- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
I found Sebastian Hassett’s interview with FFA Chairman Frank Lowy in Saturday’s Sydney Morning Herald a fascinating insight into both where Lowy and football Federation Australia are at following Australia’s unsuccessful bid for the 2022 World Cup.
It all started so promising, with Lowy rightly saying he wouldn’t bail out the A-League despite North Queensland Fury being on the fritz and concerns about the future of a number of other clubs.
“It’s not a matter of whether or not I’m prepared to do it. I’m the chairman of FFA, not the owner of the A-League, and therefore it’s not appropriate to do that,” admitted the Westfield magnate.
But then came the excuse that’s starting to be repeated ad nauseam by some on FFA’s payroll.
When describing what went wrong with the Sydney Rovers debacle, one of the most embarrassing and disgraceful farces concocted since FFA came together, Lowy explained it away as a broken promise.
“Those people (behind the Rovers consortium) promised me they would come up with the goods, and they didn’t,” revealed the Slovak-born businessman.
“Simple as that. We expected them to, they promised they would, but they didn’t.”
Honestly I was shocked when I read that comment which, at best, is a school yard excuse and not one you’d expect from a self-made billionaire.
Of course Lowy’s broken “promise” came on the back of Australian bid consultant Peter Hargitay, who Fairfax writer Peter FitzSimons described as a “dickhead” on Sunday, putting the blame for Australia’s solitary World Cup bidding vote to “lies” from FIFA’s Executive Committee.
“We started with six votes, maybe seven, but a number of people lied to Frank’s face,” Hargitay told News Limited earlier this month.
Honestly I find this buck passing to be all rather embarrassing for Australian football and as Lasana Liburd wrote last week, with excuses like this “FFA have arguably topped the ‘whinging Poms’”.
While it’s ok to make mistakes, the problem as I see it, is that Lowy is surrounded by an aura of reverence which prevents the media from holding him accountable thus limiting what we collectively learn from our failures.
Just like how Australia’s final World Cup bid presentation dissolved into a homage to Lowy’s “dream”, as did much of the fallout, with many choosing that moment to thank the FFA Chairman for everything he’s done for the game.
Those who criticize meanwhile are shouted down as we’re reminded again of how Lowy lead the game’s revolution earlier this millennium.
In fact, it’s seemingly only safe to publicly discuss Lowy’s mistakes after he’s admitted to them himself as with the case of his ownership of Sydney FC.
Despite all the critical whispers I have heard for years, the first person to publicly admonish what was a clear conflict of interest was Lowy in the aforementioned SMH interview.
This is a dangerous culture that must change.
The truth is the Crawford report recommended the FFA President/Chairman be restricted to a maximum of two four year terms (the same was true for all board members as well).
Yet next year Lowy will be seeking re-election that will take his tenure beyond that eight-year threshold.
While I think Lowy is still one of the best candidates we’ve got for the position, the Crawford report made those recommendations for a reason – to stop the organization stagnating.
The fact there isn’t a hoard of suitable candidates for both the Presidency and board positions says plenty about what has gone wrong behind the scenes since 2003’s reboot.
Meanwhile Lowy says he’s accountable as he fronted up to a press conference for 45 minutes last week. While I’m not completely sold on that rationale, maybe there is some truth to the 80-year-old’s argument.
Could it just be that with our penchant for unabashed reverence to a man who has put so much into the game, it is actually the media that’s failing to hold the FFA and its chairman to the standard the games deserves?
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.