Warring parties dig in over FFA leadership vote

There appears no end in sight to the war over the control of Australian soccer.

FFA chairman Steven Lowy is digging in over suggested reforms

There appears no end in sight to the war over the control of Australian soccer after the Congress Review Working Group fired back at Football Federation Australia, accusing it of making assertions regarding its recommendations “without merit and substance”.

The CRWG, tasked by world governing body FIFA to come up with a new model for FFA’s voting congress, took aim in a six-page document released yesterday in response to comments the head body made last week.

The recommendations are expected to be rubber stamped by a meeting of FIFA member associations next week before being put to an FFA EGM on September 3.

FFA opposes the recommendations and reportedly has the support of four member associations. If three of the associations side with FFA, then the recommendations will be torpedoed.

After six months of interviews and deliberations, the CRWG made a series of recommendations including reshaping the congress from 10 members to 29, and a call for the A-League to become independent of FFA in time for the 2019-20 season.

But FFA countered by expressing concerns over a number of the recommendations, including: that the proposed new voting model was “excessively weighted towards professional football at the expense of the grassroots;
• “Gives too much power to the A-League clubs;
• “Gives the players’ union a ‘disproportionately greater voting representation than each member federation’;
• “The proposed pathway to an alternative A-League model is inconsistent with the foundational good governance principle”.

But the CRWG, independently chaired by Judith Griggs and including FFA board member Chris Nikou (who is reportedly aligned with the FFA assertions), tried to hit back at FFA’s claims.

It was angered over FFA’s claims about the voting structure.

The CRWG said: “The assertion that the proposed model weights votes towards the professional game when acting as a block is without merit and without substance.

“The FIFA-mandated CRWG was tasked with establishing a more representative and balanced Congress for Australian football. This included the need to embrace existing and future stakeholders who previously have not had a voice or vote.

“Given that the current FFA Statutes require a ‘Prescribed Majority’ (being 60 per cent) of the Congress to elect a director, and the member federations (who represent the ‘grassroots’) held 90 per cent, it was mandated that the recommendations of the CRWG should not allow the member federations (or any other stakeholder group) to hold 60 per cent or more of the Congress vote.

“As such, the CRWG report provides and recommends for the existing ‘grassroots’ representatives, being the member federations, to retain more than a simple majority of the Congress (being 55 per cent).”

The matter will come to a head on September 3 when the CRWG report will be put to a vote.

Failure to pass the recommendations will put FFA on a collision course with FIFA, who have insisted over the past three years that FFA fall in line with its statutes.

While FIFA could sack the FFA board and bring in a normalisation committee to ensure the recommendations are put in place if they are not voted in, it is believed they will resist that option and instead suspend FFA for a period of time.

That would put Australia’s participation in international matches at all levels in serious jeopardy.