By TERRY MADDAFORD
Soccer Australia's tenuous hold on the reins of power have come under attack in a damning 91-page report.
After 74 meetings and considering 230 written submissions, the Federal Government has called for the immediate resignation of Soccer Australia's board.
Among the recommendations of the David Crawford-driven report is a
call for the struggling NSL to be reconstituted as an independent competition.
This may have repercussions for the Football Kingz, who will need a new Soccer New Zealand/Fifa-backed licence to continue beyond the 2003-04 season.
In his A$400,000 report, Crawford, a corporate insolvency expert, called for the seven-man board headed by chairman Remo Nogarotto to be replaced by an interim six-member board led by 72-year-old Frank Lowy, boss of the Westfield group.
The new board, which would also include advertising guru John Singleton and Melbourne businessman Ron Walker, would run the game until a new constitution was formalised in 2005.
In another radical move, the voting power would alter dramatically.
The old structure of 29 members with 61 votes would be slashed to 17 members with one vote each.
New South Wales would have three votes - down from eight - Queensland two (from five) and Victoria one (down from seven).
Northern NSW would lose all five of its votes and the NSL would have its 16 votes cut to one.
Crawford said Australia's 618,000 players had been failed badly by the power structure.
His committee, which included former Socceroo captain Johnny Warren, produced 53 recommendations designed to dismantle a voting system tarnished by deal-making and self-interest, and replace it with a streamlined electoral process free of vested interests.
Lowy is seen as the catalyst for reform. He helped to establish the NSL in 1977, but a decade later left the game, disillusioned, after pulling his beloved Sydney City out of the league.
Lowy yesterday confirmed his willingness to chair an interim board.
"I am prepared to be involved with the express purpose of driving through important changes within the sport."
Soccer Australia has agreed on a timetable to deal with the report.
A planning forum is scheduled for May 10, followed by an extraordinary general meeting "as soon as practicable" after that to implement the changes.
