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Chris Nikou: A-League expansion is a must

After almost 23 years another Greek Australian is at the helm of Football Federation Australia (FFA) Melbourne based solicitor Chris Nikou was elected chair at FFA’s Annual Genera meeting on Monday night in Sydney.

Chris Nikou

Chris Nikou, new chair of FFA Source: SBS

His main priorities will be to increase the umber oif team that participate in the A-League and to achieve a better engagement with disenchanted fans.

The other three board members that were elected were Heather Reid, Joseph Carrozzi and Remo Nogarotto

Before Mr Nikou another two Greek-Australians were presidents at the FFA (Australian Soccer Fedeartion, as it was known then). They were the late Sir Arthur George (1969-1988) and John Constantine (1990-1995)

Mr Nikou is a lawyer by profession, based in Melbourne.  He has held a considerable number of positions in the game after playing in a local competition. He held posts at Football Federation Victoria, Melbourne Victory and the 2015 Asian Cup organising committee before joining the FFA board.

Some fans, especially among the active supporter groups, have expressed disgruntlement with the way the FFA run the game.

Nikou recognised the importance of improving relationships with supporters and got an insight in to their mindsets, after chairing the FFA review into the fan banning process.

"It was an important education in that I went out to see the active fans, I went out to see the CEO's, the police, the stadium operators, all the various components and got first hand what's important to them," Mr. Nikou said.

"So the fans are a critical part for us going forward, we need to engage better.

"But I think I've got a pretty good understanding of what's important to people."

Nikou said A-League expansion was probably the board's first priority and he would like to lock in the two new teams in time for next season's competition, but the new board members would need to get a detailed briefing on each of the six remaining bidders.

Three people will be co-opted on to the board, with Nikou hoping that would happen before the end of this year.

He said it would be a case of identifying what the skill set gaps were on the board and didn't rule out considering some of Monday's six unsuccessful candidates.

Among those who missed out was former Labor senator Stephen Conroy.

Reid, who is the new deputy chair, received the most first round votes ahead of Carrozzi and Nikou.

"I think we're in pretty good shape but there's no doubt however that we have a lot of work to do," Reid said.

"There's a lot of weight sitting on our shoulders and I look forward to rolling up my sleeves and getting stuck into that hard work that lays ahead."

With additional reports from : AAP, www.theworlgame.com.au

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By Stergos Kastelloriou, Themi Kallos



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