The "civil war" that has split Australian football down the middle "will come to an ugly climax at the end of the month," when Football Federation Australia Chair Steven Lowy "makes one final bid to force through his controversial voting reforms," according to Tom Smithies of the Sydney DAILY TELEGRAPH. FFA on Wednesday called an emergency general meeting for Nov. 30, at which Lowy will "seek to force through a new power structure and hold on to his position" as FFA chair. FFA will propose "yet another voting structure for its annual Congress, this time giving nine votes to the state associations," four to the A-League clubs, one to the players union, one to women’s football -- and an "extra vote for female community football, but via a representative elected by the states." The plans also scrap a 60% majority needed to elect FFA's directors -- "meaning just eight of the states could elect the FFA board that controls the game in Australia." Remarkably, seven of those states -- which between them "account for just a third of registered footballers in Australia" -- wrote to the A-League clubs on Tuesday offering "exactly the same proposals" as a bid "to unify Australian Football to enable (its) ongoing reform and development" (DAILY TELEGRAPH, 11/8). REUTERS' Ian Ransom reported the AGM will be held on "the same day as FIFA’s deadline for a governance shake-up." The global body said that it would install a "normalization committee" if FFA "failed to agree to a more democratic model" for its Congress, which elects members to the exec board. The dispute centers on the membership of the Congress, which has representatives of the country’s nine states and territories "but currently just one vote for all 10 clubs" in the A-League and none for the players. The clubs, which say they generate 80% of revenues for football in Australia, "want at least five seats" but FFA has offered them only four (REUTERS, 11/8).
