370 days ago the FFA Congress voted for Constitutional reforms including a '40/40/20' rule. How's that going?
Last year, the FFA Congress voted for a number of changes to the Constitution of FFA. Those changes were bitterly fought over several years and resulted in an increased membership of Congress to include the A-League clubs and the PFA, the establishment of a Women's Council, and the introduction of a gender quota of 40/40/20 representation on all Boards and Committees that come under the purview of the FFA Constitution. In essence, that means all state member federations, the A-League clubs, the PFA, those wanting to be part of the Congress – such as the Football Coaches Association and the AAFC – and so on down the football value chain.
370 days after that vote, it's time to look at how the Congress members have performed in meeting their requirements of the FFA Constitution.
In October last year when the changes were introduced, only one member of the (new) Congress met the 40/40/20 requirement and that was Football Victoria.
Twelve months on, it's encouraging to note that three more state member federations have joined Victoria with Northern NSW, Western Australia and the ACT reaching 43% apiece with three women members on their seven-person Board. It is also worth noting that both NNSW and the ACT are also now chaired by women.
However, while it may be encouraging that four state federations now meet s44 of the FFA Constitution, it also means that only 80% of the Congress members that are an entity are non-compliant with the Constitution. (FFA and Wellington Phoenix are not members of Congress, and the Women's Council is not an entity).
When it comes to senior management teams of FFA Congress members, the performance is roughly the same with only one-in-four positions (25%) held by a woman. Northern Territory and Central Coast Mariners have the best gender equity in their senior management team with 50% men and women. (It should be noted that the WA state member federation and the majority of A-League clubs do not publish this information so they are not included).
The disappointing aspect of this is that, despite the Constitutional changes, the vast majority of Congress members have failed to do anything much at all about their Boards, as shown in our table mapping progress over the past two years.
Table 1: Representation of Women on FFA, State Member Federation, A-League and PFA
Aug 2017 | Mar 2019 | Oct 2019 | |
FFA | 37.5% | 20% | 37.5% |
NSW | 12.5% | 25% | 25% |
NNSW | 16.7% | 38% | 42.9% |
VIC | 50% | 50% | 50% |
QLD | 14.3% | 25% | 14.3% |
WA | 16.7% | 33.3% | 42.9% |
SA | 22.2% | 33.3% | 33.3% |
TAS | 25% | 28.6% | 28.6% |
ACT | 25% | 17% | 42.9% |
NT | 25% | 25% | 25% |
Adelaide United | 20% | 33.3%* | 33.3%* |
Brisbane Roar | 0% | 0% | 0% |
Central Coast Mariners | 50%* | 0% | 0% |
Melbourne City | 0% | 0% | 0% |
Melbourne Victory | 14.3% | 14.3%* | 14.3%* |
Newcastle Jets | 0% | 33.3%* | 0%* |
Perth Glory | 0% | 0% | 0% |
Sydney FC | 14.3% | 20% | 20% |
Wellington Phoenix | 0% | 0% | 0% |
Western Sydney Wanderers | 0% | 0% | 0% |
Western United | n/a | n/a | ??? |
PFA | 33.3% | 30% | 30% |
Total | 21.1% | 25% | 26.5% |
(* The one woman member is on the Board as Company Secretary)
Instead, many Congress members appear to have mostly consigned “women's issues” to the Women's Council rather than addressing the systemic challenges in increasing the number and representation of women in the game.
The Women's Council is a creature of the Congress with its members nominated by the overwhelmingly male members of Congress. The remaining members of the Women's Council were nominated by, or are on the Board of or work for, the PFA, Melbourne City, Melbourne Victory, Sydney FC, Football West and Capital Football.
Football Victoria nominated the only 'new face' to football on the Women's Council – Maha Abdo OAM, of whom we wrote here in March. We understand that Ms Abdo has resigned from the Council citing her perception of the Council's lack of interest in inclusivity, diversity and accepting or discussing new ideas that she was able to bring to the table.
While gender quotas are a means of increasing the number of women at top levels in the sport, unless they are made to work for all women, they are not doing anything to address the underlying structural issue of the lack of women engaged in the game at this level. The lack of diversity in the Women's Council is indicative of the closed shop at the top of football in Australia.
Quotas promote the participation of some women but we need deeper structural change to combat the prevailing gender norms in order for women to fully succeed.
We need to get more women involved in the game from a grassroots level upwards in order to have the talent pool to draw from to reach the gender quotas now imposed, as well as to engage better with women as players and, importantly, volunteers, consumers and fans of the game.
NB: This was updated for WA on 7 October after initial publication.