F1 queen Griggs in race with Nikou and Carrozzi for FFA’s top job

Football Federation Australia are edging towards a first ever female chair with FIFA insider Judith Griggs among the favourites to succeed Steven Lowy in the top job.

The former CEO of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation was the FIFA-appointed head of the Congress Review Working Group which successfully drove governance change.

And now the Adelaide-raised, London-based lawyer and sports rights and management specialist is being touted by several highly-placed Congress sources as heavily in the frame to top the ballot when a new board selects their leader at November 19’s AGM.

Four new board members, including the chair, will be elected that day.

Of the five chair contenders, existing director Chris Nikou and top-end-of-town accountant and GWS Giants deputy chairman Joseph Carrozzi are also leading contenders in what will be a secret ballot.

Former Socceroo Craig Foster and ex-Football Federation Victoria CEO Mark Rendell have also nominated for the role, should they be elected by the newly formed 29-strong Congress as new directors.

Board candidates will need to garner 60 per cent or more of the vote, with the A-League clubs (28 per cent) and the state federations (55 per cent) the two most powerful blocks.

“Judith Griggs, during the CRWG process, got a good grasp of the issues and is somebody with no allegiances to anybody and who knows the big picture,” a Congress insider said.

“FIFA know her and clearly have confidence in her and she’s somebody capable of building a level of consensus.

“The clubs, in general, believe she’s a person of stature and she has a lot of support there.

“With the state federations you never know for sure. They remain the great unknown and are really accountable to no-one.”

While the federations remain as unpredictable as they are capricious, the fact that Griggs was able to cajole them into a cohesive enough block to seal the downfall of an intransigent Lowy is testament to her powers of persuasion.

“She ticks pretty much all the boxes among the existing candidates for the board and also as a chair,” the source added.

“She’s a straight talker who doesn’t gloss over issues and adopts a consultative approach. During the CRWG process she managed a lot of egos, and they were all male.

“She doesn’t have preconceived ideas, is very open and easy to communicate with. She doesn’t shoot from the hip and she does her research.”

Melbourne-based lawyer and former Victory board member Nikou has his supporters but is somewhat tainted by his association with the status quo and being part of a Lowy regime which sought to block reform at every turn.

However the Asian Cup 2015 organising committee member is seen by some as a conciliator and a strong “compromise” option.

Accounting and Advisory firm PwC managing partner Carrozzi, also on the 2015 Asian Cup organising committee, has vast experience on boards, committees and advisory panels and is currently chairman of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust.

But his association with a rival code, through the GWS Giants, may be a viewed as a negative with the football fraternity weary and wary of any more executives from rival codes being brought in to run the show.

Griggs has 25 years of experience in motorsport, having worked for Bernie Ecclestone at the Formula One headquarters in London for five years prior to being appointed CEO of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation when the race was switched to Melbourne.

She returned to UK to work for Allsports Management, the company responsible for most of F1's commercial interests.

She currently runs London-based consultancy Sports Rights Management, which she founded in 2014, and sits on the board of Tourism South Australia.

Whilst there is momentum behind Griggs there are also those who believe she presided over limited reforms which have fallen well short of major democratisation.

One of the great incongruities of the looming election is the fact that current directors Kelly Bayer Rosmarin and Crispin Murray, both staunch Lowy allies and complicit in seeking to thwart a broadening of the Congress over the past three years, have opted to see out their terms.

The Association of Australian Football Clubs (AAFC) will host a Q&A-style Community Forum in Melbourne next Monday at which several of the 12 would-be new board members will be speaking.