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Could football’s congress war finally be drawing to a close? Don’t be surprised if there are still some twists and turns before Tuesday’s all-important vote.
A joint statement released on Saturday by Football Federation Australia and the Professional Football Australia association suggested that the pair – along with the nine member federations and 10 A-League clubs – had reached an agreement on changes to the FFA’s constitution.
According to the statement, the new resolutions would “strengthen the governance and oversight of Australian football”.
That includes but is not limited to a “broader representation of stakeholders within the FFA Congress,” “full participation of women at all levels of football governance,” “improved financial reporting” and “further alignment of the FFA Constitution with FIFA and AFC Statutes”.
Great! It’s about time.
But despite the fact that the move looks set to isolate FFA chairman Steven Lowy – and he has already said he won’t stand for re-election in November – football fans unhappy with the FFA’s current running of the game would be well advised not to celebrate too prematurely.
That’s not just because it’s uncertain what the football landscape might look like should a member of the Lowy family no longer be in charge.
After all, without Frank Lowy there might no FFA to speak of, let alone an A-League, a W-League, multiple trips to World Cups for Australia’s men’s and women’s national teams and an Asian Cup won on home soil following a successful switch to the Asian Football Confederation.
Indeed, Frank Lowy’s contributions to the game in Australia shouldn’t be forgotten just because there happens to be a clamour for change.
Lowy Institute Chairman, Sir Frank Lowy AC (AAP Image/Danny Casey)
But herein lies the problem.
One of the things that invariably made Lowy senior such a successful businessman – a willingness to make unilateral decisions – is a fundamental reason FFA have proved so incapable of change.
But there’s more to it than that. From an outsider’s perspective, the Lowy family doesn’t strike you as one to have heard the word ‘no’ too often in their lives.
That is, unless it’s coming out of their own mouths.
When faced with the reality that it was time to move on from the post-Soccer Australia, current FFA era into the next phase of our football evolution, Frank Lowy simply shrugged his shoulders and installed his son as FFA chairman.
Why wouldn’t he? He’s one of Australia’s richest, most powerful men.
Meanwhile, critics allege the FFA board has been stacked with individuals linked to Lowy’s Westfield group for years.
And until now – or at least until November 2015, when Steven Lowy was made chairman – there has been little public appetite for change.
Perhaps that’s understandable. To speak out against the Lowy family is to run the risk of making some extremely powerful enemies.
That’s not to say that no one has – particularly after the fiasco that was Australia’s failed bid to host the 2022 World Cup.
The likes of Bonita Mersiades, Archie Fraser and former Socceroos goalkeeper Jack Reilly have all been outspoken critics over the years.
But the reality is that the average football-playing, A-League-watching fan couldn’t care less about these Congress issues.
Broadly speaking, we couldn’t care less about a lot of things.
Australians are a passive lot and have a tendency to put up with a status quo because we couldn’t be bothered doing anything about it.
So it says something about the overwhelming desire for change that so many parties have put so much concerted pressure on the FFA to pass these constitutional reforms.
At the end of the day, more democratic governance is the least the dissenting parties should have aimed for.
But there’s a lesson to be learned here.
Allowing power to fall into the hands of a select few is the first step towards losing control.
Football belongs to everyone. Lose sight of that, and we’re right back where we started.