclose to them all our transactions and have all our dealings audited.
"We've never had anything to hide, we will have nothing to hide, and we are contemplating legal action against those who have made these allegations," said Buckley.
