by Matt Walsh
CANBERRA, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- Football's governing body FIFA has been on a collision course with Australia's football bosses over the way the sport is run in the country.
In an unexpected development, FIFA called Football Federation Australia (FFA) to account over a number of governance issues, including its unwillingness to budge on its voting model, which has put it at odds with the professional clubs in the local A-League.
If the FFA was unable to come to an agreement with all stakeholders, FIFA threatened to install its own board to run football in Australia.
FIFA felt the need to intervene due to the bitter stoush between the FFA and not only the nation's nine professional football clubs, but also the players' union, over the distribution of votes in the FFA Congress.
The current model, whereby the state and territory federations are given nine votes and the clubs just a single, consolidated vote, was created before the professional A-League was created, prompting the clubs to demand a greater say in how the game should be run considering the rise in popularity of the league.
The clubs and the players' union urged for a new 9-5-4-1 model, whereby the state federations would be given their nine votes, the clubs five, the players four and one vote allocated to womens' football - in an effort to encourage more open governance.
For months, however, the FFA had refused, with chairman Steven Lowy saying he's content with the FFA' level of control over the sport in Australia.
Critics had long claimed that the FFA was too Sydney-centric and run by a cabal of Lowy friends and family, while the A-League clubs' discontent was recently exacerbated by the FFA' s refusal to grant additional funding to the growing league.
The months-long stand-off added further pressure on Lowy and even forced FIFA to attend a number of mediation meetings which occurred earlier this month. FIFA had since threatened to bring in its own "normalization committee" to run football in Australia if the FFA and the clubs and players cannot come to an agreement.
On Thursday, and in one last effort to avoid bringing in its own leadership to steward the FFA, FIFA gave the stakeholders in Australian soccer one last chance to mediate and agree to end the governance crisis ahead of the Nov. 30 deadline.
In a letter sent from FIFA secretary general Fatma Samoura to FFA chairman Lowy, the game's governing body urged Lowy to come to a compromise with the clubs and other stakeholders (the states and territories and the players' union) to ensure a deal to be done before FIFA rules to bring in its own board.
"While FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) remain committed to providing you with our continued and full support, the responsibility ... to reach agreement on a consensual membership model lies with FFA and the stakeholders," the letter, dated Aug. 22, said.
"In this context, we look forward to continuing to receive regular updates on the process from FFA."
The FFA has been reluctant to give up its power grip over football in Australia; in the 14 years since the government last intervened in how the sport is run, just 12 people have been voted into the FFA board - with just one of those positions being contested.
Lowy took over the chairman's role after his father Frank stepped down, and he too was unopposed.
The FFA was expected to come up with a resolution after its annual general meeting to be held before the November 30 deadline set by FIFA.
