I had intended today to follow up yesterday's post Local Government & the Australian Constitution with a more detailed analysis of the issues. However, an issue has come up that I wanted to report on.
Soccer is the only sport in which Northern NSW, the broader New England, has its own state league independent of NSW. The creation of the Northern NSW Football Federation dates back to the height of the 1960s new state campaign. 
on 31 October, the Newcastle Herald reported on the axing of NNSWF CEO David Eland. The move generated controversy.
The following day, the paper reported that former president Bill Walker had blasted the board of directors over its sacking of David Eland, saying the process to remove the chief executive was ‘‘morally and ethically’’ wrong. Mr Walker resigned from the board in protest.
Then on 2 November, the Newcastle Herald carried three stories:
- Push comes to shove in messy power play
- Northern NSW Football zones brief lawyers to kick out directors
- Northern zones tell board to resign
Today's story is NNSWF defies advice, names Jock Graham CEO. The NNSWF turmoil finds some reflection on its Facebook page.
Reading between the lines, a number of factors seem to have come into play here, including politics in Football Australia. What is clear is that the turmoil is not helping soccer - NNSWF has 50,000 members in seven zones across New England.
Postscript
Updated story in the Newcastle Herald NNSW board brushed FFA's appeal. I quote in part:
It now appears the NNSWF annual general meeting, set down for December 4, will be the likely showdown between the board and its members.
In any vote to remove the board, the seven zones each have two votes and the standing committees of the state league and first division clubs each have one, as does the referees’ association. A successful vote requires a 75 per cent majority. Zone officials are confident all votes will go against the board.
As an observation, I was a little surprised at the apparent lack of newspaper coverage on this one, I have only skimmed the online editions, elsewhere in New England.
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