O'Neill steps down as FFA Boss

At Football Federation of Australia (FFA) headquarters today, John O'Neill announced to much surprise that he would not seek to resign when his contract as chief executive of the FFA which expires March next year. This is a shock to some people as O'Neill seemed to be very passionate about his job. His reason was that his job had expanded further with the growth of Australian football in Australia and with the extra work was putting too much stress on his family life which is of course a very fair reason indeed. O'Neill since his appointment in 2004 has overseen one of the greatest growths of Australian football in this country ever which included the Socceroos qualifying for the World Cup for the first time in 32 years and making the Second Round and the launch of the new domestic league: the A-League. He will probably be remembered like Guus Hiddink by having a long-term impact on Australian world football in such a short time. Hopefully though his successor like Hiddink's eventual successor are able to build on the start those two men have given us.