FFA Governance

With a truly independent chair, and those specific terms of reference, you have to assume big changes are afoot. 

There's this family called the Lowys...

Cricket Australia is looking for a new CEO. #justsayin'

Please Gallop/Lowy/Fox Sports, go!

Next year will be much better - All singing from same song sheet

https://www.foxsports.com.au/football/a-league/robbie-slater-rift-between-ffa-and-aleague-clubs-must-be-put-aside-for-good-of-the-game/news-story/bf95777828010f221ca90d1692cfd6c6

Robbie Slatter who last week entered the fight for Sydney now says play fair.  442 pundits now agee Wgtn should be left in for 2 years as the public spat is devaluing the league. (Was it not Gollop who released he had meet with Rob over options but did not clearly state what was going on) Blame APFC of getting FIFA in.

FFA works on Expansion with out input from the 10 clubs, hold back funds after promising moon beams during TV right negotiation.

Stevens view on CRWG

Then there's the next phase of crisis talks over the game's governance, instigated by FIFA, soon to be overseen by an independent mediator.

Lowy said he was hopeful rather than confident it would be resolved.

"I'm hopeful it will be resolved with a fresh approach, with a result the game can go forward with," he said.

"Having an independent chair going through and trying to break through these issues is a fair way to go about it."

Association of Australian Football Clubs Get to talk with CRWG

Wheels are finally fudgeing turning. We’re all watching the upcoming collision in slo-mo: CRWg recommendation to override illegitimate FFA HAL expansion. 

30 June 2018 | Bonita Mersiades

So many have talked and written about the lack of a striker or strikers, or Bert van Marwijk’s selections, or his reluctance to make any substantial change to his starting line-up from the first game, but most people who watch football closely in this country would not really be surprised at where things ended for us at the 2018 World Cup.

Some might even say they were surprised we got there in the first place.

That’s not a reflection on the Socceroos under Ange Postecoglou, but it is a reflection on the view of many that our elite development just hasn’t been up to scratch for some years. Some have been saying it for years; and it’s pleasing to see that now almost everyone with a keyboard is finally thinking the same way also.

And so it proved to be. We travelled farther, played more games and more minutes than any other participant at the World Cup, and we were the last to qualify.

While many attempted to sheet the blame home to Postecoglou and his tinkering with formation to achieve a more attacking approach, and what some unfairly (and incorrectly) refer to as his existentialist grief about his role, the fact is many coaches and former players were of the view as long as nine years ago that Australia dropped the ball on elite player development and we would inevitably face the consequences. On this basis, it's all credit to Postecoglou and the players for making it to Russia 2018 in the first place.

It is also not to take anything away from the current crop of Socceroos players. No-one can question their effort, their commitment, their willingness to leave nothing out on the park, or the fact that they bleed green and gold. But it was many of these players who did not benefit from the type of elite player development that had previously been available in Australia.

We have also not made the two most recent Under 20 World Cups, the 2016 Olympics or the most recent Under 17 World Cup.

Player development

The die was cast when FFA cancelled the National Youth League in 2004 as a cost-cutting measure. What followed was nothing. A void for more than four years.

Australia’s most successful youth coach, Les Scheinflug, described the decision to stop the national youth league as “… probably the most short-sighted decision” taken by the then new Lowy administration.

If players reach their peak between 25 and 30 years of age – and obviously there are outliers both ways – then Australian players in that age range today would have been between 11 and 16 years when the National Youth League was cut.

With no youth league, no national second division and no A-League academies in place, it left potentially elite players limited opportunity to play or develop their game.

To make matters worse, there has been constant tinkering with the Australian Institute of Sport program, described by Ray Gatt in The Australian as a “massive breeding ground” for Australia’s top players, and it is now closed altogether.

Eventually, FFA reintroduced a small national youth league in 2008 based around the A-League clubs only. The clubs and the structures, such as the AIS, that had nurtured the players were left out on a limb – discarded as surplus to requirements by FFA.

In 2012, in response to an increasing concern about the lack of player depth, as well as growing unrest amongst the community-based clubs who had helped build the sport in Australia, FFA announced the establishment of the paradoxically named National Premier League (NPL) competition, with a specific objective to improve elite player development for both men and women.

Five years on, NPL clubs are of the view that the inconsistent implementation of the NPL by state federations and the poor-to-no resourcing of it from FFA has diluted clubs’ effectiveness and capacity to support that objective. In fact, the money goes the other way, with NPL clubs contributing almost $9 million ‘up the line’ to state federations and the FFA every year.

In their own recent five-year review of the NPL, the Association of Australian Football Clubs (AAFC) determined that there are:

too many levels of NPL competition

too many NPL clubs, some of whom have no experience or expertise in elite player development yet are required to deliver on it

conflicting priorities with A-League academies who are able to pick ‘the best of the best’ which further dilutes the number of genuinely elite players at NPL clubs
insufficient quality players in regional areas, and

the training compensation system isn’t working.

A national second division to underpin and complement the A-League is urgently needed to provide more opportunity for more players as an important strategy of elite player development.

Participation

To compound this failure of development, the pool of players is getting relatively smaller according to data released earlier this month by the Australian Sports Commission.

While the good news is that the number of participants aged 5-14 years in both indoor and outdoor football (total 663,400) has increased by almost one-third from 2012 to 2014, the proportion of 5-14 year olds playing football (participation rate) has declined from 24.2% to 21.9% for boys and from 7.4% to 5.9% for girls in that time. The overall participation rate has declined from 16% to 14.1%. (The rate of decline in girls' participation helps explain the high priority in relation to the 'turbo-charge' solution of the 2023 Women's World Cup bid).

By way of comparison, the participation rate for Australian Rules football in the same period has increased from 8.1% to 8.8%.

Time for change

I have written about the time for change in governance of the game in Australia for years – and have been criticised roundly for daring to do so by many – but more than anything these two failures of development and participation reflect the game’s governance.

Most football associations around the world do not run their sport as well as their domestic national league. The focus on running the ‘business’ side of the game as Tony Tannous referred to here, as opposed to what is needed to keep the game running, has been to the detriment of football.

It may have been appropriate in 2004, when FFA was re-fashioning the domestic league but the business model of building the shop front – ie. the A-League – and assuming that the quantity and quality of players would automatically materialise is not sustainable. The business model has to change to encompass domestic player development.

The fact that most FFA Board members and Member Federations have failed to challenge this orthodoxy over the past 15 years – just as they failed to ask questions about the use of taxpayers’ money in their name – is an indictment on all of them.

It’s not just time for change at the highest levels of football in Australia, it’s time for almost everyone who has been at the top table to go.

This is why the work of the Congress Review Working Group, headed by Judith Griggs, is so important. It is not merely about who’s in charge in the Board room; or how many stakeholders are represented at Congress – the wider the group, the better; or the management personnel and structure at FFA; but about ensuring the right set of people are in place for three different, but important and inter-related priorities over the next 15-20 years:

To lead development of the game, rather than just building a shop front – the FFA Board;

To build and shape the A-League and a national second division – a separate A-League/Championship entity or entities; and

To constantly challenge those who are the custodians of the game in an open, transparent and accountable manner on behalf of all of us – the FFA Congress.

http://footballtoday.news/features/a-failure-of-good-governance-has-brought-us-to-this-point

Guessing begins - CRWG

Would love to see much wider representation. NZF in need of reform too. 

Restless Ozzies

Missed Chances

AND Commonsense "The FFA don’t get a seat - they’re not a stakeholder"
 

Intra-Loans Apply Here

More Stupid - Scrap the Cap to help under 23 players - PFA

"A working group featuring representatives from the A-League clubs, Football Federation Australia and Professional Footballers Australia has been formed to discuss all possibilities."   

With the playing agreement due to end at season close 18/19. Not much will happen until CRWG and FIFA make change.

If the clubs get to run the league, scrapping the cap could be a likely outcome.

No cap just means that there's no upper limit on what you can spend, it doesn't stop you from spending the bare minimum if that's what you want. But you can bet your last dollar that the Melbournes and the Sydneys of the league will want to be able to spend unhindered by the cap, and they'll be doing their very best to convince the others to get on board.

Yes, they would, and it's exactly why they'd want it.

Please explain.  If this were to happen, CCM, Newcastle and us would be battling relegation as I can't see Welnix pissing into the wind big time ala the Qatari owners of MCFC.

DDS Loan Rule has a long tale

Let me clarify my comment - I was saying that the Melbournes/Sydneys will want no cap because it will increase the advantage that they already have, not that Welnix would be keen on this idea.

In an ideal world, no cap would mean that external investors would be more interested in putting money into A-League clubs. Whether this would actually happen is up for debate, of course. It could always go the other way - where investors are put off because they're competing with the likes of mega-rich City.

CRWG review report due at FIFA 31 July. 

Is the Chairperson on the plane or is it just a FAX.

FFA been in full 'acquiescence' mode of late: "sure we can have pro/rel, national 2nd division, U23 player loans" etc

More input from thinkers

Must be close Unfounded rumours begin - 442insider

New.com

The World Game

So according to reports the "FFA are trying a last ditch attempt to derail this process."

"last ditch" . they mean "since forever"

Unplug the FAX quick     "FFA are trying a last ditch attempt to derail this process."

Fox Sport Kick In

This is finally coming to a head. Clock ticking. 

The Guardian

S Lowy has Toys ready to throw

EDIT:  "FFA is also unhappy that the structure of the congress working group does not account for the views of the state federations who are not part of it."  

Back up the Bus The State Federations have no say?

Congress Review Working Group

AFPCA:

Gregg Griffin

Simon Pearce

Federations:

Football New South Wales

Football Federation South Australia

Football Federation Victoria

Football West (Western Australia)

PFA:

Brendan Schwab  

FFA:

Chris Nikou  

Chairman:

Judith Griggs  

"An amendment to FFA’s constitution is required to pass the changes, which means 75% of the current 10-member congress must vote in favour. FFA has convinced Capital Football and Football Federation Northern Territory to vote against it, and they are believed to be supported by at least one other state federation. Those three votes are enough to block the changes."

As they did at the last EGM, they bribed them at the last minute.

http://www.australianfootballclubs.org.au/news

The Guardian Roles out the options/opinions