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At his recent re-election as Football Federation Australia chairman, Frank Lowy was keen to stress that A-League clubs must stand on their own two feet and not totally dependent on the governing body for financial support.
“If you look at the figures we just can’t cope with that and clubs either need to be supported by their owners or their community,” said Lowy.
“They have to manage the business within their means.”
Those figures read: $3.7 million forecasted surplus; $4.6 million spent on keeping Adelaide United, Brisbane Roar, Newcastle Jets and the now deceased North Queensland Fury afloat; $891,000 in the red for the 2010-2011 financial year.
A-League clubs exist in a challenging market: struggling to turn profits with the financial return from the governing body often failing to cover their losses; reliant on millionaires who make their money elsewhere and hopefully have the interest and commitment to ride out the inevitable trough periods that come with running an Australian football club.
But if the last week in the A-League has taught us anything, it’s that some clubs, already hamstrung by the league’s financial limitations, are only compounding their challenging task with some epic own goals.
Look to Perth, where owner Tony Sage told the press “this will be my last season in charge of Perth Glory”.
“I just can’t sit there and cop abuse and my family cop abuse,” he added, following another home defeat, this time to Melbourne Heart.
“No one is really interested in coming to Perth Glory games and the fans don’t want me to be in control.
“It’s very obvious A-League football in Perth is not warranted.”
Although he is said to have backtracked somewhat, supposedly reaffirming his commitment to the FFA, the forthrightness of his comments and his attempted blame on Perth’s fans highlights how poorly the club is being run.
Coach Ian Ferguson has failed to turn the millions spent on building what appears on paper as a strong squad into a winning team.
Sage had targeted average crowds of 10,000, championships, premierships and Asian Champions League qualification. Yet the crowd average currently sits at 7947 as Perth, yet again, has failed to capitalise on a strong start to plummet down the ladder.
Yet, it appears, “A-League football in Perth is not warranted”. Rather than blaming long-suffering fans, where is the proper self-analysis from within the club, to try and figure out why high profile and numerous signings aren’t translating into results? Where is the most basic of due diligence to find fault, rather than ill-informed comments in the press?
If any club is in need of a proper football director it’s the Glory. Sage’s millions, invested in player signings, are being squandered by the club’s lack of a football direction. And, should it drive him and his cheque book away, jeopardises the club’s future, not through fan disinterest, as Sage says, but through consistent poor operations at the top.
With every passing poor campaign, the club’s successful NSL foundations and legacy wears away.
Of all clubs currently in the A-League, the Glory should be the most stable off the field, with 15 years to stamp their mark in the West Australian capital, which includes a winning background.
The Glory set the example for the A-League franchises to follow in the handover between the NSL and the current league. Now they are the example of how not to run a club.
If Sage does quit, the FFA won’t allow the Glory to go the way of the Fury. Perth is too important a market as the fourth biggest Australian city. But what of the FFA’s threat that “manage the business within their means”, let alone whether there is an interested party to takeover a club that continues to stagnate on and off the field?
Over in Adelaide, coach Rini Coolen, sitting on a one million dollar contract that doesn’t expire till 2014, has now been demoted to the club’s “youth development program”. It’s a sacking in all but name, seemingly so Coolen won’t go legal on the club’s owners.
Those owners, primarily from an Australian Rules background, mistakenly gave Coolen what appeared to be a free rule after a successful first season, due, in large part, to the magic of Marcos Flores.
Coolen was the list manager and had complete control of the squad, wielding the axe like a crazed mad-man, with victims including club favourites such as Paul Reid, Travis Dodd and Lucas Pantelis, while allowing key cogs such Iain Fyfe, Flores and more to pursue greener pastures. The spine of the club was ripped out and replaced.
Again, as in Perth, where was the football direction beyond the coach? Adelaide allowed the buck to stop with its head coach. And the owners, seemingly content after a season of promise, failed to do their due diligence and ensure the club’s integrity was being safeguarded.
Is the owners’ non-footballing background to blame, or is it simply a wrong business decision?
Either way, like Perth, self-inflicted wounds are hurting the club off the field as well as on, with crowds falling in a market that has consistently pulled strong averages, and the South Australian core of the team, that the owners should have been protecting, now barely visible.
Elsewhere, we need only mention in passing the mess that is the Melbourne Victory and their over-active board, Brisbane Roar, whose new owners are still waiting for the handover of the club from the FFA, let alone Wellington, Newcastle and Gold Coast, who have all flirted with extinction.
As Central Coast has proven, on-field success is no guarantee of off-field stability. Their case proves the financial model the A-League is built on still needs amending, while the FFA needs to do more to ensure the clubs can attract and retain investors and owners, while also pushing them gently to survive on their own.
But it’s remarkable how some A-League clubs, in such a challenging environment, fail at what seem to be even the most fundamental aspects of running a successful football club.