Australia would be in the running to host the 2022 World Cup if FIFA sidelined Qatar and asked for new bids, Australian officials indicated on Saturday.

Sports Minister Mark Arbib, describing FIFA’s investigation into bribery claims as a “positive step,” said “we’re not getting our hopes up that there’ll be a decision to have a new ballot.”

Australia received only one vote and was eliminated in the first round six months ago when Qatar beat the United States in a 14-8 vote.

“Australia would have put on the best ever World Cup — there’s no doubt about it,” Arbib said. “We have the infrastructure, we have the people and certainly there was great disappointment across the country when we weren’t successful.”

Arbib said resubmitting Australia’s bid would not add to the 45.6 million Australian dollars (48.7 million US dollars) the government had put up for Football Federation Australia’s (FFA) bid.

“It shouldn’t cost us any extra money,” he said. “All the work has been done in terms of scoping the stadiums. All the specifications, the technical work, is complete.”

The FFA, responding to FIFA boss Sepp Blatter’s holding out the possibility of a re-election, was more circumspect.

“If and when FIFA makes a decision about a review, FFA will make a decision on what’s best for Australian football,” the federation said in a statement.

FFA president Frank Lowy, speaking last month, said Australia and the US were the frontrunners and Qatar came out of nowhere to win the race.

“We believed it would be a competition between Australia and America, and they believed it would be a contest between America and Australia,” Lowy said. “Well, Qatar just popped up. Not many people thought they would succeed, but the unexpected happened. It was a flawed process.”

Qatar has called the bribery allegations aired in Britain’s House of Commons “serious and baseless” claims that will “remain unproven because they are false.”