Australia - Soccer Australia

Football Federation Australia (FFA) is the governing body for the sport of football (soccer) in Australia. Before 1 January 2005, it was known as the Australian Soccer Association (ASA), which succeeded Soccer Australia in this role in 2003.

Among other duties, the FFA oversees Australia's national football teams (including the Socceroos (men), the Matildas (women), and various youth teams); national coaching programmes; coordination with the various state and territory governing bodies; and the national club competition. Until 2004 the national competition was the National Soccer League; the FFA launched a new national league in 2005, the A-League.

History

Following the collapse of the previous governing body, Soccer Australia, the Australian government established an independent inquiry, known as the Crawford Report. This report recommended, among other things, the reconstitution of the body as the Australia Soccer Association (ASA) with an interim board, headed by prominent businessman Frank Lowy. The ASA renamed itself in 2005 to align with the general international usage of the word "football", in preference to "soccer", and to also distance itself from the failings of the old National Soccer League and Soccer Australia. It termed the phrase "old soccer, new football" to emphasise this.

On 1 January 2006, the FFA moved from the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), where it was a founding member, to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The move was unanimously endorsed by the AFC executive committee on March 23, 2005, and assented by the OFC in April 17. The FIFA executive committee approved the move on June 29, noting that "as all of the parties involved ... had agreed to the move, the case did not need to be discussed by the FIFA Congress" [1], and was unanimously ratified by the AFC on September 10 [2]. The FFA hopes that being part of the AFC will improve the standard of Australian football and give the national team a better chance of qualifying for World Cups, as well as providing access to the AFC Champions League for the A-League clubs.

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