Steven Lowy to quit FFA

The Lowy family has run the FFA since it emerged from the ashes of Soccer Australia in 2004, led by Steven's billionaire father Frank Lowy.

But the family dynasty has been at the centre of a growing storm as FIFA moves to open up the FFA and reduce the family's control.

Frank Lowy kept tight control of the FFA until he stood down in 2015 and was replaced by son Steven, 55, in a process which angered other stakeholders in the sport.

Soon after, the process began to allow more stakeholders to have a vote on who runs Australian football and how. When the FFA rejected the reform, FIFA intervened.

Lowy used his influence among some stakeholders to preserve his control, but FIFA still ordered a working group to review the way the sport operates in Australia.

The report was published last week and proposed a radical overhaul of football's administration and many of the key proposals were bitterly opposed by Steven Lowy and FFA executives.

FANS REACT TO LOWY'S EXIT

Now Lowy has called a press conference at 11am where he will confirm his exit in November.

"I'm doing this because of the politics in football," Lowy told The Australian.

"I'm taking myself out of the equation because for those that want a different outcome to the board and what the board believes in, I and my family are used as a distraction to the real issues.

"I want to remove from the debate once and for all any suggestion that the struggle to maintain an independent FFA board has anything to do with my personal interest or ambition."

The move will bring an end to 50 years of often controversial Lowy involvement in Australian football.

Lowy's exit will potentially open the door to a rapid change of direction for Football Federation Australia and the A-League.

Among the Congress Review Working Party's recommendations, rejected by the previous FFA Regime, were spinning off the A-League to be its own independent entity and significantly opening up the voting structure to far more than the current nine state federations and one A-League club representative.

It also puts chief executive David Gallop's future in the spotlight. He has worked hand in hand with both Frank and Steven Lowy and been central to their opposition to calls for radical overhaul.

He recently signed a lucrative new two year deal to stay at the FFA but has been closely linked with a move to a similar role with Cricket Australia.

And as Frank Lowy admitted when he retired in 2015: "Self interest can't get to the management of the game."