FOLLOW THE DOSH
And how odd that I should mention the subject of 2022 World Cup bid, and money. For a fortnight ago, it was revealed that there is still $11 million unaccounted for, of the $45m Australian taxpayers put towards our failed soccer World Cup bid. We know at least some of the $45m went to Australia's World Cup bid consultant Peter Hargitay, who was last referred to in this space as "an arrogant, presumptuous dickhead" for the manner in which he dealt with quite legitimate inquiries as to how much he was paid. But here's the interesting part. Shortly after writing that relatively mild rebuke, I was contacted by Andrew Jennings, the famed British author of, among other books,
FOUL! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote-Rigging and Ticket Scandals, 2006. He pointed me to info on his website -
www.transparencyinsport.org - concerning the background of this man, whom Football Federation Australia contracted and to whom the federal government paid your and my taxpayer dollars. Hold your nose, and step into the next item if you will.
PETE THE INGRATE
Jennings makes a very damaging case against Hargitay, giving details on how, among other things, he:
❏ He worked as a media minder for the infamous and shameful Union Carbide chemical company, whose 1984 factory meltdown in Bhopal, India, killed thousands of people;
❏ Worked for America's most famous tax-fraud felon, Marc Rich, who first made his name busting sanctions during South Africa's apartheid regime;
❏ Was arrested in 1995, accused of cocaine trafficking by Jamaican police, before being acquitted;
❏ Was arrested in 1997 by Interpol in Miami, following an extradition order being sought by Hungarian officials, and subsequently charged with conspiracy to import 18 kilograms of cocaine to the United States. He served seven months in prison, after being judged as a flight risk, before again being acquitted, and;
In the 21st century, Hargitay positioned himself as a Mr Fix-It with the high-world politics of FIFA, but was not successful. Although hired by the England World Cup bid team for 2018, Jennings recounts how Hargitay "got the bum's rush from England's Bid team''.
There's more, much more, which you can read on Jennings's website, but with a background like that - and surely our people would have researched him before handing our money over - it is staggering that FFA chief executive Ben Buckley could say of Hargitay: "We are very fortunate to have him."
One wonders how we would have gone if we had been
unfortunate. I repeat: How were Australian hopes and Australian taxpayer dollars pinned on such a man? There urgently needs to be an inquiry into the whole debacle.
