Misplaced trust and an "offensive segment" of Australia's campaign video have been revealed as the "primary reasons" behind Football Federation Australia's failed World Cup bid for the 2022 tournament, according to Matt Bungard of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. An ABC documentary into Australia's attempts to host the world's biggest sporting event, titled Played, aired on Tuesday and centered around former FFA Chair Frank Lowy's "seeming naivety" toward the voting process and the delegates from various football federations, with whom he had "tried to curry favour." Lowy said, "I don't like to think of myself as a patsy, but obviously I was." The presentation featured hidden camera footage from the Lowy delegation in Zurich in '10, as well as "testimony from former FFA bosses John O'Neill and Ben Buckley, Sepp Blatter himself, and many more." The Qatar bid video was "almost universally regarded by people who had seen it as being the best." Film director Phillip Noyce's assessment was "perfectly blunt." Noyce: "The Qataris ended with an impassioned plea to change the world. We ended with a Kangaroo stealing the World Cup." Played also looked at "alleged bribery allegations levied at the Australian bid," and how half a million dollars ended up in the personal account of "now disgraced" former CONCACAF President Jack Warner. Lowy "bristled at any suggestions of foul play," and said, "We have a desire to help, not to put money into somebody's pocket. ... We had a clean bid, we bribed nobody" (SMH, 11/17).
