The FIFA report is embarrassing for Sir Frank Lowy. Credit:Getty Images The highly embarrassing document provides incredible detail on the dubious lengths to which FFA went to secure votes to have Australia stage the World Cup along with allegations of improper payments made to influence the outcome of the vote. Lowy and – to an even greater degree – former FFA chief executive Ben Buckley's names are littered throughout the explosive report. Whichever way you cut it the revelations are damaging for Lowy, as the head of the organisation he must bear some responsibility for the behaviour even if he was not directly involved or even aware. Lowy, who is currently in Europe, was not prepared to make any further comment on the issues raised by the report according to his spokesman.

Ben Buckley was mentioned in the report on a number of occasions. Credit:Getty Images In light of the increased focus given to corporate governance in Australia, the report will be awkward for Lowy as the chairman of international shopping centre giant Westfield Corporation. Despite some extraordinary findings, FFA ostensibly dismissed the report, saying it "does not raise substantive new matters that have not already been the subject of other inquiries and/or media coverage since 2009/2010 ... the report also states that 'the Investigatory Chamber does not intend to pursue formal investigatory proceedings against any individual bid team member'." Jack Warner. Credit: Abraham Diaz Whether the release of this report gains any serious traction depends on whether it will be used by corruption regulators around the world to pursue convictions.

In most countries legislation around bribery and corruption centre on payments being made to or benefits being derived by public officials – i.e. legislators, judiciary or government institutions. American investigator Michael Garcia handed in his report to FIFA on the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids in 2014. Credit:WALTER BIERI It thus can be assumed that his inquiry and report would have been well informed as to what might be of interest to authorities down the track. While FIFA is not such a body, some of the soccer sporting bodies in other countries are connected to their governments. Indeed few would understand the implications of this report better than Garcia, who since February 2016 has been Associate Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, that state's highest court, and who was previously US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Under his tenure his office became well known for the successful prosecution of public corruption and terrorism-related cases, according to the Wall St Journal.

FFA consultant Peter Hargitay (left) with former FIFA president Sepp Blatter. Among his white-collar criminal cases, the WSJ said he "obtained guilty pleas in a fraud case against former executives of collapsed financial firm Refco Inc, and successfully prosecuted both large-scale insider trading at Wall Street firms and cases of stock-option backdating". He also oversaw "a series of high-profile public corruption cases", including the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal and the prosecution of several state politicians and city officials, such as former police commissioner Bernard Kerik and Democratic political fundraiser Norman Hsu. Garcia did a seven-year stint in private practice at Kirkland & Ellis, where he specialised in matters involving insider trading, offshore tax shelters, theft of trade secrets and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. It can be assumed that his inquiry and report would have been well informed as to what might be of interest to authorities down the track.

A major part of FIFA's 400-page report into Australia's attempts to win the bid to stage the World Cup, dealt with allegations of attempts to hide the appointment and use of a consultant who had a close relationship with a FIFA voting executive. Peter Hargitay, a well-connected former FIFA official, was hired by the bid team, known as "Australia 2022", along with another two well-placed but controversial consultants, Andreas Abold and Fedor Radmann. The latter was a close associate of Franz Beckenbauer, the German football star who had a vote on the FIFA executive. The report also questions payments made by FFA to FIFA executive Jack Warner to support a football "Centre of Excellence" in Trinidad and whether they were made to gain Warner's vote. FFA handed $500,000 to the project, although it was later revealed these funds were placed into a bank account controlled by Warner. "The record provides significant evidence that the $500,000 was paid with the intention of influencing Mr Warner's World Cup vote," the report said.