Football is more than just a game for those who seek power

Democracy? The US is the so called greatest democracy in the world and look where they are headed. Democracy is not the answer. The people taking over the A-League have a greater conflict of interest than the Lowy family ever had. I don't see much good coming out of this. The A-League is not profitable, but the club owners will start squabbling with every one else to get more and more money for themselves and will send the A-League broke, while at the same time less and less money will be shared with the grassroots football clubs. This will be worse than the NSL and will bring about an early demise of the A-League and further retardation of this country's football development, particularly at junior levels.

Thank you all the current stakeholders who voted for change. Football now has the opportunity to move forward and harness the passion that we the fans hold for the game. Stephen Lowy put his foot in his mouth when he said that the FAA would lose its independence. It NEVER had independence you and your father saw to that with the passing of the batten up Frank's departure from the game. But you could not see it because you were blinded by your own view of your own importance. Football may have a chance now to overcome the malaise of Stephen Lowy's chairmanship but be warned any board member that is seeking re-election we the public will not stand by and watch the same crap over and over again. That also goes for Gallop who must now show he has the capacity, drive and enthusiasm to warrant his massive salary.

Mike - In reference to your headline on this subject I feel you are much nearer the truth than even you can imagine. Personally I have had an interest in the sport here in Australia for the last 55 years and during that time have witnessed upheavals at all levels of football governance starting with the switch from Association to Federation (amateur to semi -professional), followed by the early NSL turmoil that dragged on for 25 years before almost expiring under the efforts of a few, a few with more than their fair share of ambition,and the benefits it can bring, more-so than how the game was faring under their so called "management." A study of the 2003 Crawford report lays out all the faults that had developed over those 25 years. During that time I had the experience of sitting on football club committees, State Federation Committees, and the board of an NSL team,, and without fail I have found that the democratic system that is supposed to run and manage these various organisations is indeed a myth,for in all my experience I have never failed to notice the emergence of a "power seeker" ,happy to go along with their own opinion as to what was actually happening to "game management". but never without "enjoying" the benefits. Frank Lowy also had this same experience and pulled out of the game for almost 20 years before a government initiative saw him almost begged to come in and re-float a sinking ship. To date he has succeeded, the only problem is that in handing control to his son,no doubt for reasons that cannot be spelled out,he has inadvertently played into the clutches of his erstwhile opponents many of whom are still working away in the background. To a confirmed football follower, there have been mistakes made by the embryo HAL management group (the Lowy "connection to Sydney City/Sydney FC one that could,and should, have been avoided, the penchant to employ ex "highly placed personnel" from other sports showed a complete lack of faith in hundreds of people around the country with business experience but also a deep rooted love of football, but all in all the overall improvement in our actual game governance has been quite successful despite those obvious "weaknesses". The most worrisome thing to me was the fact that a personal friend who had experienced management of the game at the highest level regaled me with stories of exactly the same goings on overseas. This indeed was scary stuff So what do we have today? I am amazed at the number of "bodies" that have sprung up in our game,all of whom appear to want a say in how things are run at all levels. Questions that arise from these latest developments are,what right does a management body, not directly involved with HAL clubs, have to vote on the good fiscal health of these organisations ,annually spending millions of dollars in budgets that make their expenditure look like loose change. I wish I could be convinced that there is sunshine round the corner but in my experience,and all around us today, the evidence is there that true democratic governance is still as far away as it was 50 years ago. Our record in the halls of Canberra spells that out loud and clear. Cheers jb

As a few have mentioned above, overseas, soccer fans don't get too excited about mundane subjects such as administration and governance. I was only just reading in the Italian media this morning that three Serie B clubs have just dropped out due to financial difficulties. They were going to promote three Serie C clubs in their place, and they were preparing to take their place, stopped playing their Serie C fixtures, then there were appeals to a sports tribunal, they put the kybosh on that, so the Serie B will proceed with 19 teams, and the three Serie C clubs must return to the Serie C and will have to catch up on their missed fixtures. At least, for the moment, we only have to worry about 10 clubs, and whether we should add another two. In comparison, life is bliss for an Australian soccer administrator.

13 years ago we went through the soccer revolution to end all revolutions, and here we are again, as I said, it's the 5th or 6th soccer revolution of the past 100 years. At least it makes for interesting times.

Sam, time to concentrate on OUR sport! Forget the other sports, they are not our problem.

"But the reality is that the average football-playing, A-League-watching fan couldn’t care less about these Congress issues." You sell so many of us short, with comments and attitudes like these! Under the current closed systems at both State & National level, your average fan is not allowed to have a voice let alone get involved!

You mean stability like changing the rules every year or so for the greatest game ever invented...yeah right.

Its a crucial time for the football in Oz and they have to get the governance right. The game is not perfect but has done relatively well under the Lowy stewardship. I will always take a track record over best wishes that a new system will be better. Maybe FFA had to change but there's no guarantee that things will continue to trend positively.

Final score 3-2. Also means Australia qualify for the 2019 World Cup in Peru.

It's time for the Lowys to go, but I am grateful for their efforts. They came in and rescued football from the NSL clubs who were determined to keep it a niche, marginalised sport in this country, and for that, we should be forever grateful. The thing we must be careful of now, is to make sure we don't allow those NPL clubs to try to ruin football again.

Waz, I can’t speak on fees in Qld but in NSW the FFA component of fees is usually the lowest in terms of dollars and cents. FNSW and the association will take higher slices and most likely the local club too. People might question why tbeir five year old has to pay towards the upkeep of national teams but not much more than that imo.

I fully agree that without Frank Lowy, there would be no A-League. I believe the difference is that Frank understood that football is the people's game. Frank has had that direct loss of family through war, he's done the hard yards, experienced the full spectrum of life. He understands that football is escapism, joy, belonging and more to the masses, those who don't have millions of dollars in the bank and who have slog to survive every day. The biggest problem was handing over to his son. This is a bloke who has lead the corporate life, who was born into millions. He doesn't get out in the stands with the supporters group, he doesn't have to consider whether he can afford to take the family to a game. To truly understand the game you have to immerse yourself in it. Stephen Lowy has governed from the mount. He has handed down a corporate, disengaged, business only philosophy of management. For football to be governed properly, you have to understand every level and aspect of it and then find a balance between the football perspective and the business perspective. The late article today on foxsports football about Greg O'Rourke's assessment of security and policing of football show to me that he is making the effort to engage and understand. The receipe requires collaboration and understanding between the governance, the clubs, the fans and all peripheral elements. It seems that day is about to be seen. Mr Lowy it's been nice, but we wont miss you.

My thoughts exactly. So if this goes through and the current clubs want to expand the A-League to 14 teams and at the same time drop Wellington, then we could get 5 new teams in one go.

Assuming Mr F is now watching Pepper Pig again as live updates have ceased, there’s s link to an English language feed in this thread: http://forum.insidesport.com.au/2193189/Australia-U172023-National-Team-Tournaments-amp-Discussion-Thread---U16-AFF-CHAMP The atmosphere is better than that generated at the AFL GF by the way, although it might have dropped off now the joeys are 3-1 up

Out.

Well, you could start by asking yourself what it’s relevance is to this discussion and then maybe ask, would you have posted it were the Joeys leading 1-0?

The ffa cops plenty even at junior clubs - not least for high fees but also lack of facilities and high cost and low availability of coaching courses. People playing the game do care, this is not all about the A League.

Have you not seen the disarray the other codes have been in? Even the AFL has had its moments with the botched handling of experimental rules and AFLW. This has not been a good 12 months for sports administration in this country. Sok-ha’s not gond well admittedly, but it’s not as bad as Rugby Australia who have taken their entire code on to its knees.

I wonder what all this means for Wellington?