MELBOURNE — Australia's failed bid for the 2022 World Cup bid left the country's football supremo Frank Lowy with a bitter grievance.
Now, corruption investigations into global football governing body FIFA threaten to end the 84-year-old billionaire's reign over Australian football on a sour note.
Lowy has promised to retire as Football Federation Australia (FFA) president at the end of the year, but not soon enough for local critics who have rounded on the shopping centre magnate as national police probe the 2022 bid.
The FFA spent some A$42.5 million (21.2 million pounds) of government money on the bid which garnered only one vote by FIFA delegates who awarded the tournament to Qatar.