To see the scenes from onboard the FFA's ferry...

Bonita Mersiades was hand-picked by FFA Chairman Frank Lowy to guide the bid through to its conclusion next December. She was head of corporate affairs at FFA which included a senior role in bid strategy.

However, last Friday Mersiades and FFA parted ways suddenly. It's unclear whether Mersiades was sacked or walked.

Buckley did not divulge the circumstances of the shock departure but instead focused on the positives of the bid as a team,  including UK-based consultants lending their weight to the FFA.

"I don't want to comment on Bonita's departure, but I will say we have an outstanding group of people working on the bid," he said today.

"This bid is not built around one person. We've had 15 people working on the bid for almost two years. We'll make some changes internally and we'll move on and it will be business as usual.

"We've never been in a stronger position. We have a very dedicated staff focused 100% on the bid, working almost around the clock to be successful in this endeavour.

"We've supplemented our team with first class international consultants from London who are going to assist in public advocacy and public relations on an international level.

"There's still a long way to go. There are still a number of milestones to hit during the course of the year. That includes our technical bid which has to go in, in May.

"Once that's been signed off and delivered to FIFA then we focus 100n percent on lobbying hard to get the necessary votes."

Buckley didn't rule out further changes to the bid team 11 months out from one of the most anticipated announcements in this country's sporting history.

And he played down concerns about the extension granted by AFC to Australia for the 2015 Asian Cup bid hosting rights.

"It makes some sense to just push the deadline back a few months to work through some of the issues but they're not material issues," he said.

Despite turbulent times behind the scenes, Buckley hailed today's ferry race on Sydney Harbour as a PR success.

With a giant 'Come Play!' kangaroo onboard, the '2018-2022 Football Ferry' was an impressive sight on a glorious day on Sydney Harbour, competing against three other ferries for Australia Day line honours.

The 2018-2022 Football Ferry may not have won, but Buckley said images of the race beamed around the world won't harm the bid.

"An iconic Sydney Harbour Ferry decked out in Come Play! livery and full of football supporters racing around one of the most beautiful harbours in the world is a great advertisement for the bid and the country," he said.

"We're seen as a very genuine and credible contender. I think people within FIFA understand that Australia and Australians have a great capacity to host a tournament of the scale of the FIFA World Cup.

"But it's a competitive field. And we have respect our opposition."

Despite finishing second, Buckley hoped it wasn't a bad omen for the bid and hinted there could be a steward's inquiry into the race result.

He added: "I'm not sure we did come second.

"I was up front of the boat and certainly by my judgement it was a dead heat at least, so we're claiming it!"

To see the scenes from onboard the FFA's ferry...