There appears to be "no end in sight to the war over the control" of Australian football after the FIFA Congress Review Working Group "fired back at Football Federation Australia," accusing it of making assertions regarding its recommendations "without merit and substance," according to Ray Gatt of THE AUSTRALIAN. The CRWG, tasked by FIFA to "come up with a new model for FFA's voting congress," took aim in a six-page document released Tuesday "in response to comments the head body made last week." FFA opposes the recommendations and reportedly has the support of four member associations. If three of the associations side with FFA, the recommendations will be "torpedoed." After six months of interviews and deliberations, the CRWG "made a series of recommendations" including reshaping the congress from 10 members to 29 and a call for the A-League to become independent of FFA ahead of the '19-20 season. But FFA countered by "expressing concerns over a number of the recommendations," including that the proposed new voting model is "excessively weighted" toward professional football at the expense of the grassroots;
- Gives too much power to the A-League clubs;
- Gives the players' union a 'disproportionately greater voting representation than each member federation;'
- The proposed pathway to an alternative A-League model is inconsistent with the foundational good governance principle" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 8/15).
The AAP reported FFA Chair Steven Lowy "asserted that the proposed carve-up of votes would allow the A-League clubs to veto changes to the FFA constitution" or "dictate" the election of board members on their own. However, the CRWG said that the report "specifically legislated against" this and put forward a "healthy and robust" system to elect FFA directors. The CRWG also defended other aspects of the report which FFA criticized -- notably its proposed "women's council," the pathway for special interest groups to join the congress and planned transition for the A-League to become independent (AAP, 8/14).
