World poised to take over

A FIFA takeover of Australian football appears nearly inevitable after yesterday’s lastditch stakeholder talks again failed to produce a resolution for governance reform.

Yet Football Federation Australia chief executive David Gallop remains “cautiously optimistic” a deal can still get done, amid a revelation FFA may be able to postpone its annual general meeting right up until FIFA’s November 30 deadline.

An all-day stakeholder meeting in Melbourne was viewed as the final hope of achieving consensus on an ex- panded congress model before today, declared by chairman Steven Lowy as the latest practical date to get the change implemented before the world governing body installs its own temporary committee.

However, none of the three parties — the A-League clubs, players’ union and state federations — was willing to stray from their preferred make-up of votes.

Despite months of brinkmanship and bitterness, the impasse remains at a standstill and, with time ticking away, FIFA may have no choice but to remove Lowy and his board.

FFA’s annual meeting is scheduled for November 15 but an extraordinary general meeting must be held more than 21 days prior to pass a resolution enabling the admission of new voting members.

Gallop said all wasn’t lost. “Clearly off the pitch, there are big unresolved issues.

“But we remain cautiously optimistic that those issues will be put to bed and we can settle into the first round of the ALeague and W-League with the focus firmly on what happens within the white lines over 90 minutes each week,” Gallop said. AAP