A "new dawn" in Australian football "is beckoning after proposed governance reforms were rubber-stamped by FIFA, sounding the death knell" for outgoing Football Federation Australia Chair Steven Lowy and his board, according to the AAP. Proponents for "radical change" are "increasingly confident they will get their way" at a special general meeting of FFA next month without the need for further intervention from the global body. As expected, FIFA endorsed the recommendations of the eight-member Congress Review Working Group, which it formed in a "last-ditch attempt to strike a diplomatic solution to the long-running saga." Lowy and his board are "firmly against the CRWG's key findings." But FIFA Secretary General Fatima Samoura said that they were "fully in line" with FIFA statutes and directed them to be adopted by FFA at an extraordinary general meeting "as soon as possible" in a letter to Lowy and other key stakeholders on Wednesday. Lowy's "only hope is if the changes are not passed," but lobbying efforts are underway to "erode his support base." Four of the smallest state federations in the country indicated they "were prepared to use their voting power to block the reforms." Eight votes from the current 10-member FFA congress will be required at an EGM to implement the CRWG's reforms (AAP, 8/23).
