The Sun-Herald

The Fly On Frank Lowy's Wall

Football Federation Australia chairman Frank Lowy spent the New Year cruising the Caribbean in his private yacht.

As you would if you could.

We know this because Jack Warner, President of CONCACAF - the confederation that represents Central and North America in football matters, told me so during a conversation last week.

Warner is controversial and candid but just as importantly he's a FIFA Vice-President and very powerful within international football's corridors of power.

Warner holds one of the 13 votes that Australia requires to win the hosting rights for the 2018 World Cup.

So, it was good news for Australia when Warner said he was expecting to have dinner with Lowy when the FFA chairman anchored his luxury liner off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago.

While the rest of us fired up the barbie and recovered from seasonal excesses, Lowy worked his own charm for FFA's 2018 bid.

As Warner explained (Cross promotion alert! You can read the story in full in the week's edition of The Sun-Herald) he's a fan of Lowy and has already been entertained at the FFA boss's Sydney waterfront mansion.

But that might be the end of the good news. Warner told me that he thinks Australia is no chance for 2018.

True, he agreed, Australia is a great candidate. There's infrastructure, stadia and top facilities.

Warner was in Australia last year for the FIFA Congress and also spoke glowingly of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

But he also spoke bluntly. His thoughts were something like this:

Australia is a member of the Asian Football Confederation.

The AFC hosted the World Cup in 2002.

The End.

In 2018, it will be another confederation's turn, whether that's CONCACAF or, more likely, Europe.

(And yes, Europe does get to host the World Cup out of turn and more regularly than any other confederation. The reason is simple - because it can.)

This also puts a 2018 bid from Qatar, which made its intention public last week, an intriguing play.

Saud al Mohannadi, secretary-general of the Qatar Football Association, said: "We are interested and we believe we can successfully host such a prestigious event as the World Cup finals. We have the stadiums and we have experience hosting top sports events. We don't want to rush into anything, we need to find out what the full requirements are, but we are interested."

Add an official joint bid from Spain and Portugal to England's sentimental pitch and Australia may be waiting a while longer for a World Cup.

Frank Lowy is a smart man. This is all stuff he knows.

At least, we would hope so.

Which is why the prime position this weekend would be as a fly on the wall of Frank Lowy's yacht as he meets with Jack Warner - and then continues to work the phones.