The new Chairman of Football Federation Australia (FFA), Chris Nikou, is one of the latest names to join the inaugural Football Writers’ Festival in March next year.
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Nikou was elected Chairman earlier this month and comes to the role as someone who has been involved in the game as an amateur player, volunteer, administrator and fan for more than 40 years.
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Nikou is a former Director of Football Federation Victoria, Melbourne Victory, the 2015 Asian Cup Organising Committee, and the Melbourne Renegades BBL team. He is senior partner with law firm K&L Gates.
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While Nikou isn’t a football writer, Festival organisers believe it is a good opportunity for fans to meet the new Chairman personally and to hear first-hand from him the story of his ‘football life’ as well as discuss some of the major issues facing the code.
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In addition to Nikou, academic and author Dr Ian Syson, and broadcaster and author Craig Foster have been added to the speakers’ list.
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Syson is a Senior Lecturer in Communication with the College of Arts and Education at Victoria University, Melbourne. He has written extensively on the history of Australia's football codes, particularly football, and is interested in the relationships between the codes and the rhetoric of these tensions as manifested in the media. His most recent book The Game That Never Happened - the Vanishing History of Soccer in Australia was published earlier this year by SESA.
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Craig Foster is a former professional player and Australia’s leading football advocate, personality and analyst with SBS-TV. He is also a Pro-License coach, a member of the Australian Multicultural Council, and author of the book Fozz on Football. Foster also writes for a variety of online media and was also recently a candidate in the recent FFA Board elections until he withdrew due to backroom political machinations.
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Nikou, Syson and Foster join award-winning investigative journalist, Jens Weinreich from Germany, as well as Andrew Howe, Dr Jorge Knijnik and Trevor Thompson with more to be added.
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The Football Writers’ Festival will be held at the Jamberoo Pub, Jamberoo, south of Sydney, over the weekend of 23-24 March 2019. It will include workshops, keynote conversations, debates and Q&A sessions, as well as downtime activities such as a football match and dinner and trivia.
It is a joint initiative of the Johnny Warren Football Foundation and Fair Play Publishing.