Hargitay said FIFA's executive committee had ''conned'' Australia's bid team into thinking they had secured six votes before the first round of voting. Only one vote eventuated.

And in a fresh development, Les Murray, Australia's representative on FIFA's ethics committee, said the executive committee considered a motion to delay the vote for a year due to concerns about the legitimacy of Qatar's bid.

As the fallout deepens from Australia's disastrous showing in Zurich, FFA chairman Frank Lowy and his out-of-contract chief executive, Ben Buckley, will front a press conference in Sydney later today.

Speaking on SBS television in an interview aired last night, Hargitay, whom Lowy appointed as the bid's chief strategist for a reported $1.65 million, said Australia had not greased enough hands.

''The most fundamental mistake we made, and there can be no other way, is that we played it clean,'' he said. ''I'm not accusing anybody [else of anything illegal].

''I'm just telling you that Frank Lowy's motto from the outset was - his maxim to do this was - 'Guys, we're going to fight, we're going to do our best, we're going to see everybody once, twice, three times … we're going to do the best possible bid, but there will be no inducement. There will be nothing paid to anybody.'

''Because we were told of course, that that's an option for people. And we didn't. We didn't and that's it.''

Hargitay was stunned that five executive committee members went back on pledges to support Australia. ''Of the six votes, we had one left and that one vote was claimed by two people, so you tell me what is honesty,'' he said.

Sensing that momentum for Qatar was snowballing in the days leading up to the vote, Hargitay confirmed he was behind Australia's push for FIFA to switch from a secret ballot to a public one.

Frustration over the final outcome was shared by the United States. Hargitay said both countries were confident they knew where the final votes went and he didn't rule out making this public. ''The people themselves will not go public, no,'' he said. ''But everybody has a pretty good idea who was in the bidding.

''I spoke to our counterparts in the US bid yesterday evening and we all have a pretty good idea what went down. As to when the time is right to say more, that is not my decision to take.''

Hargitay criticised the Qatar bid for narrowing its focus to the nation itself rather than encompassing all of the Middle East.

Meanwhile, Murray revealed yesterday on the The World Game podcast that certain members of the executive committee had seriously considered a motion to delay the vote for 12 months.

''There were real worries after the Sunday Times allegations and revelations came out,'' Murray said. ''There was a FIFA [executive committee] meeting on November 19 - two days after the ethics committee's second meeting - where there were plans to move that the vote be postponed on 2022 for a year.

''That was because people on the [committee] were fearing Qatar had the numbers. So rather than have Qatar get up on December 2, people wanted to move to postpone. That motion didn't get up.

''That motion would have disqualified Qatar on the grounds of the evaluation report and the sheer lunacy of their bid.''

Murray said his personal view was that the ''notion that Qatar should hold a World Cup bordered on the ridiculous'', due to reasons ranging from the severity of its laws, to the oppressive climate and the problems of attracting fans.