On Saturday, 5
August 2017, Mr Steven Lowy, Chairman of Football Federation
Australia, issued the following statement about the issues relating
to the FFA congress.
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 Westfield 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 Hyundai 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.
FFA agrees on the
principle of a new operating model but the work on this important
change should be carried out collaboratively with the A-League clubs
with the right spirit of cooperation including assessing the impact
on the rest of the game and not under threats of taking the issue
into a courtroom.
Despite support from
80% of existing Congress members – a minimum of 75% was needed
under FIFA rules and Australian law – the FIFA committee did not
accept the two-stage model, and the clubs hardened their position.
The clubs made it clear that unless they were satisfied they would
not accept the validity of a special resolution even if it were
passed by the requisite number of members required by law. Instead
they would lobby FIFA for the imposition of a normalisation committee
by FIFA and the removal of the independent FFA board.
Whatever the final
makeup flowing from the impending discussions with FIFA, it will be
critical to maintain a balance of interests amongst the various
groups.
For its part FFA is
open to exploring appropriate and balanced alternatives. Without
balance in the Congress, the independence of the FFA Board and the
chance of further evolution of the Congress will be threatened.
This principle
extends to every aspect of the administration of football in
Australia. The grassroots, professional leagues and national teams
form an ecosystem - they are interconnected and interdependent. None
can thrive without the others. This means that every part of the game
must continue to benefit from growth in commercial revenue as part of
our cycle of 4 Year strategic plans which in turn follow the 20 Year
Whole of Game vision released in 2015.
The A-League,
including distributions to club owners, this year will receive about
60% of FFA’s financial resources – up from 50% five years ago.
This weight of investment in the A-League has been a strategic
decision by FFA in order to underpin the investment of club owners in
their own clubs. But club owners have made no secret of their demands
for more power, and more money. They seek an independent league, run
by them for their benefit.
Their clubs are
commercial, for-profit businesses, intended to generate a return on
their investment. FFA has no issue with that.
But it’s worth
noting that more than half of the clubs are wholly or majority owned
by foreign individuals and organisations with little or no connection
to Australian community football or our national teams.
The clubs’ claims
of how much money they have lost is exaggerated, and I dispute that
it has been “lost.” A common feature of football leagues around
the world is that clubs lose money in the short-term with the
objective of their investment increasing over the long term –
investors understand this. It is no different here. If those licences
are one day sold, there is little likelihood those profits will then
be reinvested in the game in Australia.
Five years ago,
clubs received cash distributions of $1.2 million each year from FFA;
this year that has risen to $3.55 million – a three-fold increase.
Further, much more is spent directly by FFA on the A-League, covering
items like team travel.
During the recent
process, the clubs originally asked for $6 million a year each in
cash – choosing not to accept the impact on FFA’s capacity to
give more without cutting off funding grants to the rest of the game
– the grassroots and national teams.
Increasing the
distribution to $6 million per year, per club, would result in the
A-League’s share of FFA’s resources rising from the current 60%
to 80%. This would slash the amount available for the rest of the
game from $47 million to $23 million.
Would a proud
sporting nation like Australia tolerate such a drastic cut?
Especially now with the recent stellar performance of the Matildas in
the US and ranked 7th in the world; and the Socceroos poised to
compete in their fourth successive World Cup tournament? Would it
tolerate our junior international teams, and football development,
being starved of resources? This is an area that is in genuine need
of greater resources to underpin our future success.
Today, the quality
of the A-League has never been higher, and club memberships, crowds
and broadcast numbers continue to improve.
Last year, in a
difficult and competitive broadcast market, FFA negotiated the best
broadcasting deal football has ever seen.
Serious investors
and major international football entities have expressed interest in
investing in an expanded A-League.
It is a fact that
the A-League is the key economic driver of the game, something which
is acknowledged in FFA’s long-term strategy which has deliberately
redirected greater resources to the league.
But FFA believes
that Australian football should never be carved up to serve sectional
interests. We want to see all parts of the game succeed, not one at
the expense of the others.
And we would like to
achieve consensus on the Congress, but with multiple stakeholders all
representing legitimate interests, unanimous agreement may not be
achievable. However, a level of consensus that equates to a clear
majority in favour of a balanced, expanded Congress is certainly
achievable.
So, that is the
heart of the discussion that will take place among the game’s
stakeholders and FIFA/AFC over the next week.
Will the sport
continue to be governed by an independent custodian with an
obligation to nurture and protect the entire game in the balanced
interests of its many stakeholders or split along self-interested
lines?
The outcome is
likely to have a profound effect on football for years to come.
Football can have it
all – a popular, financially stable and growing A-League; a
flourishing grassroots and national and club teams that are routinely
competitive on the global stage.
I am proud to be
Chairman of FFA and of our board. We are involved for no other reason
than to serve our country and see football continue to grow, prosper
and build on the huge gains of the past 13 years and to honour the
legacy of those who served the game for decades before that.
With goodwill and
maturity from all within the game in the coming weeks we can secure
future success on behalf of all who truly love our beautiful game.
Steven Lowy AM
Chairman, Football
Federation Australia
