Ben Buckley, the chief executive of Football Federation Australia (FFA), said: “We’re not going to announce to the world the sort of feedback we’ve had from FIFA.

 

“But what I’m going to say is that in our travels within Asia and the football world more broadly, we believe there’s a lot of support for Australia to host the World Cup.

“We are as confident today as we were when we launched this initiative.”

 

Australia are one of 11 bidders for the tournament and one of five from the Asian confederation alongside Indonesia, Japan, Qatar and South Korea.

 

Australia's bid is being led by Frank Lowry, the country's richest man.

 

Buckley said: “I can assure everyone that our chairman will be intimately involved in the World Cup bid.

 

"He has already been very active in the process to date and will continue to be

“He is passionate about bringing the World Cup to Australia’s shores and I can assure you that apart from making the World Cup in 2010 and continuing to expand the A-League, this is of absolute priority and he’ll be dedicating himself to that task.”

 

Under the bid process conducted by world governing body FIFA, a bidding member association has the option of establishing a separate bid committee with its own legal entity or a business unit within the member association.  

The FFA Board has opted to integrate the bid team and the bid process into the everyday business of FFA.

 

Lowry will chair the bid and Buckley oversee it on a daily basis.

 

Stuart Taggart, the head of major events at the FFA, will project manage the operations and will have responsibility for technical aspects, including infrastructure planning, stadia and host city logistics, finance and project management.   

Bonita Mersiades, head of corporate and public affairs at the FFA, will be responsible for domestic and international communications, marketing, Government relations, corporate social responsibility and stakeholder and community relations.  

The FFA Bid Team will grow over the next two months to between 12-15 full time staff to include additional resources covering the areas of legal services, finance, infrastructure and operations, marketing and communications and community relations.

 

The team will work on the bid full-time.

 

Buckley said: "There is no doubt that the FIFA World Cup is the biggest sporting event on the planet.  

“While we have had a small but dedicated team working on our bid for the past 18 months compiling infrastructure audits, economic impact analysis and working with Federal and State governments on preliminary planning, we now have a timetable to meet for the bid and a need to establish a fully operational bid team.

"Our aim has always been to assemble a separate business unit within FFA with the best possible team of individuals with relevant experience and expertise supported by some of Australia’s, and the world’s, best consulting agencies.”

 

England are currently the favourites to win the right to host the 2018 World Cup.

 

The other bidders are Mexico, Russia, the United States and joint bids from Belgium and the Netherlands and Portugal and Spain.

 

FIFA is due to award the event, along with the hosts for the 2022 World Cup, at a meeting in December 2010.

 

Australia's efforts to host the World Cup is running in parallel with a bid to stage the 2015 Asian Cup.

 

They are currently the only bidders for the event.

 

Buckley said: “At this stage we’re the only country that has put our name forward for the 2015 Asia Cup.

“There’s nothing we’ve heard or seen to suggest that any other country is planning to host or bid.

"We shouldn’t underestimate the size and scale of the Asia Cup.

“Teams like Korea, China, Japan, the Middle East; you’re talking about a huge region with two-thirds of the world’s population.

“Behind the World Cup the Asia Cup is probably up there in the top four or five sporting events around the world.”

“We think we’re very placed to host the Asia Cup without significant and additional infrastructure and investment.

“We’re working through a preliminary draw, to see what sort of games might need to be played where and when during the group stage.”