UPDATE: AS Australia deals with losing the 2022 World Cup to Qatar comes accusations that the result was leaked to an Arab TV station.
Our dreams of hosting a World Cup were dashed in the early hours of this morning, with Qatar named as winner of the 2022 bidding process.
A damning evaluation report from FIFA on the oppressive heat in Qatar in June and July meant little as the tiny Middle East nation won the vote. It is the first time the World Cup has been awarded to a Middle Eastern country.
Australia crashed out in the first round of voting, garnering just one vote, though it took Qatar until a fourth round to gain an absolute majority.
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The result was leaked to an Arab TV station almost an hour before it was officially announced by FIFA president Sepp Blatter.
With the decision due sometime after 4pm local time, the Al Jazeera satellite channel reported at 3.40pm that Qatar had been successful, apparently having been tipped off by a member of the Qatari royal family.
Shortly afterwards the Sky Sports channel in the UK was correctly reporting that Russia and Qatar had been successful, adding to the sense that the result had been leaked.
Yet even the FIFA executive committee who voted to choose the hosts weren't supposed to know the result of the final round of voting, with Zurich's public notary collating the numbers.
But Frank Lowy revealed that he had realised Australia had lost when the Australian delegation entered the auditorium at Zurich's Messe convention centre and seen the expressions on the faces of the ExCo members.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter finally announced the 2022 result close to 4.30pm local time, 50 minutes after the result had been revealed by Al Jazeera.
Australian soccer legend Robbie Slater said there were a lot of unanswered questions regarding the secret vote as rumours that Qatar had won the bid were circulating more than half an hour before it was announced.
“I think there’s a lot of questions that need to be answered about this," he said on FoxSports.
“Before it was announced we had heard rumours that it had gone to Qatar and there were officials embracing in lobbies.
“It does stink to be honest. I imagine there will be some inquiries into this.”
Moments before, Russia was announced as the host of the 2018 edition of the world's biggest sporting event.
It is the first time Russia has hosted the event. Its bid seemed dead in the water until coming home over the top of favourites England, Spain/Portugal and Belgium/Netherlands.
Football Federation Australia board member Jack Reilly has spoken of being "totally heartbroken" after losing to Qatar.
"I just cannot feel enough for Frank Lowy after all the work he put into this," Reilly, a member of Socceroos team in the 1974 World Cup finals, told ABC24 from Zurich.
He said it was hard to compete with the Qatar bid and the result was a victory for the politicians in FIFA.
"The Qatar delegation have been pushing money around for a long period of time," Reilly said.
"A huge commitment to build how many stadiums and then pull them a apart and send them to the poorer countries around the world.
"We did our best. It wasn't good enough.
"We've go to to come back to Australia, get everybody behind us again and let's win 2018 (the tournament) or let's win 2022 and show them (FIFA) what we're all about.''
Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Australia put forward the best bid possible.
In a joint statement, Ms Gillard and Sport Minister Mark Arbib congratulated Qatar on their successful bid.
"Australia put the best bid possible forward and everyone associated should be extremely proud of their efforts,'' the statement said.
Former Socceroo and now soccer commentator Andy Harper, who was in Zurich for the announcement, said he couldn’t get out of the auditorium quickly enough after the announcement.
“The rumours about Qatar were red hot … this farce of a process," Harper said.
“This is not sour grapes over losing the bid, but the pretence around the lockdown for voting and the winner’s name being carried to the stage in an envelope is just a farce.”
Australia's promise of a trouble-free event and positioning itself as the second choice of delegates had appeared to be a wise one for the later rounds of the voting.
But with the voting rounds not immediately released, it is hard to know how close Australia came to a win.
Frank Lowy and the Australian bid team had remained confident of securing enough votes from the FIFA executive committee until the 11th hour.
But they received the heartbreaking news in the early hours of this morning in front of a packed house at the Messe Conference Centre in Zurich, after the executive committee's secret ballot.
Lowy was flanked by bid chief executive Ben Buckley, Governor-General Quentin Bryce, Sports Minister Mark Arbib and Socceroos skipper Lucas Neill when the announcement was made.
But the Westfield billionaire remained defiant and vowed to continue on as FFA chairman, a role he filled in 2003.
The post-mortem on what is now a failed bid is likely to be acrimonious after a campaign funded by $46.5 million of tax-payers’ money.
But in the immediate term Lowy was left heartbroken, particularly as his confidence had grown in recent days following conversations with senior FIFA officials.
On Wednesday Lowy had been applauded by FIFA’s all-powerful Executive Committee as he led Australia’s final presentation.
But their efforts were in vain.
The choice of Qatar was seen as a hugely controversial move by FIFA after a bidding campaign that saw the respective camps plough tens of millions into lobbying the FIFA powerbrokers.
The chairman of Qatar's football federation said: “Thank you for believing in change and believing in expanding the game and for giving Qatar a chance.
“We will not let you down. You will be proud of us.”
It could well be a very long time before Australia is in such a strong position to capture the event with Asia only viewed as a possible host for every third World Cup at best.
If China nets the 2026 edition, don't worry about Lowy missing out on witnessing a World Cup on Australian soil.
With the rotation these days between Europe, the Americas and Africa as well, there might not be many of us around to watch it with the next genuine shot being for the 2038 or 2042 editions.
It is also a missed opportunity to alter the sporting landscape in Australia and Football Federation Australia officials will return home to refocus their efforts on the A-League.
Russia was an equally surprising choice for the 2018 World Cup.
"Let's make history together," deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said after the announcement.
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