Pele calls for World Cup to come to Australia

Pele, widely regarded as the greatest footballer of all time, believes Australia should be given the opportunity to host the FIFA World Cup.
The Brazilian great will make a rare trip to Australia this month for a series of theatre appearances and shows as part of a tribute to the 35-year career of SBS commentator Les Murray.
Speaking to Fairfax Media from Barcelona, Pele opened up about his own career, Tim Cahill's heroics and why he rated Lionel Messi as the best player of the past decade. But of most interest to local football fans was his belief that Australia, the new Asia Cup champions, is capable and deserving of staging the biggest sporting event outside of the Olympics.
"I have been there a few times and it is something that that has been mentioned before. I have no doubt Australia could host the World Cup," Pele said.
"Australia is getting stronger, they have players who are very good. I think they could do it.
"They could have gone further in the last World Cup but were in a very strong group."
Australia's unsuccessful bid for the 2022 World Cup, run by Football Federation Australia, came at a cost of almost $43 million to taxpayers. However, the only continent yet to host the showpiece event managed to secure just one of the FIFA Executive Committee's 22 votes as Qatar controversially won the rights.
FIFA, which faced corruption allegations over the decision, tabled a report last November claiming money spent by Australia on football development in Oceania and the US as part of its investigations into the bid process were "potentially problematic". FIFA president Sepp Blatter subsequently wrote in his FIFA Weekly magazine column that it was "an unfortunate omission in sporting history" that Australia had not staged a World Cup and that the nation "more than deserved" to hold the tournament in the future.
Pele, who described Brazil's World Cup campaign as a "disaster" following their 7-1 capitulation to eventual champions Germany, said it was difficult to compare different eras.
"The best player at the moment? There are lots of good players in the world now," Pele said.
"There is [Lionel] Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo is fantastic. They are good in their position but I think Messi is more technical. I would pick Messi, over the last 10 years he has been the best player in the world."
Asked about comparisons with Brazilian superstar Neymar, who some predict could surpass Pele as the country's all-time leading goal scorer, the 74-year old said: "Nobody is as good as Pele."
Of all of his achievements, the former Santos and New York Cosmos star ranked his first World Cup as the highlight.
"The most important to me was the 1958 World Cup," he said. "I was 17 years old and it was the first World Cup I had won, so that was very, very important.
"The last World Cup I played in in 1970 was also very special moment for me to."
The renowned humanitarian was impressed with Cahill's scoring ability, most notably his wonder goal against the Netherlands in last year's World Cup.
"No doubt, he is a very good player," he said. "He scored that goal against good opponents, Australia were unlucky they were in a tough group against Spain, Holland and Chile."
Pele was due to arrive in Australia last November but the trip was delayed after he underwent surgery to remove kidney stones. Tickets for his appearances, in Melbourne on March 26 and Sydney on March 27, are still available from www.pelelive.com.au
"I am feeling very good, thank you to all who [expressed concern], I am looking forward to coming to Australia," he said.