The future of Australian football is "no closer to being resolved" after a meeting of member federations, A-League clubs and Professional Footballers Australia "failed yet again to find a resolution to the impasse over the make-up of Football Federation Australia's congress," according to Ray Gatt of THE AUSTRALIAN. Time is "running out" for the parties to come to an agreement, with intervention from FIFA "now a near certainty unless agreement can be found in the next seven days." While a six-hour meeting of all nine member federations, representatives acting for the 10 A-League clubs and PFA in Melbourne on Thursday was reportedly "very courteous and professional," there was "no budging on the reshaping of the voting structure of the congress." Determined that Australian football "has a much broader voting base than it has at present," FIFA intervened in the matter last year, instructing FFA that it has to bring its congress "in line with the world body's statutes" that are in place with all of its members federations. FIFA has given FFA a Nov. 30 deadline to resolve the matter (THE AUSTRALIAN, 9/29). In Melbourne, David Davutovic reported FIFA would step in and permanently remove FFA Chair Steven Lowy and his board and install a new committee, known as a "normalisation committee," if consensus is not reached by then. Lowy, who was not present at Thursday's meeting, set a deadline of Friday for the stakeholders to agree "in a letter sent last Monday." The "main conjecture is over one vote, albeit a powerful one," with the state federations pushing for the current 9:1 structure to morph into 9:4:1:1 (state federations/A-League clubs/PFA/women's football). The A-League clubs, PFA and "at least one" of the state federation execs are pushing for 9:5:1:1, "which was the structure agreed to in August before the states recanted" (HERALD SUN, 9/28).
