FIFA starts planning for FFA takeover
Sep 15, 2017 - 3:50 AM FIFA has started planning for the 'normalisation committee' that will run Australian soccer if there is no resolution to Football Federation Australia's congress saga by the November 30 deadline.AAP understands the world governing body has identified and approached at least one prospective member in recent weeks for the temporary panel that could replace FFA chairman Steven Lowy and his board.
The person is Australian, going some way to allaying fears FIFA could put overseas administrators in charge with no knowledge of the sport's domestic intricacies and issues.
FIFA would not comment when asked to confirm if it had begun speaking to potential normalisation committee members.
"As a general rule we do not comment on such matters," a FIFA spokesperson told AAP.
However, appointing locals instead of bringing in outsiders would be consistent with FIFA's prior behaviour.
The sport's world governing body usually looks to former lawyers, politicians or businesspeople from that country - often with a background in the administration of soccer, the Olympics or other sports - when installing normalisation committees.
Cameroon, Argentina and Guinea have all seen such interventions from FIFA in the past 18 months.
In any event, a normalisation committee would be an interim measure, tasked with overseeing reform to FFA's congress and running the sport's daily affairs before holding fresh elections in which none of its members could stand in.
With two months until the FIFA-imposed deadline, it is becoming an increasingly real proposition.
Talks are continuing among the three stakeholders - the A-League clubs, state federations and Professional Footballers Australia - to find consensus on how an expanded congress should be structured.
But the A-League clubs hold the whip hand and can simply stall to achieve their desired outcome of regime change at FFA.
The latest proposal from the nine state federations, for a 9-4-1-1 split of votes, has been rejected by the clubs and PFA because it would mean the states still have the power to elect FFA board members on their own.
Source: AAP
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