Joint Statement from Member Federations, APFCA, PFA and AAFC
23/2/2018

The stakeholders of Australian football have concluded three days of meetings with delegates from FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), intended to expand the Congress, address challenges related to and strengthen the governance of Football Federation Australia (FFA).

Over the last three days, the Member Federations of FFA, Australian Professional Football Clubs Association (APFCA), Professional Footballers Australia (PFA), the Association of Australian Football Clubs (AAFC), along with some Special Interest Groups, had the opportunity to discuss both existing challenges and consider a pathway forward which has resulted in the unanimous support of FIFA and AFC’s recommendation to establish a Congress Review Working Group.

The stakeholders are encouraged by the progress made through the genuine and collective efforts of the last few days, and to continuing to work together and with the FFA, in the best interests of the game.

The stakeholders also indicated their sincere appreciation of the efforts and investment of both FIFA and The AFC to Australian football’s future and look forward to a determination of next steps to be advised by FIFA and the AFC in the coming weeks.

http://www.australianfootballclubs.org.au/news?utm_content=bufferda1d4&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Looks like FIFA maybe didn't take the women's vote Onside bait

Does Steven Lowy have a son?

I remember seeing the video of Sainsbury beering Lowy Jr after Honduras win. 

I havent stalked him but it would seem like those boys are his sons and thus he let him do it in front of them. Only Timmy would have kids that age, dont think they would be Anges or Gallops..... (I may be mistaken). 

I hope so, just to see the meltdown on this forum when they take over from Steven

Anyone seen the tweet that Griffen said at the FIFA meeting that four clubs are a few months away from insolvency?

Sains was trying to drown him, good bloke. Unlucky that he didnt have enough beer

Fuckn love Sains, would produce good bantz out on the piss.

Reckon Davo would be fun too tbh.

Coke lines on FFA credit card? I think so.

Only if a consultant is paid to tell him he can

His shout. He probably has access to the best quality gear too.

Friendly with Colombia coming up.

Nope, have you a link, google found me nothing ?

Rich guys have all the fun. 

There's at least one.. he used to play for Hakoah when I was there.

Roar, Nix, Mariners and Adelaide.  Those four are reliant on numbers not getting any worse.  All the others are on a solid enough footing.  

Ironic that Brisbane is there and Newcastle,  a regional centre is not. Who says regional 'cities' can't work ! 

Exactly the four I would have guessed.
Brisbane Roar because of the Bakries (and playing out of Suncorp with such poor crowds must really be hurting them too), Mariners because Charlesworth has been looking to sell for a while (must see the writing on the wall), Wellington for obvious reasons, and Adelaide because of the way Griffin has been acting these last 12 months.

One thing I am not sure about is why Adelaide would be struggling so much financially. Where exactly is the money going in Adelaide as opposed to a club like Perth, for example? Both have similar crowds, members, stadiums, squad expenditure, etc, yet Adelaide is hurting way more than Perth. Is it down to ownership and administration or have Adelaide been dealt a bad hand with other factors like rent?  

Newcastle has had a chequered history as a club.  Owners haven't made profits.

Sage's pockets are far deeper.

As fantastic as Hindmarsh is, its achilles heel is the corporate situation. There's fuck all besides open air boxes. Also the rent is overs compared to the near 0 Sydney pays at SFS. 

Melbourne (needs an upgrade and maybe a new roof tbh for expansion), CCM, NUJ, Adelaide and Perth have the best stadiums currently.

Not suggesting Griffin would embellish the financial woes of the clubs in order to push his agenda but he appears the only source of these statements to date.

Thats because he is the spokesman of the pro clubs. Hes a lawyer and the FFA really dont like dealing with him.

Roar aren’t anywhere near “insolvency” - the personal wealth of Nirwan Bakrie stretches in to the hundreds of millions of US$. He’s just turned down an offer of $10m and $13m to buy the club and moved out the MD who dared to entertain such discussions.

Roars problems have never been lack of money, it’s been about the local cash flow management and subsequent late transfer of money to solve problems. But how long Nirwan stays interested is debatable but roars average loss over the last two years is $3.6m caused mainly by overspending in salaries, two marquees costing over $1.2m and the Stadiums QLD Sporting Tax which slugged the club over $1m each year (then nearly $1m to rent the stadium).

If there’s 3-4 clubs close to insolvency you can do it by a process of elimination - City, Jets, SFC and Roar are all backed by wealthy owners so they’re not going anywhere as long as the owners stay interested.

WSW and Victory are well run and backed by local wealth.

That leaves CCM, Adelaide, Nix and Glory ??

Where can we find the latest club financial reports? Haven't seen anything but speculation on their finances for quite a while now.

@ Angus

As private companies they are not obliged to publish financial reports. They are treated in the same way your personal tax return is between you and the ATO and no one else.

Historically only Victory have published detailed financial results, all the rest seem to remain anonymous

I understand that, but in previous years we have been provided profit and loss figures, I presume through reporting from the clubs to the FFA. We seemed to know figures a couple of years back. Have they closed down on the information?

Brisbane Roar joined the statement also

Roar chief slams 'sub-standard' referees

February 25 2018 - 4:00PM

Brisbane Roar boss David Pourre isn't happy with the quality of refereeing in the A-League.
Brisbane Roar boss David Pourre isn't happy with the quality of refereeing in the A-League.
Brisbane Roar managing director David Pourre believes poor refereeing in the A-League is "systemic" of governance problems at Football Federation Australia.

Not for the first time this season, the Roar were left seething after a series of what appeared to be clear-cut calls went against them in Saturday's 1-0 defeat to Newcastle.

Nikolai Topor-Stanley pushed over Avraam Papdopulous, whose feet were inside the penalty area, during injury time but neither referee Stephen Lucas or video assistant referee Chris Beath believed it was worthy of a foul.

Coach John Aloisi was also furious that one of the linesmen incorrectly flagged Massimo Maccarone as offside in the second half - something he said happened far too regularly to the veteran Italian striker.

Pourre echoed Aloisi's remarks but went further, slamming A-League referees as "well below standard" and pointing the finger of blame at head office.

"In my opinion as head of the club, I think it's a reflection of the whole situation," Pourre said.

"Our referees are well below standard. The VAR clearly isn't working properly.

"Decisions are made (to not award penalties) when there's clearly evidence that suggests they are penalties, and that's what happened in the second half.

"The linesman, we question why all the time. How hard is it to keep your flag down?

"It's not just one occasion, two occasions - multiple occasions now that linesmen have got offside calls drastically wrong, which do turn a game.

"We experienced such a wonderful game between two quality sides and it gets let down by a referee's decision - not just one, but multiple.

"It's systemic of what's actually happening, I believe, in the FFA."

Aloisi said the decisions had cost the Roar at least a draw against the Jets.

"I usually say it evens itself out over a year but it hasn't. Not yet. Maybe it will," Aloisi said.

"Maybe we might get a sorry this week from (FFA)."

http://www.theherald.com.au/story/5248927/roar-chief-slams-sub-standard-referees/?cs=2439