Former youth star Johnson closing on Schwab to replace Gallop as FFA chief

The race to become FFA’s new CEO is going down to the wire, with former Joey turned international football powerbroker James Johnson closing the gap on the nominal front-runner, world athletes union chief Brendan Schwab.

A final decision won’t be made by a reconstituted FFA board until after Thursday’s AGM to allow two yet-to-be elected directors to peruse the bona fides of the favoured candidates to succeed David Gallop.

Despite recent reports suggesting that Switzerland-based Schwab - executive director of the World Players Association - is in the box seat, it’s understood former Australian youth international Johnson, the City Football Group’s senior vice-president of external affairs, is breathing down his neck.

Manchester-based Johnson has strong support on the board, with his contacts within FIFA and the AFC, where he held senior positions, viewed as ticks in his favour, as well as his skin in the game as a former player whose career was ultimately cut short by injury.

An appointment is likely to be finalised early next week once the two new board members are announced.

None of the candidates - Shane Healy, Robyn FitzRoy, Carla Wilshire and John Marinopoulos - will resonate with football followers.

Former 3AW chief Healy, who held a PR role with the Catholic church during George Pell's child sex abuse case, is favoured, along with FitzRoy, who heads up a board governance consultancy firm.

However Wilshire, chief executive of the Migration Council Australia, is making a late push to pip Healy for the post.

The momentum for Johnson centres around the depth of his experience across the globe.

Having been a member of the Joeys squad which reached the final of the 1999 FIFA U-17 World Cup, the Queenslander is intimate with Australia’s youth development pathways and is seen as well placed to recalibrate the game’s grassroots.

He was FIFA’s Head of Professional Football during six years in Zurich and had a leading role in shaping the current transfer system, as well as helping pioneer the formation of the World Leagues Forum, an umbrella organisation for clubs across the planet.

Ironically, Johnson was once a lawyer at the PFA, the Australian players union formerly piloted by its co-founder Schwab.

His ties with CFG stretch back 11 months, and with the A-League now in independence mode after splitting with FFA any perceived conflict of interest would become redundant.

Schwab, who also commands a significant level of backing, left Australia in 2012, having played a role in the blueprint which ultimately became the A-League and has gone on to become executive director for the union which represents all players and athletes in professional sport.

In addition to the directors in waiting, the five existing board members involved in the recruitment process are former Socceroo Mark Bresciano, Amy Duggan, chair Chris Nikou, Joseph Carrozzi and Remo Nogarotto, with vice-chair Heather Reid due to return to the board for Thursday’s meeting after a leave of absence due to illness.


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3 min read
Published 19 November 2019 1:45pm
By Dave Lewis

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