Outgoing Football Federation Australia chairman Frank Lowy has strenuously defended Australia's behaviour in handing out around $6 million in donations to at least 12 countries from which it hoped to secure votes for its failed bid to host the FIFA World Cup in 2022.

Key points: Outgoing football chief Frank Lowy defends Australia's donations in failed bid to host the world cup

Outgoing football chief Frank Lowy defends Australia's donations in failed bid to host the world cup Football Federation Australia spent $43 million on campaign

Football Federation Australia spent $43 million on campaign Mr Lowy says he and his team were grossly misled by FIFA executive members about Australia's chances

"I was never going to be part of a dirty bid, not because I'm honest and not because I'm straight, but [because] I didn't want to tarnish the name of Australia and my own," the Westfield billionaire said.

The FFA ultimately spent $43 million of taxpayers' funding on Australia's World Cup campaign, only to be struck out with just one vote.

The Australian Federal Police and the FBI are investigating part of the money trail and there are calls for a Senate inquiry into how the money was spent.

Qatar won the right to host the event but since then, massive revelations of corruption and vote-buying have rocked football's governing body FIFA, and half of the members who voted on the 2022 World Cup have been suspended or are under criminal investigation, including FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

In a documentary to air on the ABC this evening, Mr Lowy, who personally drove Australia's bid, denies that the "development money" handed out by Australia was an indication that it had tried to be part of "the FIFA game" but was outplayed.

"FIFA's culture is what we now know that it is. At the time, we didn't know," he said.

"We were outplayed because there was a lot more money available for those people to play the game. They had a lot more influence than we had."

Of the Australian money donated to voting nations, one $500,000 payment is believed to have ended up in the personal bank account of a Caribbean FIFA official, Jack Warner, who is currently under investigation for misappropriating funds from the region's football federation CONCACAF.

Mr Lowy said the FFA made out a cheque to CONCACAF, not Mr Warner, and was clear it was giving the money for the football-specific project that had been vetted.

He defended providing the donation even though the Australian government's view was that there were insufficient accountability safeguards in the Caribbean.

Mr Lowy said that gave him pause but "if I would run my life according to government rules, I wouldn't be where I am, and you fail sometimes as a result."

Donations of development money, or "legacies", as they are known, were entirely legal within FIFA's rules at the time — and indeed were expected of all nations bidding to host a World Cup. The organisation has since changed this rule.

Mr Lowy also defended millions of dollars spent on controversial European consultants, saying he had little choice because they were recommended by top FIFA officials to give the Australian bid the best chance of success.

The documentary, Played, is the first time Mr Lowy and the team around him have spoken extensively about the failed venture.

The notoriously private 85-year-old, one of Australia's richest men, participated in hours of interviews and nothing was off limits.

He steps down today after 12 years as the inaugural chairman of the FFA, a tenure that oversaw the transformation of soccer in Australia on the national and international stage.

Despite creating a thriving national competition from the grassroots up, bringing Australia into the Asian Football Confederation and seeing the Socceroos to three World Cups, Mr Lowy said he still saw Australia's World Cup bid as "one of the biggest failures of my career".

He and his team say they were grossly misled by FIFA executive committee members about Australia's chances, double-crossed and overtly lied to.

Revelations include:

Three FIFA Executive Committee members — president Sepp Blatter, Asian Confederation president Mohamed Bin Hammam and Oceania representative Reynald Temarii — all promised Frank Lowy their votes before Australia launched a bid, persuading him it was a reasonable prospect

Three FIFA Executive Committee members — president Sepp Blatter, Asian Confederation president Mohamed Bin Hammam and Oceania representative Reynald Temarii — all promised Frank Lowy their votes before Australia launched a bid, persuading him it was a reasonable prospect Mohamed Bin Hammam continued to assure Frank Lowy he would help Australia secure the World Cup when he was secretly running slush funds on behalf of Qatar

Mohamed Bin Hammam continued to assure Frank Lowy he would help Australia secure the World Cup when he was secretly running slush funds on behalf of Qatar Australia's bid video, featuring an animated kangaroo stealing the World Cup, produced by German bid consultants, was originally so awful that Hollywood director Phillip Noyce was flown in to rescue it as best he could. Even the final product was pilloried at home

Australia's bid video, featuring an animated kangaroo stealing the World Cup, produced by German bid consultants, was originally so awful that Hollywood director Phillip Noyce was flown in to rescue it as best he could. Even the final product was pilloried at home Former FFA chief executive John O'Neill thought it was too soon for Australia to bid for a World Cup

Former FFA chief executive John O'Neill thought it was too soon for Australia to bid for a World Cup Immediately after the Qatar announcement was made, two different FIFA Executive Committee members rang Frank Lowy to say they were the person who gave Australia its sole vote

In the documentary, suspended FIFA president Sepp Blatter was asked about the discrepancy between the votes Australia thought it had and what eventually transpired.

"They said yes yes, you can have it, okay we will vote for you and then perhaps they forgot," he said with a smirk.

Played: Inside Australia's Failed World Cup Bid airs on ABC at 8:30pm tonight.