Australian football was heading towards disaster, says Fozz

Steven Lowy's decision to resign from his role as FFA chairman in November was an inevitable one, according to SBS chief football analyst Craig Foster.

Foster insisted Australian football had been "heading towards disaster" under Lowy's leadership for quite some time, before citing the congress review working group report as the game's only saving grace.

"Unfortunately in the end it's a sad ending, but an inevitable one," Foster said during a special reaction podcast.

"We don't like to talk our professional game down but there are a lot of questions around it that need to be solved right now and this change process is going to be fundamental to that.

"It hasn't worked for quite some years, it's cost a tremendous amount of money that can be spent better, more cleverly, with better research and better thinking.

"When the congress review working report went in, my feeling was: 'OK, now we are really going to get somewhere in the next 10 years'.

"The only way to save the game is to open it up to smart people and get it out of the very few hands of the Lowy family and their close confidante and business associates."
Foster surmised that Lowy's subsequent demise had a direct correlation with his father's (Frank Lowy) inability to transition the game to a democratic model before his retirement in 2015.

"It's quite easy to say: 'well we've spent $800 million on a new professional league and that's better than what existed before' - I don't think it's difficult to run that argument.

"I'd prefer the argument: 'we've spent $800 million on a professional league, have we done an outstanding job?'.

"If you've got enough money, it's not difficult to build a new professional league. What's difficult is to build a new professional league and properly engage the past. 

"What's difficult is to build a new professional league and respect all of your history and keep that generation on board with your new professional game, rather than alienate them.

"When the congress review working group report went in, that was when Steven would have known that his reign - and that's probably an appropriate term - was over.

"When Steven realised or knew or was advised that FIFA would back the review working group report ... he knows that [his position] is completely untenable now."

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3 min read
Published 17 August 2018 6:43pm
Source: SBS The World Game


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