Australia has pulled out of bidding to host the 2018 World Cup finals and will instead focus on hosting the 2022 tournament, the country's football federation (FFA) said on Thursday.
"We ran a clean bid. I know that others did not, and I have shared what I know with the authorities," the Football Federation Australia (FFA) chairman wrote.
Australia has shelved its bid for the 2023 Women's World Cup pending an "overhaul" of FIFA as the global football governing body reels from a corruption scandal.
On Friday, Federation Football Australia FFA chief Frank Lowy rejected criticism of Australia's failed bid for the 2022 World Cup, saying the country ran a "clean campaign".
There were a few fissures but no major cracks apparent in FIFA president Sepp Blatter's bedrock of Asia-Pacific support as officials began returning to the region from the annual congress of soccer's world governing body over the weekend.
'The stigma that FIFA is a corrupt body has to be erased once and for all. One fears that will not happen until Sepp Blatter goes'
Prince Ali is standing against Sepp Baltter in Friday's election and although Blatter is strongly favoured to win.
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