Frank Lowy ... 'What's required is that he runs the game. I recognise that, and I welcome it.' Source: News Limited
Frank Lowy has pledged to allow incoming Football Federation Australia CEO David Gallop the freedom to run the sport, and says he will be "ecstatic" to be not as deeply involved in its administration.
After almost a decade where he was often seen as a de facto executive chairman, Lowy said that "blueprint is in place".
On the day Gallop officially took on the role as successor to Ben Buckley, Lowy said that with the game at a "watershed moment", it was appropriate for the former NRL boss to oversee a period of consolidation to build on this season's A-League momentum.
With a new broadcast deal to be unveiled in days, the new CEO takes over at a point of unprecedented resources, with crowds and TV ratings surging thanks to the arrival of marquee stars such as Alessandro Del Piero.
Gallop spoke at his first press conference of sensing that "the game is in an execution rather than creation of new strategies phase", and Lowy agreed that he and the board were happy to see this happen.
"I'll be ecstatic to do that," Lowy said.
"I have a day job, in fact two or three major things to do. What's required is that he (Gallop) runs the game. I recognise that, and I welcome it.
"I think David was right - we know how the A-League is going, we know how the Socceroos are going forward, and I think we'll qualify for the World Cup. We know we need to bring young players into the Socceroos and there are plans in place for that.
"The blueprint is there, it needs to be implemented now. There are some issues to deal with but with the arrival of David, the broadcast deal, and the momentum we have this season and the marquee players, I think we're in good shape."
In a speech welcoming Gallop, Lowy had said this was the year football finally made the connection with the mainstream sporting audience in Australia.
| P | W | D | L | GD | Pts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Central Coast | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 13 |
| 2 | Adelaide | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 13 |
| 3 | Newcastle | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 12 |
| 4 | Perth | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 10 |
| 5 | Victory | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | -4 | 9 |
| 6 | Heart | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 7 |
| 7 | Western Sydney | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | -1 | 7 |
| 8 | Sydney | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | -7 | 6 |
| 9 | Wellington | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | -2 | 5 |
| 10 | Brisbane | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | -1 | 4 |
Lowy said he believed the sport had reached a point where stories of the teams's fortunes were the major discussion, rather than the future of football itself.
"Hallelujah!" he said.
"After seven or eight years, I believe this is a watershed moment. We can talk about football, and not the establishment of football. Our priorities now are consolidation and sustainability.
"Of course we have the Asian Cup here in just over two years, which will be a big event that's being planned for. But that is a one-off thing."
Having appointed his third CEO from outside the game, Lowy felt the need to again defend the football credentials of his board, arguing that he, deputy chairman Brian Schwartz and Phil Wolanski were "steeped in the game".
"We have an independent, well-structured board, with no alliances anywhere else," he said.
"Two new people have joined us (in Chris Rex and Peter Tredinnick), one of them a former Socceroo to add to another former Socceroo (Jack Reilly) and a former Matilda in Moya Dodd.
"We have always had football people, it's just not recognised."
Lowy also gave a cautious approval to the way Western Sydney Wanderers have come to life, praising their management team and saying there was no rush for FFA to find investors to take it over.
"It's early days but it's working well," he said.
"We have a great management team that's very experienced - (executive chairman) Lyall (Gorman) has done all this before.
"I've always had an eye for Tony (Popovic) as a coach, he's very much in charge and knows exactly what he wants, and they are playing some decent football.
"We would like to see the crowds growing up to 15,000 or more, but I think we deserve a little bit of credit for having done it all in six months.
"The priority is to get the club on to a sound financial footing, and be sure it's well-established. At some point we will look for a serious, well-funded group to take it on but we haven't gone looking so far and the building blocks have to be securely in place first."
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