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Palmer versus FFA: Public stoush exposes the flaws

20th February, 2012
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Brisbane Roar player Luke Devere heads the ball over top of Gold Coast United player Joel Porter during the 1st round of the 2010 A-league competition at Skilled Park on the Gold Coast, Sunday, Aug. 08, 2010. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
Expert
20th February, 2012
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Gold Coast United owner Clive Palmer took to the box last night (SBS’s The World Game) in his escalating public war of words against Football Federation Australia. And he wasn’t holding back.

Following on from Palmer’s comments yesterday that FFA CEO Ben Buckley should be replaced by “somebody with a football background” (rather ironic given Palmer’s comments regarding his feelings for the game and his lack of football background), Buckley and the FFA were his main targets last night, seemingly doing his best to deflect any criticism for the failings of Gold Coast United.

Wearing a two-and-a-half-year-old Australian World Cup bid scarf on a 31-degree Gold Coast day, seemingly for no other reason than to slyly show-off arguably the FFA’s greatest blunder, Palmer threw every failing of the game at the FFA’s feet.

What he didn’t do was accept any of the blame for the failings of his own club.

His assertion that there’s “no crisis” and “nothing wrong with our club” highlights a worrying disengagement with reality, for his club has been on a slippery slope in terms of on and off field performance, particularly this season.

The fact that the sacking (or was it resignation?) of coach Miron Bleiberg, the real victim of the last week, was barely mentioned is a case in point.

Although Palmer seems to be committed to staying the course with his licence valid to 2014, his television appearance would have done little to ease Gold Coast United fans’ concerns.

Palmer insisted in the interview that there is no shortage of money to keep Gold Coast United going and the investment in youth can pay dividends.

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But the flaw of playing what is essentially a youth team in the top tier national level is evidenced by their current league position – eights points adrift at the bottom of the table, 15 points off a finals place, and without a win in nearly two months.

We saw similar signs at the North Queensland Fury this time last season.

And with James Brown, arguably one of the club’s most talented current players, heading elsewhere and the expectation that more will follow his example, it proves a club needs more than money to function successfully. It needs stability, a sound culture and to inspire belief amongst the staff and fans.

Gold Coast United has failed on all those accounts, and that is a point Palmer must take the blame for and not ignore.

Just because he’s spent $18 million on the club doesn’t make him impervious to criticism, as he insinuated.

Palmer’s problem, as evidenced in the interview, is that he has thrown money at Gold Coast United without the necessary groundwork to determine what works best to create a successful football club – unsurprising given his mining, non-football background.

Perhaps the real question now in this sorry saga is how much blame should be apportioned to the FFA in awarding a franchise to Palmer and how much assistance should owners receive to run their clubs, but that’s a debate for another day.

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But whatever you think of Palmer, he did make some points that on reflection should be examined rather than dismissed as the ravings of a lunatic, as many were suggesting in the wake of the interview.

Unless there is this type of serious self-analysis within the game relating to these failings, they are doomed to be repeated. Even though he is evidently raising such points to deflect attention from the goings on at his own club, they are still worthy of debate.

Why, for example, are club owners losing $4 million on average each; why is there such a heavy reliance on people like Palmer to keep clubs afloat; do the clubs deserve more say in the governance and revenue-split of the league; and why does the league still lack a free-to-air presence.

His suggestion that Fox Sports should not broadcast live into the region where an A-League game is played is certainly worthy of debate, as the league tries to find a balance between the needs of its television deal and gate-takings from crowds.

Fox Sports has in many ways saved the A-League and is a critical element in its existence. But if the competition is to grow it needs some type of free-to-air presence, even if it’s only a highlights show on the ABC or SBS.

And his point that Gold Coast United’s home crowd average (between 2000 to 3000) in a market with a population of 400,000 is comparable to Melbourne Heart’s crowd of 4000 last week with a population of four million, highlights the ongoing concern of crowd figures across the league, not to mention the FFA’s wider expansion errors.

These points shouldn’t be ignored with the next television deal currently being worked on and amid the ongoing work to grow the league. Palmer has fumbled a lot in his running of Gold Coast United, but he is nevertheless a stakeholder in the game with an insider’s perspective.

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As for his club itself, he can either let go of his licence and let the club die with dignity or prolong its misery in the mire of further public bickering. Judging by last night, it seems to be the latter.

But either way it leads to the same result – the death of Gold Coast United. And Palmer should at least accept his blame in that.

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