Former Soccer Australia chairman David Hill says FFA crisis must be resolved to avoid FIFA taking over
THE former chairman of Soccer Australia, David Hill, has called on FFA chairman Steven Lowy to seek to avoid “one of the blackest episodes in Australian football history”.
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THE former chairman of Soccer Australia, David Hill, has called on Football Federation Australia chairman Steven Lowy to give ground in his power struggle with the A-league clubs and avoid “one of the blackest episodes in Australian football history”.
As the fallout from Thursday’s defeat for Lowy in his bid to force through controversial reforms continued to unfold, Hill contacted the Daily Telegraph to say that FFA’s board had to “find some accommodation” with the clubs to avoid FIFA taking control of the game here.
FFA was due to write to FIFA late on Friday, detailing its failure to achieve the reforms in football’s power structure that FIFA had demanded be in place by November 30.
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The world governing body will review that next week, with a growing expectation that a so-called “normalisation committee” will be appointed to run the game here, leaving Lowy and his current board sacked.
The body that represents the A-League clubs declined to respond to Lowy’s attack on them on Thursday, in which he said they wanted a “return to the bad old days” and to appropriate the majority of the game’s resources.
The civil war is now seemingly in abeyance until FIFA makes a ruling next week, but Hill — who presided over Soccer Australia amid the turmoil of the 1990s — said there should be last-minute efforts to avoid such an outcome.
“I don’t make a habit of speaking out on football matters, but we have reached a pretty serious situation,” Hill said. “We’re facing one of the blackest episodes in Australian football history unless this is resolved and quickly, before FIFA acts.
“I believe FFA has done a magnificent job over the past 12 years with the move into Asia, four World Cups and the A-League. I wish I had had the freedom to do that stuff. But we have reached a point now where the FFA has to reach an agreement with the game’s stakeholders, otherwise we risk FIFA sacking the board and taking over.
“Can you imagine what would happen? Everyone will regret it if we can’t fix this situation. FFA has to give ground and reach accommodation with the other stakeholders.”
Hill reiterated his support for the progress FFA had made in bringing football into the mainstream, but described its standoff with the clubs as “unreasonable and unfair”.
“I wish I had had the independence they did — I was opposed by all manner of vested interests,” he said. “They’ve been able to get on with the job, and do a very good job. But the idea that FFA itself can simply keep reinventing itself as it sees fit just doesn’t work.
“The absence of representative democracy (in the annual Congress, that votes in FFA’s directors) is unfair and unsustainable. I know we’ve missed FIFA’s deadline but before FIFA drops the axe on us we have to do everything in our power to reach an agreement.”