In truth, FFA chairman Steven Lowy lost key elements of the locker room a long time ago.

His and his organisation's tin ear, their refusal to accept that it needed to change, the insistence that Lowy and his cadre of colleagues were the only ones who knew how to run Australian soccer has plunged the sport into disarray.

It looks long odds on now that FIFA will put in place a "normalisation committee" to take control of the local game out of his and his board's hands.

But it may not end there if, as it seems, Lowy may be prepared to challenge FIFA with legal action to protect his position at the top of the domestic game should he not be happy with what flows on from this result.

That may be a move that could have catastrophic consequences for Australia and even the nation's place at the World Cup in Russia next year. Would the Socceroos be thrown out of the World Cup? It's highly unlikely and there is no precedent for such an event, although technically the game's governing body could use that as a "nuclear option" if it wanted to punish Australia.

For years both Lowy and his predecessor, his father Frank, were warned that the FFA needed to be more transparent and open and give all of the game's stakeholders more representation in the corridors of power.

Now Lowy junior and his supporters are paying the price with this humiliating defeat at the annual general meeting in Sydney on Thursday.

Will he accept that his vision for Australian soccer is not the one shared by the entire professional game, FIFA and the two biggest states?

If FIFA impose a "normalisation committee" of the great and the good to run Australian soccer on an interim basis, as it has threatened to do, he should consider heeding the calls that some of the stakeholders have made for him to walk off into the sunset.

This was a vote about power and money, as Lowy said. Influence, representation rights, politics, patronage, envy and personal enmity, as is so often the case, came into it as well.

Lowy came into his position as chairman of the FFA two years ago knowing full well that he would be under scrutiny right from the start simply because of his name.

The fact that he was succeeding his father, Frank, to the top job brought allegations of nepotism, although he was quick to assert that he would do things his way.

The reality is that the insistence on tight control by the FFA board, its lack of dynamism, its failure to inspire the game's stakeholders with an attractive vision for its future simply alienated fans and those prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt.

The stalling on expansion, the endless delays and the lack of spark have also counted against him with a constituency desperate to build on the success of the previous decade.

The A-League clubs have been his fiercest foes, with redistribution of dividends their main priority. But it is not just the clubs who have had Lowy in their sights. The professional game, the players' union, the women's game and the two biggest states, NSW and Victoria, have also not given him their backing.

That is not just losing the locker room - that's losing the the back-up players, the youth team and most of the fan base, too.

FIFA will meet early next week and that is when it will make the decision on its next move.

Even if it was minded to include Lowy in the solution, which is unlikely, it is now impossible to see how any of his opponents could possibly work with him.

Time to draw a line under the sand and set out for a brave new, if uncertain, world.