New FFA boss Chris Nikou makes A-League expansion top priority

New Football Federation Australia chairman Chris Nikou is hopeful expansion will happen in time for next season’s A-League.

New FFA chairman Chris Nikou, left, talks to Stephen Conroy during the Football Federation Australia Annual General Meeting in Sydney yesterday. Picture: Getty Images

New Football Federation Australia chairman Chris Nikou is hopeful expansion will happen in time for next season’s A-League, declaring it as the No 1 priority for the revamped board.

On a remarkable day for Australian soccer with many twists and turns, Nikou was one of four directors voted on to the board at FFA’s AGM in Sydney yesterday. The former Melbourne Victory director was then handed the keys to the most important job in the sport during a meeting of the new board, replacing Steven Lowy, who officially stood down from his position.

Earlier, Heather Reid, who has been elected FFA vice chair, and Joseph Carrozzi were voted in, along with Nikou, at the first ballot.

Remo Nogarotto was then elected unopposed after former Labor minister Stephen Conroy withdrew his nomination just as several members had started to file their votes in the two-way contest between him and Nogarotto.

NEW F F A BOARD

Nikou, Reid, Carrozzi and Nogarotto join sitting directors Kelly Bayer Rosmarin and Crispin Murray on the board, which also has the power to appoint three co-opted directors.

According to Nikou, the co-opted members will not be decided immediately, though he expected a decision to be made “this side of Christmas”. He did not rule out the possibility that they could come from the list of nine candidates who stood for election. Conroy and Lindsay Norquay remain the front-runners to fill two of the spots.

While it remains an important decision, Nikou made it clear sorting out expansion was a priority.

“Expansion is the number one priority,” he said. “We need to have a proper and detailed briefing regarding the merits of each bid and as soon as we get through that process it will be the first order or business. I’d like to see it come in next season, that is my wish. It won’t be for a lack of trying but we need to do a measured analysis and decide what is in the best interests of the sport in this country.”

Nikou, who was part of a Lowy board for four years that tried to block the reform process of the sport, said he should be judged on “what I have done, rather than what they suspect”.

“Those who are closest to the process (of governance reform) know I spent a lot of time trying to get the parties to get together to deal with reform,” he said. “I was considered someone who would come to the table and deal with them in good faith.”

Earlier in the day Carrozzi, who had been considered a strong contender for the chairmanship, announced he was standing down as vice-chairman of the GWS Giants AFL club “to pursue other interests”. He and Nikou were the only two who indicated they would stand for the FFA chairmanship.

There were nine nominations for the FFA board after Mark Randell withdrew his before the start of the AGM.

In his final address to the members as chairman Lowy made some pointed remarks regarding the process that forced him to quit the sport. Lowy, elected to the chair in 2015 to replace his father Frank, called on the new board to “conduct the game to the letter and spirit”.

“You all know I was not prepared to cross the red line,” Lowy told the members. “The old board expects the new board to conduct the game to the letter and spirit. The new directors must act independently and in the best interests of the game. They will immediately face some tough decisions.”

He also ridiculed suggestions that the game needed more people with a football background on the board.

“I hear the argument that it is fashionable that there must be more ‘football people’ and fewer suits represented on the board,” Lowy said. “It is a nonsense argument which is hopelessly superficial and naive. And it is typically advocated by people who have had no board or management experience at this level or the heavy responsibility that goes with it.

“Football is about passion. We all get that. Those of us in this room who have played it, lived and breathed it, know that.”