Australian Professional Football Clubs Association (APFCA) has reacted angrily to reports the FFA's meeting with FIFA President Gianni Infantino on February 1 could delay reform of FFA’s voting structure.

The Congress in Australia has 10 votes with each of the nine State and Territory Federations getting one vote each, while the A-League clubs receive one collective vote.

This process does not allow A-League, W-League and Matildas players to have a say, and with only 10 votes, is the lowest electorate of any FIFA member nation

The representative organisation of the ten A-League club said it would be disappointed if the FFA's visit to FIFA lead to the postponment of any proposed changes to the Congress.

 “We would find it unacceptable if the visit by the FFA Chairman Steven Lowy and FFA CEO David Gallop to the FIFA President either delays the long - overdue reform of the FFA General Assembly, or creates a circumvention of the committed process of engagement with stakeholders of the Australian game,” said the APFCA's statement.

“It is the APFCA's position that the Professional Game can no longer be expected to be the major financial provider to Football Federation Australia without fair democratic representation in the FFA General Assembly.”

The APFCA also said in their statement they would like assurances from the FFA that the governing body would keep their promise to reform by the March 2017 deadline.

“Our members remain ready to engage in an appropriate process and committed to a March timeline with an outcome that creates the appropriate democratic representation of the whole Australian football family within the FFA General Assembly,” said the statement.

“We would therefore ask the FFA to publicly clarify its process of engagement with stakeholders and for Steven Lowy to publicly reaffirm his commitment to the March deadline he set out in September 2016.

“The APFCA notes that there are two FFA Board seats that should be the subject of an appropriate democratic process under the auspices of a new FFA General Assembly in November 2017.”

In a statement given to FourFourTwo this afternoon, FFA say they will provide an update of their meeting with FIFA to A-League clubs next month.

“FFA Chairman Steven Lowy and CEO David Gallop will attend a long-planned meeting with FIFA officials in Zurich this week to discuss a range of issues relating to the growth and development of the game in Australia including the process of reviewing the statutes and in particular the membership structure of Australian football,” said an FFA Spokesperson. 

“They will report to the FFA Board later in February as well as update other stakeholders of the football community. Following the postponement of his scheduled trip to Australia last month, the FIFA President has made himself available to meet the FFA Chairman and CEO. A new date for a visit to Australia by the FIFA President is expected to be set in the near future.”