You have to admire the chutzpah of the team behind Tasmania United. Tossing the name of Ethiopian billionaire Mohammed Hussein Ali Al Amoudi into the mix has been a PR masterstroke.
That $40,000 the Tasmanian government kicked in to a feasibility study wouldn’t even buy a column inch, but already the football media is abuzz with stories about this mystery investor, touted as the 43rd richest man in the world.
Beyond chutzpah, though, I’ve had some dealings with Tasmania United in a private capacity and have been impressed with their open-mindedness, something that other A-League teams have not been. I cannot say who, but I know for a fact they recently conducted meetings with a well-known foreign coach about bringing him to Tasmania and were serious in their intentions.
Amoudi’s name rang a bell with me and some Google sleuthing later I figured out why. Years ago Al Amoudi sponsored the CECAFA Cup, which pits nations from Central and East Africa together each year. For three years it was known as the Al Amoudi Senior Challenge Cup and Al-Amoudi put up $2 million of his own money to keep it going.
Al-Amoudi is renowned for his altruism with Ethiopian footballers. He has helped many financially and recently paid for the hospital costs of the leukaemia-stricken Ethiopia national-team goalkeeper Ali Redi.
His company, Midroc, also sponsors the club that won the Midroc-sponsored Ethiopian Premier League in 2008, Addis Ababa-based St George FC, which is coached by the Serb Milutin Sredojevic.
So he has a pedigree in the roundball world.
But how did he come by Tasmania?
Ken Morton, the well-travelled English-born director of football of Tasmania United FC and a junior player with Manchester United no less, coached in Ethiopia near on a decade ago, taking charge of Addis Ababa club EEPCO FC, the team of Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation. It was there that he met the sheikh.
A handy person to meet, but that is what happens when you step out of your comfort zone and open your eyes up to what the world has to offer.
Fortune favours the brave.
What’s been most impressive to me, though, so far about Tasmania’s pitch to the A-League mandarins for that coveted 12th A-League licence has not been the promise of African millions but its stated wish to bring more African and Asian players to the A-League.
Morton has coached in Vietnam, Malaysia and Ethiopia, Amoudi has singlehandely propped up East African football for years off his own largesse, and other people involved behind the scenes with the consortium have extensive contacts in the region.
It augurs well for the success of the Tasmania United bid and the general prosperity of the A-League going forward.
Tassie might be a blip on an atlas but it’s thinking big. And thinking big is what it’s going to take to get this audacious bid over the line.
Good luck to it.
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