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It’s been a busy few days at College St as Football Federation Australia re-elected its Chairman Frank Lowy (unopposed, naturally) for a third consecutive term and also released its intriguing four-year strategic plan.
These two events are of course interlinked as Lowy wishes to leave his role having overseen the game’s complete rebirth.
While there’s no mention of finding someone who can finally take over from Lowy at the end of this four-year cycle, the strategic plan was filled with lots of interesting “broad stroke” ideas.
After a disastrous 18 months in which the peak body got distracted by the bright lights of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting rights, the focus is clearly on steadying the ship.
(http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/buckley-opinion-display/A-strategy-for-our-future/43129) In a column that’s been published on FFA’s website, CEO Ben Buckley explained the peak body’s plan “in the initial years of the Strategic Plan timeframe is to have 10 stable clubs and sustainable economic model for the A-League.
“However, in the Strategic Plan period to 2015 expansion will only occur when those economic pre-conditions of stability and sustainability exist.”
In other words – expansion is on the backburner.
So how does FFA plan to create this climate of “stability and sustainability”?
Well the watered down version of the strategic plan is lacking in detail – except for some pie in the sky stuff about becoming a top 10 FIFA nation by 2015 – but buried amongst all the buzz words and corporate speak are the kind of succinct and positive messages the game needs to be sending forward.
One of the best examples is FFA’s plan to use the 2015 Asian Cup on home soil to assist in “linking Australia with Asia”.
While the phrase screams “please give me a government grant”, it is also the exact point FFA needs to get across to government and business around the country. You want to get in on the growing Asian market? Well we engage with them constantly on and off the pitch.
This is also integral to one of the other themes the strategic plan keeps coming back to – money or as Buckley would say, “increasing revenue”.
One aspect of this is making the A-League financially viable and as the plan points out, “investment (will be) required” to achieve this. Considering the inherent structural problems the league has, this will be a very large task. (http://www.theroar.com.au/2011/11/17/whos-paying-the-price-for-a-leagues-problems/)
Making the domestic competition one of FFA’s “strategic pillars” should also end any hopes A-League club owners still have that the peak body may hand over control of the league to be independently run.
Finally, FFA and the consultants they hired to help prepare this strategic plan hope the war cry of becoming a “top 10 football nation” will energise the football community and catch the attention of the greater public.
It’s a noble goal, albeit a fanciful one given the short timeline to achieve it. But then again “To try and catch up to the bloody Japanese” doesn’t come off as quite as catchy. Anyway with Argentina currently sitting in 10th spot in the FIFA rankings, that’s some ambition. Then again, maybe it’s the ninth ranked Italians FFA is eyeing off.
However on the back of a modest loss of under AU$900,000 for the last financial year (a reasonable outcome for the first year of a World Cup cycle) the strategic plan is a promising, albeit lucid, step forward for the peak body.
FFA has made some bold statements, filled it with little detail, but also set the tone for the next four years. Now Lowy and Buckley must deliver.
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