Governance Evaluation Of Football Federation Of Australia

Overview of FFA and Its Governance Principles

Question:

Discuss about the Governance of Football Federation of Australia.

Football Federation of Australia (FFA) is a renowned governing body in Australia, with a major focus on football. It is a member of the Federation International of Football Association (FIFA) which is the international body governing football globally. FIFA is characterized by FFA and other 207 national associations while recognizing other six confederations that are loosely grouped within the continental lines as pointed out by Georgakis and Molloy (2016, p.73) This paper is aimed at evaluating the governance of the organization with a primary focus on the board of the organization, its structure and purpose. It also evaluates the appointment process and election of the board members, board culture and behavior, induction process, as well as the board performance and evaluation systems. The paper identifies the governance challenges facing the organization and gives recommendations on strategies that can be adopted to solve the challenges identified in the governance of the organization.

FFA was first established in 2004 as a member-based organization that is loosely based on the federated system of the Australian government. According to the Glendinning (2005), the membership of the organization is comprised of capital football, Football Queensland, Football Federation of South Australia, Football Federation Tasmania, and Football West among others. Each of the governing bodies is committed to complying with the FFA constitution, by-laws, regulations, and applicable statutes, as well as having the responsibility of games within the respective geographic regions. The organization is made up of the board members, senior management team, and the editorial staff.

FFA has a large number of members ranging from the chairman, Directors, chief executive officers, senior management team, and different Board of committees who work under the governance principles (Lee & Bariol 2011).  The Chairman of Football Federation Australia heads the Director and controls all the meetings held by the Board. The  Directors that should not be more than eight or less than five, some elected and some appointed and Chief Executive Officer that oversees the logistical operations of the association. Other top management positions are like the head of Commercial and Media Rights, Head of National Performance, Head of Events, Head of People and Culture, Head of Marketing and Head of community Football development, Head of Legal Business Affairs and Women’s Football. There are also Board committees such as the Finance Review and Audit committee, Football Development Committee, Human Recourses Committee, Nominations Committee, Women’s Committee, and Referees Committee.  

FFA Board Members and Committees

All Directors are committee members and have the following duties; Ensures that the organization meets all the legal requirements that are under relevant Acts such as protecting the rights of all the stakeholders (Hopkins 2011). The Board of Directors offers all strategic directions such as formulating the vision and mission o the football clubs, assisting the organization to make a good appointment of employees and offer the orientation of the new employees.  The Board of Directors offers direction of executive performance for example; employs the chief executive officer and monitors the management style by the set Board-established criteria. Develop, update, and maintain a framework that determines the expectations from the chief executive officers. The Board of Directors ensures total compliance and integrity of all stakeholders by developing the organizational culture and ensures that all employees adhere to them and maintain a productive relationship with all the stakeholders.  

There are different zones proposed and divided by the Football Federation of Australia and the By-laws such as; every zone must agree to adhere to the set laws of the games, the statues, regulations, and FIFA code of conduct (Hopkins 2011). The By-laws enables the election or appointment of any zone representative and members of the Standing Committee. The Australia Football Federation expects every club to nominate and elect a representative within the specific site zones based on the geographical locations to form standing committees. The purposes of the standing committees are mainly advice and formulate recommendations to the Directors on all issues. Those issues advised on relate to game aspects such as; measures develop how to improve on the game, identify, and help in the development of talented players, ensures that there is consistent application of rules, programs and structures and any matter that is relating to the game.

The elected representative forms the voting members to elect the Directors. There are no less than five or more than eight Directors that comprise the president, five elected Directors, and two appointed Directors according to article 15.16. The first election of commissioner’s; individuals selected immediately before the approval of the constitution by the Registrar in the subject to the article 15.16.  Article 15.13 applies to all persons that are requiring nomination.

The eligibility of the governance observer is that he must be employees of the Association and hold an Official Position. The Directors appoint a member through a letter signed by both the nominator and nominee (Lee & Bariol 2011).  Directors who have served for not more than two consecutive terms, (four years each) retire at every annual meeting under article 15.10. And the retiring Director hold the office till the end of the session and are only eligible for re-election at the end of the second annual meeting according to article 15.12. The appointment of the other two Directors according to artricle15.15states that the elected Directors can appoint up to three additional Directors who are eligible to hold the office for a term of two years but is suitable for a re-appointment. Before the appointment, under the article 15.6(a) the proposed observer must deliver a statutory declaration to FIFA confirming to their best knowledge and belief. These appointed observers are disqualified from their positions by anything in respect to the article 15.15, have absconded activities that materially interfere with their ability to act in FIFA’s best interest. The entire provision article 15.12, 15.13, and 15.16 do not apply to the two appointed Directors.

Duties and Responsibilities of FFA Directors

The elected Directors may nominate through writing and select one of them to serve as the position of the chairman of Directors under article 15.13 (Lee & Bariol 2011). If not more than 50% of the members submit their written veto within 14 days from the notification date of the decision under the article 15.9(b), then election confirmation made, and if more than 50% of the members submit their veto within the 14 days, the election is bound to repetition under article 15.9(b). The elected chairman remains in the office until the next annual general meeting as under article 15.9.The deputy chairman selected from the Directors among themselves as under article 15.10 and remains to hold the office until the next general meeting. Any individual admitted to the membership in accordance to rule 3.2(a) ceases to be members per the By-laws and any individual admitted to the membership in accordance to rule 3.2(b) ceases to be a member upon the end of being a chair of the standing committee.

The elected Directors also might appoint at any time a casual person to fill a vacancy that arises when an elected Director ceased the membership other than the annual general meeting of FIFA unless article 15.11(b) applies (Lee & Bariol 2011). The appointed casual members must also meet all the qualifications and shall cease from being a Director of FIFA by anything in article 15.15, have not participated in any activities that may materially interfere with their ability to represent the FIFA’s interest. The appointed Directors hold the office until the next annual general meeting, and the position becomes vacant under article 15.11(b) The Directors are obligated to the constitution that states; that all Directors must adopt By-law containing a model constitution for State Body Members to use. The Directors may amend the By-law from time to time and must be consistent with the law. State Body Member must amend the constitution from time to time to promptly adopt the changes with the Directors consent .The Directors must consent to any amendment to the structure of a State Body Member as required by law. However, the approval should not prevent the modification from giving breach of article 12.1(c) and does not limit the Directors’ power under article 6.12.

The process allows the new board members to be informed, supported as well as being welcomed from the time of their appointed as board members of an organization. Induction plays a very vital role to the success of the organization strategic directions and therefore the process should that at the end of the process the new board members have an appropriate knowledge and information of the sector in which the organization operates. It should also ensure that the member has a clear understanding of the organization business operations or how the federation operates (Stell & Salisbury, p. 252, 2015). The members should be briefed on the financial circumstance and positions of the federation as well as the federation strategy and direction. Lastly, the induction process should ensure that the members have an understanding of their legal responsibility as the federation board members as well as the relevant background information about the federation. Therefore, induction occurs only if there is a new admission of members into the federation.

Appointment and Election of FFA Board Members

In this case, therefore, the football federation of Australia in the year 2014, according to the rules governing the terms of engagement of the board of directors of the federation who by laws set by the federation should take a maximum of two terms each of two years had to appoint new directors. Therefore the chairman of the federation board Steven Lowy briefed the nine states and territory member federation of the federation board succession plan which required the replacement of Mr. Lowy, the deputy chairman and director Brian Schwartz AM as well as director Phillip Welansk due to the expiry of their terms. This led to the appointment of Mr. Simon Hepworth and Chris Nikou as new directors of the football federation of Australia.

Taking these new employees as our references for induction process into the federation then we note that the induction process is important in that it helps to effectively integrate the new board members into the organization. Different organizations, however, have different induction processes depending on the structures and the functions of the organizations (Dawson et al., 2016, p. 260). The football federation of Australia induction process starts with the briefing of the federation stakeholders and governing body and in this case the nine-state territory federation of the organization board members replacement policy, the appointment of the board members and then the induction of the members into the organization. The process, therefore, involves introducing the members by the chairman to the management executive of the federation as well as to the key stakeholders of the federation (Georgakis & Molloy, p. 77, 2016). The members are then informed of their roles and legal responsibilities as board members and their performance standards as well as expectations. They are also briefed on their working conditions as for providing and agreed upon by the members as well as the board policies and are later introduced to the entire team or to the federation board of directors. Then during the induction process in the course of the first working days, the members are informed of the federation strategic roles and direction which will guide their operations as well as the federation structure to enhance effective communication. All the other information the new board members are able to learn as they continue with their operations.

The behavior and culture of the football federation of Australia are guided by the strategic goals and direction of the organization. Every organization has a certain culture that defines its operations and seeks to integrate the activities of the organization. The board of directors of the company is also required to behave in a certain manner in their operations. The behavior of board is therefore regulated or guided by the established code of conduct that governs their activities and interactions or engagements with other stakeholders and even other bodies related to the football fraternity in Australia (Siegfried et al. 2015, p. 419). The leadership of the federation through the board of directors is committed to providing a unifying football culture that embraces football success in the region and above all promote football diversity in Australia. The board is also entitled to the promotion of an organizational culture that promotes football professionalism, integrity as well as a culture that promotes a universal appeal of the football in Australia.

FFA Induction Process and Succession Planning

The board behavior is therefore governed by the organizations or the federation’s code of conduct which is a relation to the principles, standards, and guidelines of the FIFA. The Football Federation of Australia code of conduct is therefore applicable to all the member federations, the competition administrators, the clubs participating, the players and football officials as well as their agents (Coutts et al., 2014, p. 625). The board behavior is therefore governed by these codes of conducts towards their responsibility in the provision of effective leadership to the federation. The board is therefore supposed to adhere to the code of conducts relating to their operations, code of conduct relating to their roles and responsibilities and those towards the overall leadership and governance of the federation to facilitate effective and successful leadership and governance of the football federation of Australia and promotion of a unifying football culture that enhances football diversity and professionalism in the region (Judd & Butcher, p. 72, 2016). The board is therefore entitled to uphold an effective management and leadership behavior that will enhance the successful achievement of the goals and strategic direction of the organization. It is also entitled to provision and promotion of an appropriate football culture that will lead to the growth of the football industry in Australia.

According to FFA (2016), football is the most competitive game in the Australia and globally. Effective competition at the national level hence requires a pipeline of globally competent and technically gifted players with the ability of coming together from home and different clubs and mesh instantly. However, the organization faces a challenge with ensuring that this goal is achieved. Unlike the majority of other football associations from other parts of the word, Spiro (2016) denotes that the distance of Australia from football destinations as well as the crowded global football schedule adds complexity to the national team. The board as well faces challenges with the resources required for effective support of the football teams is a challenge as the national team program requires a commercially viable in underpinning the necessary investment for global football competition.

According to Hopkins (2011), the population of the country is expected to be 30 million by 2035 hence expected to be increasingly urbanized. The result is football expected to become more than just a sport hence will have an increasingly essential role to play in community integration, social cohesion, economic development and international relations. The governance of the organization needs to ensure that it adopts strategies that will adapt to the expected evolutions in football.

From the above analysis, it is clear that the Australian football has a very great momentum but FFA still lacks the type of commercial revenues and scale required to ensure they are the most popular organizations not only in Australia but globally. Also, football is operating in the most competitive professional sporting market hence facing global strong and properly financed competitor codes, an aspect that requires the governance of FFA to ensure long-term sustainable plans are adapted. It means that the board has a central role that should place the common good as well as long-term strategic goals of the organization at heart in every decision-making. It should ensure the organization is managed on the basis of a collective commercialization of rights and centralized distribution of resources with the aim of ensuring the organization does not become unbalanced.

The board must strengthen its operations centralizing a selective service that can enable the club to focus on the game and expand on its operations and community engagements. The board needs to be held accountable for benchmarks and core functions that will ensure the organization grows.  It should always ensure FFA meets the criteria based funding towards resources faculties and stadium capacity for effective football development.

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