Lowy plays the power game
By Roy Masters
NRL chief executive David Gallop has met FFA chairman Frank Lowy to discuss the job of chief executive, a position incumbent John O'Neill is vacating partly because he believes the role will become emasculated to a point at which the CEO is a globe-travelling lieutenant for a hands-on executive chairman.
Lowy's approach to Gallop is perceived as a move to placate TV bosses who are alarmed the richest broadcasting contract the sport has received in Australia will not be supervised by the capable O'Neill when he leaves FFA and the A-League early next year. A trophy CEO, like a world-class replacement for coach Guus Hiddink, would also help elevate soccer above its fourth-tier football status in Australia.
FFA's plan to strip its CEO of some powers, such as the automatic right to attend board meetings, is part of a request to the Federal Government to change the sport's constitution to make Lowy more powerful.
Although Lowy's motives are to protect football from the ethnic and internecine divisions that have plagued the sport in the past, some of the planned changes will be opposed by the Australian Sports Commission, the policy and funding arm of the Federal Government.
The energetic, autonomous, sometimes confrontational O'Neill, who ran the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Australia and fell out with his board over his unilateral decision-making, would be loathe to wait outside the boardroom to be summoned.
Gallop, who helped resurrect rugby league in the wake of the Super League war, fought between the ARL and News Ltd, is perceived as a bridge-builder by his supporters and a servant of News Ltd by a small coterie of detractors. Either way, he would be highly attractive to Lowy, who prefers a CEO to follow his micro-managing instructions, and knows the divisions that once plagued the sport may resurface.
Gallop is also the lowest-paid of sport's top executives, receiving only a fraction of O'Neill's $1m package (which includes a $300,000 bonus) and the $800,000 paid AFL's top executive, Andrew Demetriou.
Salary was not discussed when Lowy and Gallop met on Tuesday, but it is understood Gallop declined the position, telling Lowy he had a young family and the demands of overseas travel, a necessity for an official of the world game, did not sit comfortably with him. Relations between Gallop and Fox Sports, which televises both NRL and the A-League, are first class, and his appointment would placate boss Kim Williams and part owners, News Ltd.
