The gloss and the aura surrounding Mr. Frank Lowy has started to wane of late. Sure, the humiliation of the World Cup bid resulted in extended discussions about the Chairman and his CEO. But it is my opinion that the rot had set in far earlier than last year.
The idea of bidding for the World Cup was a naive exercise in and of itself, with good will and enthusiasm at its forefront rather than cost-benefit analyses and an in-depth analysis of the resulting PR campaign if we were to lose.
While people are calling the media overly harsh and that Australians are big dreamers and no heights are unattainable, more research should have been done within the walls of FIFA, whose board has a reputation for wanting to expand the game to new frontiers and use football as a means of social change.
Anyway, this leads into my main argument which is that of the structure of the FFA at board level. The oligarchical approach taken by Frank Lowy is one that is flawed in principle, with appointed officials on the FFA board instead of elected officials of the football fraternity.
We complain of a lack of communication between FFA and its footballing community, and this is because the FFA is governed by a group of businessmen and not football people. We need to be very weary of the approach taken by Lowy in that he has the game solely in his hands, and the game belongs to the people.
To give a practical example of my point I will use the changes within the FFV over the past decade. Following the Crawford Report, pressure groups demanded change within the structure of the FFV where high level clubs received a disproportionate amount of control over the selection of the board which showed to the layman a certain level of corruption within the sport.
The voting structure was changed and all clubs received equal voting rights, from the clubs with 1000 members to the local Sunday senior clubs. Zoning and engagement with the country associations lead to a better rapport between city and country.
Elections were held, and in the following years board members have come and gone and have been held accountable for bad decisions by the membership.
Sure, Victoria itself has a long way to go but looking at its board structure and the representation model along with its initiatives, such as the VCL and the restructure of the winter competitions it is the most forward thinking and accountable board in the country.
Now, I can see the parallels between the FFV of 10 years ago and the FFA of today. The benevolent dictatorship of Frank Lowy is not working. Democracy and representation of all footballing members must prevail.
We need an elected and accountable FFA board with footballing people on it. We must follow the example show by the Victorians.
Members of the football fraternity, it’s time for change.
FFA aka Failed Football in Australia (Con)
Guest
yeah but he was never able to run the event how he wanted it. ffa placed to many restrictions on him
Futbanous
Guest
A thorough investigation of past holders of various positions of power be that FFA or an A-Leagues clubs predecessor will reveal "football people" have been seriously flawed in running the game. The point you are making by mentioning Con Constantine NUJ i presume. Cannot imagine "Foz" or the like running the game too much a "Heart on the sleeve" Football man to make a rational decision. In recent times we only need to look at the debacle that was the Sydney Rovers backed by football people.
Midfielder
Guest
Con was a football man to his boot laces.... he did not work...
John
Guest
He is a dictator and like all tyrants he will cling to power for as long as he can even if it means damaging the sport
Futbanous
Guest
No good changing the old guard for the new unless theres a better alternative & better qualified football people can replace the likes of Frank & his crew. Many football people were running the show during the NSL & Socceroos failing to qualfy for the WC era & thats why we had the Crawford report in the first place. Ok to whinge about the current structure & FFA personnel,but if we as football fans are going to do so lets offer alternative structures & personnel. To offer the restructuring of a state body such as FFV is way off the mark. Unlike the FFV the FFA has to run 9 National teams as part of a huge geographic area Asia. Not only that but has to show international diplomacy in interacting with the many cultural differences within the AFC. Then theres the pressure from the AFC regarding spots in the ACL. That being the brownie points that the A-League needs to chalk up to impress MBH & Co in order to get more of our teams into the comp. So maybe the benevolent dictatorship of Frank Lowy is reaching its end,but to state that ". Democracy and representation of all footballing members must prevail" is a solution is way off the mark. Ponder this the current mob have made mistakes,no doubt about it (the naivety of the WC bid for one) but they were mistakes made in a period of massive change within the game in Australia since we joined the AFC. Whether it was FL & Co or Foz & co in charge during the last 6 years it wouldnt matter. Both governing bodies would have had the same learning curve & made mistakes. So theres 2 ways to look at it. One is that if the FFA are a professional organisation they are in the best position to take the game forward. Reason being that they made the mistakes in the first place & should learn from that. Two if the consensus is their not professional then a restructure involving football personnel who can handle all aspects of running National teams & a domestic league should be put forward. On point two I say 'Good luck".
Gaz
Guest
"We need to be very weary of the approach taken by Lowy..." Oh, we are! We are! :-) Lowy missed the chance to go gracefully, now he'll be hoping the door doesn't hit him on the ass.