The leader of Australia's World Cup hosting bid says withdrawal from the 2018 race should win European votes for its own 2022 bid.
Football Federation Australia chairman Frank Lowy said accepting the reality of Europe's claim on the 2018 tournament could benefit his own campaign.
``We shouldn't be an obstacle for Europe to sort itself out,'' Lowy told The Associated Press. ``We have created some goodwill for clearing the way.''
Australia opted out of 2018 after FIFA's national members met all nine bidders on the eve of the World Cup.
There has long been an assumption that football's biggest event would return to Europe in 2018, after Africa in 2010 and South America in 2014.
``It became obvious there is a push by the UEFA hierarchy to have the game in Europe for 2018,'' Lowy said.
Australia is now focusing on 2022 which shapes as a five-way race with Japan, Qatar, South Korea and the United States, which has kept its 2018 entry.
They will chase the 24 votes of FIFA's ruling executive - including eight belonging to members of UEFA.
FIFA will decide the 2018 and 2022 bids on Dec. 2 at its headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.
``Reality has to reign,'' Lowy said. ``Not only that we wouldn't be able to get '18 but that we should get out of the way. This is a realization already for some time, except I didn't make it public.''
The billionaire businessman conceded that ``if I would have had a choice I would have had '18,'' but staying in both contests posed risks.
``The world was confused with what do we want,'' said Lowy, adding that Australia did not want to alienate potential supporters.
All four European bids - England, Russia and the joint candidacies of Spain-Portugal and Netherlands-Belgium - are represented on the FIFA executive.
Australia's four expected opponents for '22 also have their own man in FIFA's high command. However, Australia has been promised the single vote belonging to the Oceania confederation, which it left in 2006 to join Asia's continental body.
``I would love for me to sit there, but I'm not sitting there,'' Lowy said. ``But if each of the (other) four have one vote, Australia has one. We are now even.''
Asia's four FIFA votes - including one from Thailand - could be spread between four candidates, while the United States can look to get three votes from its CONCACAF confederation.
In that scenario, support from Europe could prove decisive, though FIFA ethics rules do not allow for secret voting deals to be struck.
Lowy said he did not expect the Asian confederation to seek a unity candidate it could concentrate its efforts behind.
``It would be good if they could, but they won't, because each country wants to get it,'' he said.
Lowy believes there is ``great sympathy'' for Australia, with a final stretch of intense lobbying set to begin after the World Cup final on July 11.
``Confident is too strong a word,'' he said. ``But we are quite pleased where we are at the moment.''
