FIFA joins talks in push for second tier A-League comp

A-LEAGUE expansion may be officially on the way but the lobby group pushing for a national second division is intent on making sure its ambitions stay firmly on FIFA’s radar.

Hostilities will resume in Australian football’s ongoing civil war this week with a series of meetings that should signify the start of the end of the sport’s long-running governance deadlock.

Two FIFA officials – Nodar Akhalkatsi and Luca Nicola – and the Asian Football Confederation’s Ravi Kumar, have jetted into Sydney for three days of talks at Football Federation Australia headquarters.

Their purpose is to help set up a ‘congress review working group’, which will be tasked with widening the Australian federation’s congress.

The governing body’s last attempt at doing so was voted down at November’s annual general meeting.

Instead of making good on their threats to replace FFA chairman Steven Lowy and his board with a ‘normalisation committee’, the international soccer body decided to make one more visit to try to force a diplomatic solution.

Today, the FIFA and the Asian confederation’s delegates will meet with the special interest groups seeking a seat in an expanded congress. They include referees, coaches, women’s football and support- ers, as well as the Association of Australian Football Clubs, which released a blueprint for a national second tier drawn from state-league clubs last year. The Australian association’s chairman Rabieh Krayem said he spoke with FFA about their model, which it hopes will be up and running by October 2019.