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Can Lowy hold onto power?

What has Steven Lowy actually achieved for football in Australia? (AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts)
Roar Guru
18th August, 2017
24

Steven Lowy finds himself under pressure from all quarters and it’s going to be the fight of his life.

With recent events in Sydney many are calling for Lowy to leave saying that his leadership of FFA is now untenable. But who actually has both the power and the motive to remove him?

There are a number of players involved including PFA, AAFC, the state federations, the A-League clubs and FIFA.

PFA
Professional Footballers Australia are a largely powerless group unless they organise a players strike. Therefore, this is unlikely.

AAFC
The AAFC are a much more significant group made up of over a hundred clubs, many from the old NSL. FFA currently ignore them for the most part and have no reason not to unless FIFA decide to weigh in. The AAFC have little real power on their own.

State federations
While there might be a few coup plotters from among the states Steven Lowy has already successfully headed off two attempts to change the voting structure in the FFA congress that they were behind.

For now at least, Lowy still seems to be in control. Just.

A-League clubs
This is the pointy end where things get serious. The wealthy owners of the A-League clubs have made substantial losses and want a return on their investment. They don’t want to give money to FFA as an act of charity.

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If they decide to walk away or try and start their own league things could get ugly. But although they might have power due to their wealth, FFA still have options.

If they take their money and walk away from the game altogether FFA can replace them. There are a number of expansion bids that could take the place of some of the current teams.

At the moment there are seven teams in the major cities and three regional ones. Newcastle, Central Coast and Wellington aren’t vital and are each replaceable. Melbourne City are also replaceable with Dandenong and Geelong both being options.

FFA chairman-in-waiting Steve Lowy

(AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts)

Brisbane Roar, Perth Glory and Adelaide United are all big teams in major cities and new owners could buy their licenses at knock down prices if they want to and there is still plenty of interest from people looking for new expansion teams. They could just buy an existing team instead.

Melbourne Victory, Sydney FC and Western Sydney Wanderers are all blue chips – there’s no doubt over interest in them.

If their owners did walk away however, Jia Yuan could buy Wanderers as they wanted to originally and Westfield could buy Sydney FC. I don’t know who’d want to buy Melbourne Victory but I’m sure someone must like Melbourne.

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But if the current owners walk away altogether then there’s no chance to recoup past losses. If a new deal comes into place that’s better they could still turn a profit. It just might take a while.

If Lowy wants to play hardball with the clubs individually, he can.

However, if they decide to break away and start their own league then I don’t know how much Lowy can do.

It would also be interesting to see which teams become part of it. Most would assume they would all join together but Newcastle, Central Coast and Wellington are all just dead weights who could be dropped.

After that three new teams could come in. The six-year TV deal with Fox narrows down where they will be.

According to the Herald Sun, “It is understood that $5m of the deal hinges on A-League expansion, with that money only forthcoming if new teams are added in Melbourne, Sydney and/or Brisbane.”

So the new league teams could be Sydney FC, Western Sydney Wanderers, Melbourne Victory, Melbourne City, Brisbane Roar, Perth Glory and Adelaide United. Plus Southern Expansion, Dandenong and Brisbane City/Gold Coast United*.

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Then they could copy the Swiss Super League by playing four times over for a 36-round, 180 match season up from 135 at present.

12 derbies in Sydney, 12 derbies in Melbourne and four derbies in Brisbane for 28 in total across the season providing a very attractive TV product with the Les Murray Cup replacing the finals as the focal point of the year.

Can Lowy survive against all that?

Gold Coast United should hire David Zdrilic who’s currently at RB Leipzig as their head of Beach Soccer and Foot Volley to start competitions and leagues all up and down the beaches there. If football takes the beach, it takes the Gold Coast.

FIFA
These are the one’s with real power.

FIFA have the power to throw out the current FFA board and install a normalising committee until a vote for new leaders can be held. But they don’t necessarily have to.

PFA, AAFC, the state federations and the A-League clubs all want a say in how the sport is governed but administration of the sport is still is matter for FFA not FIFA.

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FIFA still have to balance changing the congress voting structure with the good of the game in Australia.

The fundamentals all look good.

The sport itself has come leaps and bounds since the end of the NSL. Australia has qualified for three successive world cups and the A-League is well attended by world standards. Currently the A-League is the 15th highest attended top flight worldwide and if the A-League was in Europe we would have the eighth highest.

In terms of participation, the federal government’s Ausplay survey at the end of 2016 showed that football had increased it’s participation by 46 percent between 2001 and 2016, while AFL was down -1 per cent and rugby league was down -27 per cent. rugby union fell -63 per cent down to just 55,000 players (even before Western Force were cut).

Futsal now has over 100,000 players which is double that of rugby union so there’s even potential there in the future for a new national league, especially if they can poach sponsors from rugby.

There’s also a six year A-League TV rights deal with Fox that at least ensures stable funding for it’s duration.

Looking at the state of the game it looks quite healthy. The only reason to change the board is so that special interest groups can promote their own agendas. But FIFA would have to balance replacing the current board with the good of the game in general.

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All Steven Lowy has to do is show them what the NSL was like and then show them a highlights reel of the A-League. Would FIFA want what happened to the NSL to happen to the A-League?

They can send the game back to what it was like during the NSL which was old and busted, or they can leave the current FFA congress voting structure in place so that Lowy can continue to administer the A-League which is the new hotness.

Fans
But the biggest and most important group to consider but who weren’t even in the room were the fans.

No fans. No football.

The fans are the ones who make professional football possible because they’re the customer. All too often fans are ignored but maybe they should have the biggest say. Anyone who pays annual fees that go to FFA or anyone who is a member of a club should be allowed to vote on the leadership of FFA.

That would be real democratic practice. FIFA can’t argue with that.

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Where to next for Lowy?
A number of groups are arrayed against him but he does have options and cards left to play.

He might be the underdog but I wouldn’t count him out just yet.

Oddly enough the best way that he might have to stay in power is to be voted in by the fans. It’s easy to criticise him but apart from all the factions wanting him gone what can they actually agree on beyond that? The candidates would all end up squabbling over an amount of money that’s already too small to meet each of their needs individually.

How would that that look to the voters?

I mean if the owners of the A-League clubs want to increase their share of the pie then where does the money come from? Junior development and subsidies for lowering fees?

Then another candidate might say that they want to increase money for junior development and for lowering fees. Will the owners be happy with that?

Oh, and what about the W-League? Don’t forget the Matildas!

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Disunity as they say in politics, is death. A house divided against itself cannot stand.

Lowy could present himself against this backdrop as balanced and fair with a bit of a scare campaign about foreign owners and the old NSL clubs thrown in for good measure.

Not everyone likes his leadership style or how he got the job but the game is at least stable and growing and is meeting targets set out in a long term strategic Whole Of Football Plan. That’s a much safer option than voting for divided and self interested parties who are driven by short term thinking.

If it came down to a vote I think that Lowy might actually win.

He might just do a Bradbury.

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