FFA election: Board debate vital for Australian football’s future

For the first time since the game was reconstituted under Frank Lowy we are having a debate about its future and the vast majority of the candidates have declared what they stand for.

Craig Foster (right) has ideas and passion that would serve the game well.

• Electioneering turns up heat on A-League expansion
• FFA board candidates state their case

This has been, as a senior figure in Australian football noted this week, a really strange election, even before Craig Foster’s dramatic pullout.

The candidates are having their credentials picked over by Australia’s footballing public but the actual votes will be cast by a very small electorate, most of whom were involved in putting the candidates up in the first place.

But strange as it might be, the choice of who will comprise the board of Football Federation Australia by the end of Monday is hugely important, for a number of reasons, and that is why the results of the survey we have conducted of the board candidates are themselves so important.

The shock withdrawal of Craig Foster is yet another wildcard.

For the first time since the game was reconstituted under Frank Lowy, we are having a debate about its future. Priorities, ambitions and arguments have been fleshed out, and the vast majority of the candidates have declared what they stand for, and indeed why they are standing.

How much that will change minds in the electorate — the mix of state officials, A-League clubs, the players union and the new women’s council who will vote on Monday — is very much open to question. Only the naive would believe that all votes will be cast purely on the candidates’ merits, and the equivalent of preference deals have undoubtedly been struck.

But the fact that the wider public doesn’t have a direct say in the election doesn’t mean an exercise such as our survey of all the candidates isn’t shining crucial light on the process and the outcome. Thanks to the answers provided, and to the candidates’ forum run on Monday by the AAFC, there are specifics from each candidate that we can hold them to.

Fans don’t get a say as the game in Australia takes a massive step. Picture: Getty Images

So when Stephen Conroy pledges financial transparency at FFA in order to “deliver accountability and that accountability will begin to restore trust”, that is something we can insist he implements, if elected.

Likewise the promises of Joseph Carrozzi to take the board meetings around the country and hold fan forums; of Danny Moulis to promote the grassroots and NPL clubs; or of Heather Reid to address the costs of participation and training courses. These are commitments, and will be remembered.

It’s also instructive that seven candidates — including all those that aspire to be chair — talk of the need to regain trust and build consensus, using words such as “unity”, “consensus”, “reconnecting”. All seem to recognise the perception of many, however unfair, that FFA’s board has lived in an ivory tower. The new directors need to get their hands dirty in being seen to live, breathe and above all understand Australian football.

Four of the 11 will be elected on Monday, and up to another three directors can subsequently be appointed. It will cause anger among many in the game that Foster isn’t among them, having successfully been cast as the voice of football among all the candidates.

A personal view is that Foster’s ideas and passion would have served the game well, but democracy is an imperfect beast, especially when an electorate makes a choice we don’t like. In that light it is regrettable that Foster didn’t feel comfortable with the possibility of being one of the appointed trio.

The game needs those prepared to argue ideas and process — to which end, we may yet know by Monday who will be the independent chair of the new Women’s Football Council which will have 10 per cent of the votes and be a highly important vehicle.

Bonita Mersiades is in line to chair the Women’s Football Council. Picture: Zak Simmonds

The credentials of the five nominated candidates will be further discussed over the weekend, but it’s hard to how any could be better qualified than Bonita Mersiades, one of those five and a woman who for the past decade has held FIFA to account over World Cup bids and FFA to account over its finances, leadership and policies.

Breakdown of a game changer

WHAT’S HAPPENING?

FFA will hold its annual general meeting in Sydney on Monday, when four new directors will be elected from 11 candidates following the resignations of chairman Steven Lowy and Joseph Healy and the expiry of the terms of Simon Hepworth and Chris Nikou. The new board will choose a new chairman and appoint up to three additional directors.

HOW WILL IT WORK?

Candidates require 60 per cent support to be elected. State federations control 55 per cent of the vote, the A-League clubs 28 per cent, the players’ union seven per cent, and a newly established women’s council the remaining 10 per cent. By design, some degree of consensus among separate stakeholders is required to usher in any favoured candidate.

WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?

This will be the most monumental AGM in FFA’s existence, and one certain to shape the future direction of the Australian game. Crucially, it’s also the first time a Lowy family member will not be running it as chairman. That’s mostly due to the constitutional reforms finally passed last month giving more voices to the congress that elects the board and prompting increased transparency in the process. Democracy, if you will.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

The elected directors will call their first board meeting to address the myriad issues facing the sport, the most pressing of which is the timeline for A-League expansion. They’ll also have a hand in negotiating the competition’s independence from FFA, guiding the 2023 Women’s World Cup bid and bridging the widening gap with grassroots.

— Emma Kemp

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