Lowy FC v FIFA United
Ref: L. Sales
That’s what Frank Lowy discovered after Australia’s $45M World Cup 2022 bid accrued exactly one vote. In case you missed it, Qatar won the thing. A country that gets so hot, the stadiums will have to be air conditioned. A country so vile to migrant workers, it beggars belief. A country that doesn’t really have that much grass anyway – a necessity for, you know, playing football.
Played, the ABC documentary following the process of the spectacularly failed bid, dug into the muck of FIFA tonight – but users on social media aren’t so sure Sepp Blatter and his cronies were the only ones playing the game.
17′ FOUL – F. LOWY
“We bribed these guys with all the tax payers money, and they went and voted for Qatar. Poor Frank Lowy” – fair summary of #played ?
— Keegan Check (@Tegal1234) November 17, 2015
Would Frank Lowy use his own money blindly for a venture, don’t think so Not #played more like outplayed they knew the system not their cash
— Nathan Hunt (@Nato_x31) November 17, 2015
Sorry #FFA but isn’t giving the top job to the son of the boss the sort of thing we are criticising #FIFA for? #played abc
— Peter Lewis (@PeterLewisEMC) November 17, 2015
While stacks of users slammed Lowy for his supposed nepotism, naivete and garden-variety ineptitude in the bidding process, many were quick to praise the guy for giving the impossible dream of holding a World Cup in Australia a red-hot crack.
#played Frank did so much for football in Australia. All I can do is thank him
— anne kindler (@kindlerjess) November 17, 2015
To be fair to Lowy & Australia, they weren’t the only ones to get #played. Far from it.
— Northern Element© (@NE_Brisbane) November 17, 2015
@leighsales @ABCTV Thanks for a great doco. My heart went out to Mr Lowy. #played
— The Happy Hermit (@sahermithome) November 17, 2015
Well #Played Mr. #FrankLowy you will be remembered by the generations to come.
— Om Prakash Sharma (@ompraka18883041) November 17, 2015
So, who won the thing? Lowy, with his apparently good-natured but ill-informed bid, or FIFA, with their supposedly clean hands?
The answer, as it is so often in football, is neither.
Image: Paulo Bruno via Getty.
