Asian stand rocks FFA

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9 June 2010-SBS EXCLUSIVE: Matthew Hall in Johannesburg

Unaware ... Frank Lowy and Ben Buckley (Getty)

Football Federation Australia was caught off guard and was completely unaware Asian Football Confederation president Mohamed Bin Hammam would announce the AFC will support a European bid to host the 2018 World Cup.

Buckley has eyes on bid

AFC backs Europe for 2018

Bin Hammam told the AFC Extraordinary Congress in Johannesburg on Wednesday (AEST) that he was backing Europe for 2018.

The World Game can reveal that Australia had no prior knowledge of Bin Hammam’s announcement, effectively snubbing FFA’s 2018 bid.

FFA chief executive Ben Buckley said Australia was not advised of the AFC position before the meeting but that it did not change Australia’s bid strategy.

“It was not a position that had been put forward to us prior to the meeting but it doesn’t change anything,” Buckley said.

“We are still confident in our position in the competition.”

Further clouding the issue are comments by Bin Hammam after the AFC's executive committee meeting on Tuesday that Australia was expected to pull out from the 2018 race and that FIFA was awaiting an official confirmation letter of the withdrawal.

Buckley, however, denied Australia was ditching the 2018 tournament to focus solely on 2022 and was still committed to bidding for both competitions.

“[Asia’s position] doesn’t change anything that we are doing,” Buckley said.

“We’re not changing our position. Every country has the right to choose which years it is bidding for. It does not have any effect on our position whatsoever.”

Buckley denied that Australia’s relationship with Bin Hammam and the AFC had cooled and that FFA’s ties with its regional neighbours were still strong.

However, he did concede there was little chance of a unified AFC bid for the tournaments.

Qatar, Japan and South Korea are also bidding for 2022.

“In this World Cup bid you have four nations from Asia bidding,” Buckley said.

“While there is an enormous amount of respect for one another and the strengths of each bid you can’t have a unified position going into the bid because each country is going for its own advantage.”

“The relationship is very positive. We are only relative newcomers to the AFC. Everywhere we go we get a good reception. We have very good representation on a number of important committees. I think Australia is a respected member of the AFC."