The failure of Football Federation Australia and its key stakeholders to meet last week for talks to set an agenda for the Emergency General Meeting "needed to discuss new governance rules for the game could mean it is pushed to meet its end of March deadline to effect changes," according to Michael Lynch of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. FFA leaders are now set to meet with clubs and state federations, the A-League clubs and the players' union at the end of this week in a bid to "thrash out" how FFA's Congress -- the body that makes policy and elects the board -- "can be widened and made more inclusive." FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation "want Australia to widen the franchise so that its clubs and various other bodies involved in the sport have greater input" into the decision-making process through the Congress. FFA is "under great pressures from A-League clubs to increase its representation on the Congress so that it can have more say over board nominations." Two key state federations, those in Victoria and NSW, are reportedly "also backing the A-League clubs in what has become a power struggle over control of the game" (SMH, 3/12).
OFF AND RUNNING: In Sydney, Michael Cockerill reported a second division is "off and running," whether FFA "likes it or not." Semi-pro clubs from across the country "are about to gather in Melbourne to kick-start a process which could well see a nationwide competition established" in '18. Tired of "waiting for an outstretched arm" from FFA, the "more ambitious semi-pro clubs are taking matters into their own hands." FFA has "very little interest in doing the heavy lifting to create a nationwide second tier." It "reckons it has got far more important issues on its plate." So "why not let others do it for it?" Last week, "the first step was taken with the formation of an association to represent every state and territory in the National Premier Leagues system." That is 128 clubs (SMH, 3/12).
