FIFA, AFC meet to end Socceroos dispute

Sydney, August 8: The future of Australian football enters a crucial phase as a joint FIFA-Asian Football Confederation (AFC) delegation arrives this week in Sydney for talks aimed at ending a bitter power struggle that has plunged the domestic game into crisis.

The governing Football Federation Australia (FFA) has been at loggerheads with the country's 10 professional A-League clubs, and come under pressure from FIFA, to expand membership of its 10-member Congress into a more democratic model.

The Congress, which elects the FFA board, has representatives of the country's nine states and territories but just one delegate for all 10 clubs in the top-flight A-League and none representing the players.

The FFA have proposed a 13-member Congress, offering two additional votes to the clubs and one for the players, but this has been rejected by both the clubs and FIFA.

The clubs, who say they generate 80 per cent of revenues for football in Australia, want at least five seats but the FFA, led by chairman Steven Lowy and CEO David Gallop, have dug their heels in.

Lowy has been vocal about his distrust of the clubs' intentions and, like his billionaire father Frank Lowy, who was chairman before him, has rejected calls to allow an independent commission run the A-League.

The FFA had tweeted on its official account the full text of Lowy's message to the Australian football community.

.@FFA Chairman Steven Lowy AM has an important message for the Australian football community - https://t.co/Gwudg8XnMf pic.twitter.com/w6UDaY0s5c

— Football Australia (@FFA) August 4, 2017

Apart from more Congress votes, the clubs have also demanded more money from the FFA.

The clubs have demanded up to A$6 million, a figure the FFA has said would damage the grass roots of the game and cut deeply into funding to the national teams.

With the dispute rumbling on throughout the year, the FIFA-AFC delegation is set to arrive to hold talks with local stakeholders over the next two days in Sydney in a bid to end the impasse.

Without resolution by a November 30 deadline, FIFA will disband the FFA board and install a 'normalisation committee' that would effectively take over governance of the sport.