Football Australia dumps ‘national playing style' amid executive clean-out

Sydney Morning Herald

4 days ago

Plans for a 'distinctly Australian' style of play for the Socceroos and Matildas that would direct player and coach development appear to have been abandoned by Football Australia amid a dramatic restructure of its executive team.
Two-time A-League championship coach Ernie Merrick was the author of a 57-page document seen by this masthead, titled Forward Press 2032: A blueprint for sustainable success on the world stage, which outlines a high-intensity, proactive brand of football designed to be embedded at every level of the game, from grassroots to the national teams, aimed at achieving success at the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane.
But the document was blocked from release during Merrick's time as FA's chief football officer – and won't be made public, at least in its current form, after his position was made redundant last month.
It comes amid a dramatic turnover of executive staff at FA – headed by the departure of former chief executive James Johnson – which has been described as akin to regime change by several sources within the sport's administrative ranks.
Of the 14 members of FA's executive leadership team as listed in the federation's 2023 annual report, only two remain: commercial boss Tom Rischbieth and ex-Matilda Sarah Walsh, who is heading up the 2026 Women's Asian Cup organising committee. Last week, Peter Filopoulos, FA's former media and marketing chief who was closely aligned with Johnson, was also shown the door without public acknowledgement.
Best known for twice winning the A-League Men with Melbourne Victory in the competition's early years, Merrick was a surprise appointment when he was unveiled in mid-2022 as FA's first chief football officer, and part of his wide-ranging remit was to define what would become Australia's 'national style' of play.
Johnson created the position in response to concern about Australia's technical direction after the Socceroos' failure to qualify directly for the World Cup in Qatar and the Matildas' disappointing quarter-final exit at the last Asian Cup. At the time, FA had gone more than two years without a full-time technical lead after the resignation of Rob Sherman, the former national technical director who criticised the 'dominant political, bureaucratic and administrative mindset' of the sport and FFA on his way out.
The role of the chief football officer, Johnson said, would suit a 'disruptor' who was prepared to take on stakeholders to advance player development, coaching education, and bigger-picture philosophical matters, including a rewriting of the national football curriculum. Merrick, however, soon faced pushback internally and externally on some of the reforms he pursued, according to sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, and some of the things he had worked on never saw the light of day.