Socceroos' legend Mark Schwarzer has branded the nine state member federations the main problem in Australian football, pleading for a federal government intervention that will lead to their removal.
In a state of the game discussion on Optus Sport, Australia's most capped male player launched a scathing attack on the nine state governing bodies, suggesting they sit at the core of the game's problem in Australia by operating out of self interest and seeking only to consolidate their own power.
Schwarzer likened the majority of state bodies to small fiefdoms that stand against reform and progress of their game, holding FFA board members to ransom through their voting influence at FFA elections.
"I think this is the biggest issue that we have in Australia,” Schwarzer told Optus Sport. “They dictate who are the board members on the FFA, they vote, they are actually more powerful than the FFA. The board directors, a lot of them, its a political game, it’s about looking out for their job, making sure they do the right thing according to the votes they get for the next phase of election."
Until a restructure of the FFA's Congress in 2018, state member federations held 90 per-cent of the votes in FFA's membership and continue to wield significant influence despite having their voting share diluted to 55 per cent. It's not just their influence that concerns the former Socceroos goalkeeper but their manner of operating independently of one another and the FFA. Schwarzer says the lack of unity in the governance of Australian football, largely caused by the state member federations, has prevented football from receiving the government funding the game requires.
Mark Schwarzer has taken aim at the state federations.
"The state federations are too disjointed, they are only too concerned about their own individual states," Schwarzer said. "AFL receives more than double the funding we do as football and they have half the number of participants. Why? They are unified. They AFL goes in there as a unified organisation that goes in there as a unified organisation that controls the entire game over the entire country. We don’t."
Schwarzer's concerns are echoed by others in the game. Former FFA board director and Socceroo, Jack Reilly, called for the removal of the state member federations in 2017. FFA sources have privately expressed their desire to reign in the state bodies, even if for the purpose of efficiency by sharing resources. Schwarzer would not oppose a federal government review into football's governance if it meant bringing the state bodies under FFA's umbrella.
"The only way to force their hand is by government interference, that’s the only way I can see it," he said. "It’s about members of the football community who are more concerned about their own patch rather than the overall good of the game. You have to draw a line, in my opinion, and say that 'ok we have to restructure, we have to be a unified organisation' and that’s the only way you are able to change the game."