The Australian government, which has supplied the majority of the A$45m (£25.5m) budget, was today forced to reaffirm its support for the bid following a flurry of newspaper headlines about millions spent on overseas consultants and gifts for Fifa executives.

The Age newspaper published a string of revelations about the Australian bid after acquiring documents, believed to have been leaked by a former employee, that contained a detailed breakdown of the bid budget.

It also alleged that gifts of pearl necklaces and cufflinks were presented at a 2008 dinner for Fifa officials at the home of the Football Federation Australia chairman, Frank Lowy, when Australia was hosting the Fifa congress. The bid had not been formally announced at the time.

Fifa’s rules say World Cup bidders can give gifts of “symbolic or incidental value and that exclude any influence on a decision in relation to the bidding process”. Bidders are also forbidden from criticising rivals or making deals to trade support before the Fifa executive committee vote in December.

The guidelines were published last year after England’s 2018 bid team was revealed to have given luxury handbags valued at about £230 each to executive members.

FFA and the bid chief executive, Ben Buckley, said it was “a widely accepted, common practice among governments, many business and sporting organisations to provide symbolic gifts to visiting international delegations”.

He said other gifts that had been given to Fifa delegates and executive committee members included boomerangs, Driza-Bone jackets, Australian wines, scarves, beanies, RM Williams belts and wallets.

During a rocky period for the English bid last year, it faced criticism for giving the wives of each of the 24 Fifa executive committee members a Mulberry handbag.

The controversial Fifa vice-president Jack Warner returned his, claiming to have been “insulted” by the English bid team.

The report in the Age revealed Fedor Radmann and Peter Hargitay, international consultants hired to help deliver the World Cup for Australia, stand to receive up to A$11.37m in fees and bonuses if it succeeds.

Australia’s bid also offered payment for a Trinidad & Tobago Under-20 team to travel to Cyprus, the newspaper claimed, but Buckley said it was common practice for bidding nations to invest in football development schemes overseas.

Bid insiders admitted the allegations had adversely impacted on Australia’s chances of beating the United States and Qatar to the right to host the tournament, but said that all its outgoings were wholly justifiable.

The newspaper also detailed an expenses-paid trip to Australia for another Concacaf representative on Fifa’s executive committee, Rafael Salguero from Guatemala.

Buckley said it was common practice to invite senior figures in world football to Australia to promote the bid, but that Salguero was yet to visit.

“All invitations extended are football-related and intended to promote Australia, including its bid, and its relations with fellow Fifa members. We can confirm that these invitations have included one to Mr Rafael Salguero to inspect Australia’s infrastructure and facilities,” he said.

“At this stage Mr Salguero has been unable to attend. A standing invitation exists for all senior Fifa officials to visit Australia at their convenience.”

According to the Age, Hargitay is being paid A$1.35m by the FFA and would be eligible for a success fee of A$2.54m. Radmann’s work for the Australian bid will earn him up to A$3.49m via a German consulting firm. He is also entitled to a A$3.99m success fee, the reports said.

As part of a separate contract, the FFA is paying Radmann’s business partner, Andreas Abold, an additional A$3m for World Cup “bid book production and bid advice”.

The report also suggested the FFA did not outline to the federal government the specific details of how taxpayers’ money was to be spent.

Australia’s sports minister, Kate Ellis, today vowed to closely scrutinise payments made to all lobbyists involved in the 2022 bid. “Obviously the way the FFA spends government money is subject to the usual reporting and scrutiny requirements,” a spokesman for Ellis said.

“Any evidence to the contrary will be thoroughly investigated by the government, as would any alleged breach of the funding agreement.”

Ellis said a bid taskforce was already in place and was working alongside the FFA to ensure the money had been spent “appropriately”.

The Australian government has enthusiastically backed the bid with public money, believing that the A$3.07bn economic boost and estimated 74,000 jobs that would be created if it was successful would make it worth the investment.

“FFA has acted in accordance with Fifa guidelines in respect to its bid for the 2022 Fifa World Cup,” said Buckley.

“Furthermore our financial records and reporting for the World Cup bid are in accordance with our World Cup bid funding agreement and independently audited. Our regular progress reports under this agreement have been transparent and any suggestion otherwise is mischievous and unhelpful,” he added.

“It is important to remind everyone that a Fifa World Cup brings untold benefits and excitement to the host country as currently evident in South Africa and that is the reason FFA is engaged in a competitive bidding process for the world’s biggest sporting contest.”

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Those seats will now be available to the public at discounted rates, the airline said.

“We are very pleased to now be able to offer customers these tickets at reduced rates,” said Ian Cruickshank, the airline’s World Cup project leader.

“SAA and Match couldn’t come to an agreement on the number of seats to be provided and the terms and conditions relating to this. The airline can no longer offer Match any special conditions for carriage on our aircraft,” he said in a statement.

“We have done our utmost to assist them, but we cannot hold our tickets stock indefinitely while seat numbers keep changing. We would much rather make these tickets available to our own loyal customers,” said Cruickshank.

Match had hoped to use the airline to ferry fans to and from smaller cities that might not have enough accommodation on match nights.

The airline said it remains open to discussions with Match, and would like to continue to provide assistance with leased aircraft that the organisation plans to use to ferry guests around South Africa.

That could include flights to countries like Mexico, which currently have no regular commercial service to South Africa, it added.

The airline’s decision came amid pressure on carriers to lower airfares because of concerns that recession-weary fans might not make the long journey to South Africa.

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