The Sun-Herald

The Elephant In The Room

It's a great time for football in Australia - except for one thing we dare not talk about.

First, let's consider the good news. The highly-anticipated new A-League season kicks off this Thursday with Gold Coast United and North Queensland Fury joining the fray.

Gold Coast bring collateral - a millionaire owner flying his players around the country in a private jet, motormouth coach Miron Bleiberg, and Jason Culina, who left Australia unknown a decade ago to now be considered marquee material thanks to Guus Hiddink's affection for workaholic midfielders.

North Queensland, by contrast, bring a comical name and logo as well as Robbie Fowler, an English striker whose best days are long gone and may or may not be in Australia for a tropical holiday.

Entertainment, ahoy.

This has been an interesting week for Football Federation Australia. The bold governing body has pulled off a public relations coup instigating retroactive disciplinary measures for 'simulation', i.e. 'diving'.

This means a match review panel can discipline players after the event if the referee has awarded a penalty or an opponent has been sent off as the result of a dive.

Entertainment, ahoy, times two.

While that is all good news, on the other hand perhaps the most significant event impacting football in Australia took place on the other side of the world.

Last Sunday, CONCACAF, the confederation for North and Central America, held the final of its regional Championship at Giants Stadium in New York in front of 80,000 fans, most of them supporting Mexico against the United States.

Flashing lights: The crowd figure is importantly tied to the fact both the US and Mexico fielded second- or third-choice teams.

Also important is that FIFA President Sepp Blatter was in the crowd, watching the huge support for a match that barely matters.

Also on his itinerary? While Australian cities wrangle over just the idea of constructing potential stadiums, Blatter was already on a walk-through of the New Meadowlands, a state-of-the-art arena that will be a likely venue if the US hosts either the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cups.

Take a look here.

Blatter also visited the White House, met with President Obama, and extended an invitation to the Prez to attend next year's World Cup in South Africa with his family, including his soccer-playing daughters.

But it is what Blatter told US Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati after meeting Obama that may be crucial to Australia's World Cup host hopes - or lack of them.

It's something that has been overlooked by pretty much all Australian media, too busy wearing green and gold goggles to look at reality of global football politics.

(Except for this report here by, um, me).

Blatter told Gulati this week that FIFA Executive Committee members are torn between Europe and North America for 2018 - a position that may knock Australia out of contention for both tournaments.

"If FIFA were following a policy of rotation then it would in fact be North America's turn [in 2018]," Blatter said, according to Gulati. (Note: Note to Oceania - not your turn).

"There are some within the Executive Committee that would like [North America in 2018] to be the case and that there are other members of the Executive Committee that would prefer every third World Cup should be in Europe, in which case 2018 will be more likely for Europe," said Gulati, relaying Blatter's views.

In other words, let Europe take 2018 and get ready for USA 2022.

Blatter, a big football flirt, has a track record of playing to the gallery and publicly saying what he believes the audience at the time wants to hear, especially when it comes to World Cup bids.

But once in a while the truth slips out.

The United States has a powerful case and Australia's World Cup bid may require more than a scenic and telegenic commercial with an invitation to 'come play'.

In New York and Washington DC, Australia's bid may have hit the wall.

Just don't tell anyone in Australia.