Tom Smithies says there is optimism for future governance of football in Australia YESTERDAY was a big day in football  if the promises made in recent days are all kept. Finally, after months of whispered debate, Football Federation Australia announced the succession plan for the post-Lowy world. A team of headhunters will seek out the great and good who might be interested in a seat at football's top table - to replace one of the three (at least) directors who have to stand down in 2015, including Lowy. A nominations committee of three existing directors will review those names, and then they will go forward for nomination and presumably election. One of them will have been earmarked as a potential chairman, to replace Lowy. It was being emphasised yesterday that there are no names on the candidacy list so far - Lowy telling the A-League club owners on Monday night that putting forward his son Stephen is "not on the agenda." So far, so good, and this newspaper can hardly criticise that process when we called for the very same a fortnight ago. If it's true that the executive search firm involved, Egon Zehnder, has an open brief, it's conceivable some very interesting names could emerge. But behind the scenes there are other manoeuvres underway that won't grab the headlines as much, but have implications for the future of the A-League. Three of the owners - Scott Barlow of Sydney FC, Mike Charlesworth of the Mariners and Richard Wilson of Melbourne Victory - are now working with several key FFA officials to explore a new model for the A-League. The owners had a group had sought an external consultant to produce the same, but the response of David Gallop was that they may find more common ground than has been realised by working together. Similarly other owners are ploughing through FFA's finances, to understand where the money goes - one of their constant complaints has been a lack of transparency for years over the game's accounts, fuelling suspicions that they are carrying too heavy a burden. So for now there is a lull in hostitlies between the clubs and HQ. As several have pointed out, that will only last as long as the sense of co-operation, and as long as the clubs believe what they're working on will ultimately prove palatable to the governing body. It also helps that Lowy announced to the owners at a dinner on Monday night that each club would be given a one-off special dividend of $100,000, thanks to revenue from the A-League All-Stars and other areas. If the A-League clubs continue to push for the competition to stand-alone from FFA - and be run by them - then the new spirit of détente won't be enough to cover the divide. But for now, at that same time as FFA has started the search for a fresh guard of leaders, there is some optimism that a way forward may be found that's mutually acceptable to club and the ruling body - if all those promises are kept.