FFA should show respect for football heritage and eschew a battle about a small Italian flag on a playing shirt
Some times it is better to say nothing and do something instead.
The crazy issue of the instruction given to Hamilton Azzurri FC by the Northern NSW Football Federation in relation to their forthcoming FFA Cup match is one such instance.
Hamilton Azzurri is a lower league, local club that has an Italian heritage. One might have figured that out by the use of ‘Azzurri’ in their club name. On the back of their shirts is a small Italian flag.
Northern NSW Football Federation has decided the flag is inconsistent with FFA’s much-despised National Club Identity Policy (NCIP) and has written to the club to say they must have different shirts for their FFA Cup match on 7 May.
This is the same NCIP policy that FFA announced with great fanfare at the end of February that it was doing away with. In fact, to be fair, their words sounded as if the penny might actually have dropped when it came to the diversity schism in football in Australia. Encouragingly, FFA made the point that the game needed to embrace the wider community and its own clubs; that it needed to recognise the heritage of clubs “and the significant contribution of particular communities” to the game; and the game must demonstrate values of tolerance, openness, diversity and inclusion. Ipso facto, the NCIP policy must go.
So in light of this new era of culturally diverse enlightenment, the fact that Hamilton Azzurri is required to change their playing strip for the sake of a small Italian flag is plainly silly. There really is no other word for it.
FFA should just fix it. Instead, indications are that so far they have bunkered-down and are standing by their not-quite-repealed policy.
Say nothing
FFA Board member Joseph Carrozzi has weighed-in several times on the matter.
Important to note that the @FFA board decision to repeal NCIP now has to be implemented. We are not there yet so @NNSWF & any Association must observe the current rules until we issue new ones. The delay is regrettable but we have made a key commitment. — Joseph Carrozzi (@JosephCarrozzi) April 25, 2019
On Thursday he tweeted that the current NCIP rules must be observed.
Really?
If the FFA Board has made a decision “to repeal NCIP” – more than two months ago – why not allow some flexibility in the application of the current rules?
After all, it’s not as if the NCIP rules are the law of the land and require legislation to pass through Parliament to make a change to FFA rules – quite the opposite as they are arguably contrary to Australian law. They are not laws of the game. They are not requirements of FIFA or FFA Statutes.
The NCIP ‘rules’ are completely arbitrary policy set by the former FFA Board and management.
But if we’re on the subject of 'football rules' having to be observed, why are Carrozzi, Northern NSW and FFA management so exercised by the NCIP 'rule' and yet are happy to ignore other statutory requirements of FFA and/or FIFA which they do not meet? For example:
The 40/40/20 principle in relation to Boards and Committees which is a feature of FFA's new Constitution. As my article showed in March, the only organisation in Australian football that meets this is Football Victoria;
Discrimination on the basis of race, ethnic, national or social origin which is prohibited by Article 4 of the FIFA Statutes, and Article 2.1(h) of the FFA Constitution;
The different treatment of clubs under FFA jurisdiction. For example, while Hamilton Azzurri has been instructed to remove the Italian flag from the back of their strip, Eastwood St Andrews FC in Sydney has received no such instruction about the Scottish flag in their club emblem when consistency would suggest it should.* This different treatment is, in itself, discriminatory which is specificially prohibited by Article 15(2) of the FIFA Statutes. (There are many other examples of similar inconsistencies also).
Do something
As a member club of AAFC, the matter has been taken up by them on behalf of Hamilton Azzurri directly with FFA Chairman, Chris Nikou, seeking his intervention.
According to the AAFC Facebook page, they wrote to Nikou on Thursday that:
“The AAFC strongly believes it would be in the best interests of the FFA not to be seen to persecuting a small club on the basis of a standing policy which your Board has clearly determined is no longer appropriate for the growth and development of the game in Australia. We are of the view that it would be in the best interests of all in the game to allow them to play in their current strips, and we ask you to intervene with NNSWFF to ensure that this can happen.”
We can only hope that Nikou is going to let action speak louder than words and step-in and instruct his management team to ‘fix it’.
* For the sake of clarity, we have no problem with Hamilton Azzurri or Eastwood St Andrews.