TWO highly credentialed candidates have been put forward to stand for election to the board of Football Federation Australia, as pressure grows for a wider pool of names from which the post-Frank Lowy leadership of the game will be chosen.

Days after it emerged that FFA had itself identified three preferred candidates for the three vacancies — including Frank Lowy’s son, Steven — with a plea to avoid a “competitive election”, The Daily Telegraph can reveal that former Soccer Australia chairman Remo Nogarotto has been put forward and is willing to stand.

As demands grow for more candidates to be identified, it can also be revealed that the former CEO of the Sydney Olympics and the Adelaide Grand Prix, Mal Hemmerling, has been put forward by Adelaide United chairman Greg Griffin, and given the backing of one of the voters in the board election — South Australian high court judge Rauf Soulio.

In a letter sent to the FFA committee overseeing the nominations, Griffin fumed against the minimal say given to the A-League clubs, and emphasised the need for candidates with “first class sports industry experience”, which he claimed was absent from the candidates the committee had proposed.

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Meanwhile, after The Daily Telegraph revealed on Wednesday that Victorian football chiefs had put forward a candidate, it can be confirmed that it is Nogarotto whose candidacy is now being assessed by the recruitment firm tasked with finding potential directors.

The former chairman of Club Marconi in the NSL as well as Soccer Australia, he has also been a senior figure in the early years of the A-League, acting as football adviser to then Newcastle Jets owner Con Constantine.

Nogarotto is now chief executive of the polling firm Crosby Textor which has high-level links with the Liberal Party, and has previously been adviser to the Macquarie Capital investment house.

Although a leading figure in what was termed “old soccer”, he also acted as an emissary for FFA in seeking investors for a team in Western Sydney before the Wanderers were born.

Now the nominations committee must decide whether to rule out at least one of its three preferred candidates, or face the prospect of a vote at November’s AGM.

Steven Lowy, investment banker Crispin Murray and Commonwealth Bank executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin were the choices who the head of the nominations committee, FFA deputy chairman Brian Schwartz, argued should be allowed to stand unopposed.

But given that the nine states and territories — plus the A-League clubs combined — nominate and vote for the new directors, it seems certain that Hemmerling will be nominated, given his support from Soulio who is the president of Football Federation SA, and a member of FFA’s nominations committee.

The Daily Telegraph understands there is a belated push among several of the states to find and nominate alternative candidates, to generate a debate about the future of the game.

The FA’s nominations committee is aware that it can only recommend candidates, and other figures can be nominated before the September 30 deadline.