Fifa bid to defuse power struggle
– Fifa has declined to take over the governance of Australian football and will instead work with the country’s embattled federation to end a long-running power struggle.
Football Federation Australia failed to pass governance reforms by a Fifa deadline last week, paving the way for football’s world governing body to install a “normalisation committee” to run the local game.
But the FFA said yesterday it would form a working group with Fifa and the Asian Football Confederation in a bid to break a
Melbourne
deadlock over the reform of the federation’s Congress, which elects members to the executive board.
“Fifa’s Members Association Committee made the decision to support the establishment of the working group at its recent meeting in Zurich where FFA’s efforts to expand its representative Congress were discussed,” the FFA said in a statement.
“Officials from Fifa and the AFC will travel to Australia in the New Year to work with FFA and other stakeholders to agree terms of reference for the group including objectives, composition, mandate and timeline.”
Fifa had demanded Australia reform its Congress to make it more democratic but a proposal brought by FFA chairman Steven Lowy failed to pass at its annual general meeting last week.
“Fifa’s ruling gives all of us a chance to take a fresh look at how the Congress can best represent the Australian football community, with the direct involvement of Fifa and AFC officials in that process,” he said.
The FFA have been at loggerheads with clubs over the make-up of its 10-member Congress. – Reuters