FIFA has announced the terms of reference for a Working Group to review football’s representative Congress in Australia.

Football Federation Australia (FFA) Chairman Steven Lowy AM welcomed receipt of the terms of reference and said FFA looked forward to working with FIFA, the Asian Football Confederation and all Australian football stakeholders to expand the Congress.

“FFA supports expansion of the Congress to reflect the evolution of football in Australia and balance the interests of each part of the game. This should include significant movement towards gender equality at all levels of governance,” he said.

“FFA also welcomes the reference to governance of the Hyundai A-League because we want to work with the clubs and other stakeholders on a new ownership and operating model for the League that will benefit the whole of the game.”



https://www.ffa.com.au/news/fifa-announces-terms-reference-congress-review-working-group

So nothing yet has really been announced. 

FFA not sayin’ anything lol

FIFA has outlined what the temporary 'Working Group' will look like as the governing body attempts to solve the long-running FFA governance crisis.

FIFA's ruling on FFA's congress-crisis involves a temporary 'Working Group', which will convene to broker a permanent power-sharing solution among Australian football's key stakeholders

.FIFA's eight-seat 'Working Group' will consist of:
Four seats for member federations
Two seats for club representatives
One seat for a Professional Footballer's Association (PFA) representative
One seat for an Independent Chairperson.

The group will convene on July 31 and hold their first Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) in early September.

At this stage there doesn't appear to be a seat for the Australian Professional Football Club's Association (AFPCA) - the general representative body for A-League clubs. Which member federations will be included in the four seats available also remains unclear.

The 'Working Group' was set by FIFA as a temporary solution to the ongoing stoush between FFA and A-League club owners, who are seeking greater input into football's governance in Australia.

This is in response to ongoing concerns over the top-down power structure in Australian football, with FIFA previously acknowledging that Australia comprises an "un-democratic" system.

Due to FFA's inability to reach a power-sharing agreement with the A-League clubs, FIFA announced they would be implementing a 'Working Group' to bring all parties together to find a solution

However, the current makeup could still leave power in the hands of the four member federations, assuming they can side with one of the other groups.

The only details available for the independent chair, as provided by FIFA, are that whoever the appointment is, they can't have a pre-existing relationship with FFA.

 They must also have a previous background in sports governance and mediation.More to come...

Interestingly the chair can have no involvement with FFA 

Still hiding behind the womens vote as gender equality. What a prick.

We knew it was gonna be a long drawn out process. Lets be honest.

If I could pick a chair it would be Nick Tana...

What a farce. The Group convening at the end of the July and the EGM in September. Ridiculous. 

But this set up doesn't even hint at an outcome horizon

on the bright side, AFPCA will be mighty pissed off so we can look forward to them ramping it 

Will be the only interesting thing in Australian Football for the next couple of years now.

Don't worry about Frank going toes up to break the impasse

I'll be dead before this country gets it's act  together

Who picks which 4 Feds  ?

Who picks the Chair ?

What's a 'club rep' ?

I'd imagine the State federations would pick the four ... or it would be the four largest federations.

FIFA appoints the Chair

The Club's I'd imagine pick their rep too

Would the club reps be one for A-League clubs and one for NPL clubs?

If its the 4 biggest Federations its FNSW, FQld, FFV and NNSWF in that order which gives too much east coast bias.  I'd expect one or two of the smaller Federations to get a seat.

We need Capital Football in there, just so we get regular sms updates from all the private meetings 👍

I'd like Jack Reilly to chair this group. He absolutely professional.

Ex FFA Board member.  I think his much touted opinion on what should happen to football would bar him from being an independent chair.

So the EGM in September is it - that presumably changes the constitution for the new Congress, this will be in time for the November AGM. So all done and dusted by Christmas

“The working group will include four representatives of the state federations, two from the A-League clubs, one from Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) and one FFA board member.

It will be left among them to decide the identity of the independent chair by a unanimous vote. FIFA, however, has instructed that the person must have a strong track record in legal and governance issues, preferably in sport, and experience in mediation and negotiation“

http://www.news.com.au/sport/football/independent-chairperson-to-lead-eightmember-panel-tasked-by-fifa-with-fixing-ffa/news-story/8a1acd1409dd744e3a3eb6589a9f6faa

The member feds that voted down the congress are a minority of feds. They will be squeezed out of that 4.

The independent chair will not be independent.

FFA already has the working group stacked in their favour. Fuck this, the game is up.

@ Bohemia

We’ll see but I don’t think it is.

One of NSWs and VIC have to get on there by virtue of their size, my guess would be NSWs. That puts 4 votes against the FFA

The independent chair has to be unanimous so it won’t be an FFA man, although a Lowy’s tentacles stretch far so FIFA will have to watch that. But even if s/he is at worst/best it’s a 4/4 tie ...

FIFA is blind as a bat. They let a Gallop and Co employee walk straight in and pitch for the women's vote. 


After all the crap Lowy has done to get the process this far do you think organising a Lowy plant as chair is a tough task? Fuck me he'll just pull one out of the drawer in his home office. 

@ Bohemia

I hear you, as I say the best lowy can get is three compliant states and influence over the chair. He’s locked at 4-4 on a voting basis ... next stop normalisation if that happens and things can’t move forward.

Anyone who knows Jack Reilly would know that he stood up to Frank Lowy.

He doesn’t toe the Lowy line.

I believe he was called a liar by Frank Snr

I think Foster would make a good chair. Love him or hate him he genuinely has the games best interest at heart. 

And has mediation/sports governance experience through the PFA

same article but with a video of fozz digging his boot into fifa for fucking around too much

https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/article/2018/04/04/independent-chair-lead-ffa-reform

actual fifa statement

http://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/news/y=2018/m=4/news=fifa-s-bureau-of-the-council-establishes-congress-review-working-group-for-footb.html

"The CRWG will conclude its mandate and submit its proposal to FIFA and the AFC by 31 July 2018. The proposal will be subsequently submitted for adoption to an FFA Special General Meeting by no later than 7 September 2018."

Foster with his push for Southern Expansion would not be popular in Wollongong. How about Mal Hemmerling