Rowdy
Well-Known Member
Steven Lowy outlines vision for Australian football future
Football Federation Australia chairman Steven Lowy has outlined his vision to the Australian football community for the future of the game in the country.
Lowy's statement in full:
Football in Australia has some important decisions to make over the next few days and weeks.
Will we work together and take Australia’s largest participation sport to a new level of success on the local, national and international stage or will we return to the bad old days of self-interest and suffer the inevitable results?
The question – and its answer - is directly linked to the impending visit by FIFA and AFC representatives to help the game’s stakeholders find a way to expand our representative Congress.
As Chairman of Football Federation Australia, I welcome their support.
As the FIFA/AFC delegation will learn as they speak to football’s various groups, the issue at the heart of the evolution of our Congress is fundamentally about whether football in Australia is managed on behalf of all of those who participate in and love the game or is controlled by narrow interests.
Many of you will recall the chaos in football during the early years of this century.
The game was broke and broken, riven by self-interest and unable to operate a sustainable national league. It took the intervention of the Federal Government and many reformers within the game to change that.
As a result, FFA was formed with a Congress of Members that represented, through a democratic process, almost everyone involved in the game because the Member Federation representatives were themselves elected by stakeholders in their state or territory and these were in turn elected by the grassroots. It also included a representative of the A-League clubs.
The primary function of the Congress is to elect the independent Board of FFA.
With its constitutional framework and with FIFA approval, FFA had responsibility to administer the game – grassroots, professional leagues and national teams - on behalf of all stakeholders.
Improving our performance at international level was an obvious priority but so too was the creation of a viable professional league for men and women, as well as a nationally-coordinated approach to community football and player development.
A dozen years on with a Hyundai A-League now mainstream and continuing to increase in quality and popularity, it’s easy to forget its origins.
The A-League was created by FFA on behalf of the whole football community and is for the benefit of that football community. It was operated then, as it is now, by FFA.
For much of its short history, the A-League has been subsidised by other revenues such as those generated from Socceroos matches and government grants.
FFA granted licences to commercial interests and individuals to operate clubs and they have themselves invested significantly in their licences over the years.
Some clubs and owners have been a part of the competition since its inception, others have come and gone. Some are recent arrivals.
There is absolutely no doubt about the importance of the contribution those club owners, their administrators, coaches and players make to the game.
The same is true of the W-League which this year enters its 10th season – a genuine trailblazer in women’s sport, domestically and internationally.
The game has come a very long way in a relatively short time and many people have had a hand in that success. The simple reality however, is that to achieve greater success there needs to be some change.
FFA believes that the Congress needs to evolve and that any change must benefit all in football, not just the interests of a few.
The A-League club owners want greater representation on the Congress. Professional Footballers’ Australia – the players’ union – and a newly-formed group representing the National Premier League (NPL) clubs also want seats at the table.
In other countries, delegates from what FIFA calls Special Interest Groups (SIGs) such as women’s football, referees, coaches, futsal, players with disabilities, community clubs and many more variations on these, sit on their equivalent of our Congress.
Under our democratic federated system these groups are mostly represented by the Member Federations for each state and territory.
To facilitate expansion of the Congress, FFA established a consultation process among and between all stakeholders but no unanimous position could be agreed.
During the process the clubs went on record stating their belief that they, in combination with the PFA (which represents around 300 professional/elite level players out of more than a million participants around the country) were entitled to more than 50% of the voting rights in Congress.
All State and Territory Federations, to their credit, were prepared to cede some of their voting power. There remain different views about the precise balance of the Congress.
As a result of the impasse between stakeholders, FFA proposed to FIFA a two-step model by which the Congress would move now to include nine State and Territory Federation representatives, three A-League/W-League representatives (up from one) and one PFA representative of the professional players (currently not represented).
The second stage would firstly expand the Congress further through the Members subsequently voting to include delegates from among the SIGs mentioned above.
The rationale for not including them now was that existing members of Congress believed that no SIG other than the PFA was yet organisationally ready to be admitted to a new Congress. The intention was to conduct a consultative process to identify appropriate SIGs for admission to the Congress.
Secondly and most importantly the second stage would occur after the conclusion of work to determine a new operating model for the A-League.
FFA has strongly accepted and promoted the fact that the time has come to create a new operating model for the A-League that will give clubs more influence, attract more capital into the game, increase the value of the investment made by current owners and allow the league to expand with new clubs to 12 teams in the near future and then to 14 teams and beyond in the years ahead as it becomes financially viable to do so.
Without a new A-League operating model, sustainable expansion of the league will be impossible without diluting the funding to existing owners. Furthermore, dreams of a viable, national second division will remain just that: dreams.
Football Federation Australia chairman Steven Lowy has outlined his vision to the Australian football community for the future of the game in the country.
Lowy's statement in full:
Football in Australia has some important decisions to make over the next few days and weeks.
Will we work together and take Australia’s largest participation sport to a new level of success on the local, national and international stage or will we return to the bad old days of self-interest and suffer the inevitable results?
The question – and its answer - is directly linked to the impending visit by FIFA and AFC representatives to help the game’s stakeholders find a way to expand our representative Congress.
As Chairman of Football Federation Australia, I welcome their support.
As the FIFA/AFC delegation will learn as they speak to football’s various groups, the issue at the heart of the evolution of our Congress is fundamentally about whether football in Australia is managed on behalf of all of those who participate in and love the game or is controlled by narrow interests.
Many of you will recall the chaos in football during the early years of this century.
The game was broke and broken, riven by self-interest and unable to operate a sustainable national league. It took the intervention of the Federal Government and many reformers within the game to change that.
As a result, FFA was formed with a Congress of Members that represented, through a democratic process, almost everyone involved in the game because the Member Federation representatives were themselves elected by stakeholders in their state or territory and these were in turn elected by the grassroots. It also included a representative of the A-League clubs.
The primary function of the Congress is to elect the independent Board of FFA.
With its constitutional framework and with FIFA approval, FFA had responsibility to administer the game – grassroots, professional leagues and national teams - on behalf of all stakeholders.
Improving our performance at international level was an obvious priority but so too was the creation of a viable professional league for men and women, as well as a nationally-coordinated approach to community football and player development.
A dozen years on with a Hyundai A-League now mainstream and continuing to increase in quality and popularity, it’s easy to forget its origins.
The A-League was created by FFA on behalf of the whole football community and is for the benefit of that football community. It was operated then, as it is now, by FFA.
For much of its short history, the A-League has been subsidised by other revenues such as those generated from Socceroos matches and government grants.
FFA granted licences to commercial interests and individuals to operate clubs and they have themselves invested significantly in their licences over the years.
Some clubs and owners have been a part of the competition since its inception, others have come and gone. Some are recent arrivals.
There is absolutely no doubt about the importance of the contribution those club owners, their administrators, coaches and players make to the game.
The same is true of the W-League which this year enters its 10th season – a genuine trailblazer in women’s sport, domestically and internationally.
The game has come a very long way in a relatively short time and many people have had a hand in that success. The simple reality however, is that to achieve greater success there needs to be some change.
FFA believes that the Congress needs to evolve and that any change must benefit all in football, not just the interests of a few.
The A-League club owners want greater representation on the Congress. Professional Footballers’ Australia – the players’ union – and a newly-formed group representing the National Premier League (NPL) clubs also want seats at the table.
In other countries, delegates from what FIFA calls Special Interest Groups (SIGs) such as women’s football, referees, coaches, futsal, players with disabilities, community clubs and many more variations on these, sit on their equivalent of our Congress.
Under our democratic federated system these groups are mostly represented by the Member Federations for each state and territory.
To facilitate expansion of the Congress, FFA established a consultation process among and between all stakeholders but no unanimous position could be agreed.
During the process the clubs went on record stating their belief that they, in combination with the PFA (which represents around 300 professional/elite level players out of more than a million participants around the country) were entitled to more than 50% of the voting rights in Congress.
All State and Territory Federations, to their credit, were prepared to cede some of their voting power. There remain different views about the precise balance of the Congress.
As a result of the impasse between stakeholders, FFA proposed to FIFA a two-step model by which the Congress would move now to include nine State and Territory Federation representatives, three A-League/W-League representatives (up from one) and one PFA representative of the professional players (currently not represented).
The second stage would firstly expand the Congress further through the Members subsequently voting to include delegates from among the SIGs mentioned above.
The rationale for not including them now was that existing members of Congress believed that no SIG other than the PFA was yet organisationally ready to be admitted to a new Congress. The intention was to conduct a consultative process to identify appropriate SIGs for admission to the Congress.
Secondly and most importantly the second stage would occur after the conclusion of work to determine a new operating model for the A-League.
FFA has strongly accepted and promoted the fact that the time has come to create a new operating model for the A-League that will give clubs more influence, attract more capital into the game, increase the value of the investment made by current owners and allow the league to expand with new clubs to 12 teams in the near future and then to 14 teams and beyond in the years ahead as it becomes financially viable to do so.
Without a new A-League operating model, sustainable expansion of the league will be impossible without diluting the funding to existing owners. Furthermore, dreams of a viable, national second division will remain just that: dreams.
