FOOTBALL Federation Australia chairman Steven Lowy has avoided the sack and a FIFA takeover of the local game after the world governing body agreed to lead bitterly divided stakeholders through more negotiations.
Australia’s warring factions had been waiting nervously on the fate of Lowy and his board after the future of the game’s governance was left in FIFA’s hands.
But FFA received a letter overnight in which FIFA allowed for a “Congress Review Working Group” to be established instead of the expected normalisation committee.
An FFA press release read: “FFA will establish a Congress Review Working Group including all relevant Australia stakeholders with direct support from FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation.
“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’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. A resolution to increase representation for the professional game and for women narrowly failed to reach the 75 percent support of Congress members at FFA’s Annual General Meeting on November 30.”
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