In­flu­en­tial Fi­fa vice-pres­i­dent, Jack Warn­er says the tyran­ny of dis­tance is Aus­tralia's on­ly sub­stan­tial hur­dle to host­ing the World Cup but has laud­ed the qual­i­ty of a bid­ding cam­paign, which, he be­lieves, has pushed Aus­tralia to the front of the race. The con­tro­ver­sial pres­i­dent of the North/Cen­tral Amer­i­can Con­fed­er­a­tion (Con­ca­caf) has an army of de­trac­tors but few dis­pute his in­flu­ence with­in the 24-man Fi­fa ex­ec­u­tive, which, at the end of next year, will choose be­tween the 10 bids for the 2018 and 2022 tour­na­ments.

Warn­er was one of six ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers who at­tend­ed a Foot­ball Fed­er­a­tion Aus­tralia cock­tail func­tion on Tues­day night, among them three oth­er FI­FA vice-pres­i­dents–An­gel Maria Vil­lar (Spain), Rey­nald Temarii (Tahi­ti) and Ge­off Thomp­son (Eng­land)–as well as Ger­many's leg­endary Franz Beck­en­bauer and Asian Foot­ball Con­fed­er­a­tion pres­i­dent Mo­ham­mad Bin Ham­mam. Warn­er, who last week met Prime Min­is­ter Kevin Rudd in his home coun­try of T&T, was glow­ing about the five-minute pro­mo­tion­al film pre­sent­ed and nar­rat­ed by Hol­ly­wood star Nicole Kid­man which was re­leased at the func­tion. Warn­er ad­mit­ted he was huge­ly im­pressed by the progress made by Aus­tralia's bid be­fore con­ced­ing if "I was a bet­ting man, 2022 re­mained a more fea­si­ble tar­get." "Aus­tralia is speak­ing a great game," he said.

"Can you tell me of any coun­try mak­ing the progress Aus­tralia is mak­ing? I doubt it. One year ago, Aus­tralia was not even on the radar. One year lat­er, Aus­tralia can sit and look at them­selves as com­pet­i­tive as Spain, or any­one else. "To hear to­day that Arch­bish­op Desmond Tu­tu is a sup­port­er of Aus­tralia, I was ab­solute­ly shocked. And then I spoke to your Prime Min­is­ter, Kevin Rudd. I've been to 164 coun­tries, I've spo­ken to all kinds of heads of state, but he's the most in­tel­li­gent Prime Min­is­ter I've ever spo­ken to."

"The point is, you can see a def­i­nite pro­gres­sion in terms of the World Cup bid. Keep do­ing what you're do­ing be­cause you seem to have your head on your shoul­ders. If any coun­try has a plan, Aus­tralia has a plan." Warn­er was es­pe­cial­ly tak­en by the pro­mo­tion­al film, say­ing: "I will tell you, the video we have just seen, to me that has pushed Aus­tralia fur­ther than any coun­try. It is so ed­u­ca­tion­al, it's much more than foot­ball." "That video should be sent to every mem­ber of the FI­FA ex­ec­u­tive. It could be a teach­ing aid in schools, be­cause it is teach­ing the world about Aus­tralia, and that is what the vot­ing is about."