SYDNEY, May 8: Australia’s top soccer official Remo Nogarotto resigned on Thursday as division continued over plans for sweeping reforms in the game’s administration.

Soccer Australia (SA), the national governing body, delayed a decision on Saturday on a government recommendation that its entire board of directors should resign.

SA chairman Nogarotto said the board had already agreed to stand down and allow the election of a new board, adding that a legal technicality had delayed the decision.

Nogarotto departed five days later as fellow board members Walter Bugno and Robert Sestan also resigned.

A government report released last month recommended the current board be replaced by a new body headed by Australia’s second-richest man, businessman Frank Lowy.

The inquiry also called for an independent commission to run the financially-strapped national soccer league and changes to the way the game is managed in Australia.—Reuters