Lowy, chairman of the Football Federation Australian (FFA), has dug into his own deep pockets to try to help bring the World Cup to Australia for the first time.

 

England is favourite to win, but Australia is also seen as a strong contender along with Russia and the joint Spain/Portugal ticket and is optimistic that if the event is awarded to Europe in 2018 then they wil be a good position to be awarded 2022.

 

Lowy, a retail property tycoon, is targeting decision-makers from FIFA and along with FFA chief executive Ben Buckley and has held a series of one-on-one meetings in the lead-up to next week's FIFA Congress in Nassau.

 

The England delegation, led by Football Association chairman Lord Triesman and also including London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe, who is a member of the England 2018 World Cup Board, are due to arrive in the Bahamas tomorrow after attending today's FA Cup Final, which Chelsea won, beating Everton 2-1 at Wembley Stadium.

 

The Australian delegation, meanwhile, have met eight leading FIFA members already abroad Lowy's 74-metre luxury yacht Ilona (pictured), named after his mother and worth a reported A$110 million (£54.4 million).

 

He has funded the trip privately and not from the A$47 million (£23.2 million) allocated by the Australian Government to fund the bid.

 

 

Those that Lowy and Buckley have been courting include Jack Warner, the influential member from Trinidad who controls three votes and who earlier this week criticised England's bid after they invited a member of the British Nationalist Party to the launch of its campaign at Wembley.

 

Australia will officially launch its bid to host the World Cup in Canberra on June 14.

 

The full Socceroos squad, at home for two Asian World Cup qualifiers, will be on show, and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will also be taking part.

 

A promotional campaign is due be launched at the same time encouraging all Australians to support the bid but Lowy's backing will be crucial.

 

The 78-year-old Slovakian refugee is Australia's second richest man [behind entrepreneur Andrew Forrest] with an estimated wealth of A$6.3 billion (£3.1 billion).

He is best known for his co-founding and continuing involvement with The Westfield Group, a retail giant that owns dozens of shopping centres in Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Britain.

Its latest project is overseeing the the £1.5 billion development at Stratford City, the urban regeneration site adjacent to the 2012 Olympic Park in London.
 

The 24 members of the FIFA Executive Committee will vote in December 2010 to award the hosting rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

 

There are nine bidders for 2018.

 

Besides England, Australia, Russia and the joint bid from Spain and Portugal other bidders are Indonesia, Japan, Mexico and the United States.

 

Belgium and Netherlands are also bidding jointly.

 

Qatar and South Korea are bidding just for the 2022 World Cup.