The Football Federation Australia (FFA) chairman will serve a four-year term as the 31st member of the panel which oversees the 2010 tournament in South Africa, it was announced today.

 

Lowy enters the inner circle of football's world governing body at a time when Australia is preparing a bid to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022 and will take his place on committee including most of the 24 powerbrokers who decide where each tournament is held and which England and Russia, the countries FFA officials consider to be their main rivals, are not represented.

 

Prominent members on the panel include UEFA president Michel Platini, the hugely influential Caribbean chief Jack Warner, who the Football Association have been shamelessly courting, plus the head of the last World Cup Franz Beckenbauer, Germany's former captain and manager.

 

The Australian Government has promised A$60 million (£26.2 million) to fund a bid that would be guided by the FFA.

 

Lowy, a Slovakian refugee who turns 78 next month, is Australia's second richest man [behind entrepreneur Andrew Forrest] with an estimated wealth of A$6.3 billion (£2.7 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.

 

World Cup hosts are chosen by the FIFA 24-man Executive Committee chaired by President Sepp Blatter, who has publicly encouraged Australia's bid.

 

But he said at the FIFA Congress held in Sydney last May that the 2018 tournament would likely be held in the Northern Hemisphere, after the 2010 event in South Africa and 2014 in Brazil.

 

He suggested that the 2022 World Cup would "perhaps be more preferable" for Australia to target.

 

FIFA is expected to decide later this year when the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 tournaments will be revealed, and a double announcement in 2011 is the likeliest outcome.

 

Other countries hoping to host the 2018 World Cup include Mexico, the United States, Qatar, China, Japan and joint bids from Portugal-Spain and Netherlands-Belgium.