Recent media reports suggest football would lose credibility with corporate Australia if moves were made against the current FFA Board
One more matter needs to be addressed in relation to the impending FIFA/AFC visit.
It’s the dog whistle – actually, probably slightly more than a dog whistle now – going around that corporate Australia will drop football like a hot potato if FIFA moves against a Lowy-led FFA. In the past two days, at least three journalists have presented this argument. We referred to this in our Football Media Watch section on Monday and Tuesday.
A quick look at FFA sponsors, which includes A-League sponsors, does not support this assertion.
There is good and welcome support from some parts of corporate Australia, but football does not appear to have been inundated with corporate supporters. Let’s take a look at FFA’s current sponsors (broadcasters are excluded).
Sponsor | Sector | Country of Origin |
Caltex | fuel | Australia (since 2015) |
Harvey Norman | retail | Australia |
nab | banking | Australia |
Qantas | airline | Australia |
SABA | fashion | Australia |
Westfield | retail property | Australia |
Zest Care | disability services | Australia |
ALDI | retail | Germany |
PS4 | entertainment | Japan |
Hyundai | automotive | South Korea |
Tag Heuer | watches | Switzerland |
Bet 365 | gambling | United Kingdom |
Arthur J Gallagher | insurance | United States |
Nike | sportswear | United States |
Of the six Australian companies (the disability services provider is excluded), five are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange’s Top 200 list.
That leaves 195 of Australia’s top 200 companies who are not part of football. Perhaps some of them spend sponsorship dollars elsewhere. Some of them may not like football regardless of who’s in charge. Or perhaps the FFA commercial team simply hasn’t approached them.
Whatever the reason, it’s a long bow to suggest that a change in the governance structure of football in Australia would result in “the dynamics of the sport in terms of sponsorship and business credibility” being lost without the Lowy influence.
Without doubt, the Lowy influence has been instrumental in getting it to this point, including improving the 'value proposition' offered by football which is so important to potential sponsors. However, a cursory glance at the ASX200 list shows there’s a lot more untapped potential out there – and that’s without considering potential sponsors from global companies that operate within Australia.