Steven Lowy has been granted a stay of execution but FIFA will be well in charge when it returns to Australia to lead bitterly divided stakeholders through more negotiations.
A complete FIFA takeover is off the table for now, but the fate of the Football Federation Australia chairman – who has mentioned legal action if FIFA takes over – remains in the balance.
Football’s world governing body says it will “define the terms of reference” for a new congress review working group seeking to broker a compromise on the future of the local game.
Australia’s warring factions had been waiting nervously for FIFA’s expected takeover following last week’s failure to achieve consensus on an expanded congress.
The body, which elects FFA’s board, has long been deemed undemocratic by FIFA.
The A-League clubs, players’ union and the women’s game have all been campaigning for a bigger voice.
Three days after FIFA discussed the protracted affair at its member associations committee meeting in Zurich, FFA received a letter from deputy secretary general Zvonimir Boban containing no mention of direct intervention via a normalisation committee.
But it made clear intervention will still occur, albeit of a softer nature.
Boban stated FIFA had decided to allow for a congress review working group to be established “provided that FIFA and AFC are fully involved in the process and that a clear roadmap ensuring a timely conclusion with the adoption of a more inclusive and representative membership model is established”.
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To that end, FIFA and AFC officials will return to Sydney in the new year – six months after August’s delegation witnessed an embarrassing show of the domestic game’s governance – to try and force a compromise from the deeply opposed parties over the make-up of the congress votes.
The FIFA and AFC officials will first meet with the stakeholders, which the letter again explicitly named as the member federations, A-League clubs and Professional Footballers Australia.
It will also meet with the Association of Australian Football Clubs, the body that represents the NPL and has been vying for a seat at the table on the congress.
Based on that feedback, the delegation will then “define the terms of reference of the congress review working group, which include its objective, composition, mandate and timeline”.
An FFA release on Thursday painted the picture rather more like a win for the under-fire Lowy, implying that FFA would be establishing the working group itself.
“FIFA’s ruling gives all of us a chance to take a fresh look at how the congress can best represent the Australian football community, with the direct involvement of FIFA and AFC officials in that process,” Lowy said.
“In a wider sense, this process will enable all Australian stakeholders to work together on a shared vision for our game at every level.”
AR
Guest
The Football tab has taken an odd turn of late...
mattq
Roar Rookie
anyone notice FIFA's letter was addressed to the 'President'. Is president and chairman interchangeable titles??
edeujd
Guest
Bogans run this country. They're everywhere unfortunately. They're in politics, law, police, everywhere.
Stevo
Roar Rookie
Correct. If anything, FIFA will want to see more representatives than the minuscule sized congress that has been proposed so far which has been all about preserving power at the top. The FIFA action gives Lowy and the current board a way out without being sacked directly. As for pro/rel and div2, it's not about that directly but it is about that indirectly.
Lionheart
Guest
take care there Nick
Nick Symonds
Guest
PERSONAL NEWS: My lunatic neighbor's been arrested For weeks myself and my neighbors have been living in constant fear of a mentally ill man (ice addiction worsened that) who's just got out of prison on probation for attempted murder after he stabbed a man in 2012. For weeks he's been screaming expletive laden death threats at all of us up until 5 in the morning, but the police have been unable to do anything legally, no idea why with all the red flags. Mental health can't do anything either because they can only commit someone if they threaten themselves, not others. How does that make any sense? This morning he went nuts and was arrested for threatening a neighbor a few doors down with a knife and taken away. It's amazing no one was killed, especially when his house was directly across the road from an outdoor netball complex flanked on both sides by schools and with a daycare centre just 8 doors down form where he lived. How they ever let him out on probation is simply beyond me. Let alone in that location. For anyone who thinks that FFA are a basket case, trust me, they're nowhere near as dysfunctional as our justice and mental health systems. The Sydney Derby is on this Saturday. Keep calm and enjoy the A-League.
Waz
Guest
That was a legal threat. Lowy’s obligation was to meet his membership obligations to FIFA and follow the FFA Constitution... corporate las plays no part, if it did Lowy would have published financials?
Lionheart
Guest
here's a link to the FA Council make-up, which I assume is the English equivalent, with 127 members (24 non-voting) http://www.thefa.com/about-football-association/who-we-are/the-fa-council An interesting list with just 6 members for the EPL and 6 for the EFL (Premiership), and a score of regional and grassroots representatives, including 2 supporters reps. Even the Armed Services have seats. Now that is representative, which is what I'd expect FIFA would expect to see here. You can see the non-voters are largely honorary seats, like ex Presidents.
marcel
Guest
Lowy made no legal threats...he very reasonably said that he had sought legal advice about his obligations under Australian law..we should expect no less of him.
Lionheart
Guest
That's my thoughts too Nemesis, thanks as I was starting to query my sanity given some of the spurious comments going around. Reading the FFA release on their website, they sound desperate, trying to convince us that all's good, FIFA's coming to vindicate their stance. All being equal, football can come out of this stronger than ever.
Nemesis
Guest
Fifa has clearly stated its next moves in the letter to the FFA. In particular, FIFA has stated: 1) FIFA will support a Congress review working group 2) FIFA will visit Sydney in early 2018 with 2 objectives a) to meet all relevant stakeholders [note: FFA Board is not a stakeholder & FIFA does not mention them]; b) to define the terms of reference of the Congress review working group, including: its objective, composition, mandate & timeline. So, FIFA has stated it will now give explicit instructions to the Congress review working group on how to form the new Congress.
Marco
Guest
It’s not over til it’s over - there are many machinations that can occur. The uncertainty is the danger here. FIFA seems cautious if not somewhat uncertain of their next move.
Nemesis
Guest
If the FFA Board tries to invoke AUS company law, FIFA will simply suspend the FFA of its rights as a Member of FIFA. Then it will invite other interested parties from the football community to create a Federation that will satisfy the FIFA Statutes. Maybe, the new Federation can be called: The Federation of Australian Football? The issues would be that the FFA holds all the assets, including the ALeague club licences & ALeague TV rights. But, the old FFA will have zero authority in world football & it will find these assets worthless since no professional footballer will register with the old FFA. Lowy is a dead man walking. But, at least, he is saved from the public humiliation of being kicked out by FIFA.
Mark
Guest
I said a similar thing on another page. The clubs’ belligerence worked against them. The clubs have no interest in ‘representative democracy’. Their only interests are their own. They wouldn’t support a congress that gave the state feds total control. That’s reasonable. However, they also wouldn’t support any expanded congress model that didn’t give them a veto over running football in Australia. That is ultimately what they’re after, but it seems Griffin has been so unsophisticated in his approach to getting it that his motives are obvious even to FIFA.
pete4
Guest
Yes interesting since A-League clubs are said to be chasing $6m each annually I don't think it got very far
Grobbelaar
Roar Guru
But it does look like Lowy's threats of legal action have put off FIFA in setting up the Normalisation Committee. It still seems to me that whichever way you slice and dice it, the present board (and chair) has been properly installed under Australian corporations law and not even Jesus Christ can oust them without meeting the 75% threshold in the FFA constitution. Now FIFA and the AFC might be able to get 8 of 10 votes directed towards a certain outcome, but to be honest, that's not a given.
Brainstrust
Guest
More like friendship to certain A-leaue club owners. FIFA are ignoring corruption left right and center elsewhere , but focusing on a country where external and internal influences want to harvest the grass roots money. Its not democratic to ignore a million players and have A_league club owners and professional players run the roost. The Victorian FFV president Taliodoris is a co founder of the PFA , and should be disaqualified from voting.
punter
Guest
According to Bonita Mersiades; 'Once FIFA and AFC make their determination in January "based on the feedback received", the FFA Congress will be on an inexorable pathway of change. '
Waz
Guest
Friendship or not, Lowy has just lost - he’s avoided the humiliation of a NC but he’s also lost the ability to execute his implied threat of dragging this into court and crulling Australian football.
Waz
Guest
APFCA and AAFC have spoken about second tier plans. To what level is not clear though.