FFA Congress battle: FIFA, AFC ready to return for peace talks
THE dates for the next stage in the battle for the control of football in Australia has been set, with FIFA and Asian football officials arriving in a month’s time to try to end the impasse.
Football
Don't miss out on the headlines from Football. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Sydney FC ready to tempt Graham Arnold with upgraded contract
- Central Coast Mariners trying to sign Socceroos striker
THE dates for the next stage in the battle for the control of football in Australia has been set, with FIFA and Asian football officials arriving in a month’s time to try to end the impasse.
In the wake of the collapse of Steven Lowy’s proposed model for the power structure at the top of the game, the FIFA/ADC delegation will hold a series of meetings with various stakeholders from February 20-22.
The joint delegation is a second attempt by FIFA and the AFC to find a new model for Australia’s Congress, the voting body with the power to elect the directors of Football Federation Australia.
The talks next month are likely to centre on a far wider representation at Congress, with the NPL clubs and other interest groups seeking an audience with FIFA.
The nine states and territories currently hold nine-tenths of the voting rights, but FIFA has been pressing Lowy to install a more democratic model for two years.
So far, though, the demands of the A-League clubs and the players association for extra votes have been resisted by Lowy, under whose model the bulk of votes would remain with the states.
Lowy has offered the clubs four votes, the PFA one, the women’s game one and a so-called community women’s member a further one, while keeping nine for the states, but the clubs want at least five votes.
The row has soured relations between the clubs and FFA, and at one stage FIFA threatened to install a so-called “normalisation committee” to run the sport here.
For now that threat has been parked in the face of the possibility of legal action from Lowy, and the delegation coming next month will make a fresh attempt to find a consensus.
The clubs and many of the states claim a new model was agreed by them at the time of FIFA’s last visit, in September, but then collapsed under pressure from Lowy.