FFA agrees to governance changes

Football Federation Australia has agreed to “in-principle” changes that will see it enlarge its voting structure

FFA chairman Steven Lowy: ‘We can and we should consider changes’

Football Federation Australia has agreed to “in-principle” changes that will see it enlarge its voting structure to allow the sport’s stakeholders to have more representation.

The changes, however, are unlikely to placate some A-League clubs as they stop short of giving them a representative on the FFA board.

The clubs have been agitating for a greater say in the running of the national competition and had pushed their case to a delegation from world governing body FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation over the past two days.

FFA’s board and management, the state and territory federations, Professional Footballers Australia and the Australian Sports Commission were also involved in the meetings in Sydney.

There has been concern on the part of FIFA that FFA’s constitution does not go far enough in allowing various stakeholders an input into the running of the sport. As it stands, FFA’s congress, the key decision-making body, includes a representative from each of the state and territory federations and one representative of A-League clubs.

FFA will now look at a “road map” to implement the recommended changes to include other stakeholders, such as the players’ union, referees and amateurs.

FFA chairman Steven Lowy said the meetings were “very productive and conducted in a spirit of transparency and collaboration that gave all parties an opportunity to present issues most relevant to them”.

“All stakeholders recognise that the structure introduced in 2003 (following the Crawford report) was absolutely necessary,” Lowy said.

“But when I was elected chairman of FFA in November last year I said that football was moving from its foundation stage to a new phase of growth and evolution.

“We can and we should consider changes that give all stakeholders the best chance to achieve their potential.”

However, Lowy appeared to give an indication that FFA will not allow the current structure in relation to the FFA board to be changed — a situation that is unlikely to go down well with the A-League clubs, who argue for a greater say on the basis that the national competition provides almost 80 per cent of FFA’s revenue.