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So, with the World Cup bid over, time finally expired on the Sydney Rovers consortium, and Ben Buckley’s future decided, the next task for Football Federation Australia will be deciding the fate of the financially perilous North Queensland Fury. Finally.
It’s been disappointing to watch a club, filled with players, coaches and staff who don’t deserve to be left drifting, wait to find out what the future holds for them.
The Fury’s under whelming performance on Friday night against Adelaide left me with the obvious, but unavoidable, question of whether all the off-field drama surrounding the club was starting to take its toll.
Now, after having been left in limbo for so long, I suspect many within the club would even welcome bad news, if only for the clarity it would bring.
That’s not to say such an outcome wouldn’t be an absolute pity.
I was left astounded by the stories of fan commitment and support my colleague Vitor Sobral came back with after his recent trip to North Queensland.
The fact this side has managed to find any traction at all in their market considering the inconvenient times many games are played due to the A-League’s restrictive TV deal is astonishing.
So I hope FFA consider all this and more as they decide on the Fury’s fate.
If the Fury dies so does professional football in Far North Queensland, possibly for good.
You cannot burn a set of fans and then expect them to come back again later down the track. It’s just not how it works. A fans allegiance is not for sale. It needs to be earned.
Maybe in a more transient market like the Gold Coast, where in ten years time there will be a significant amount of “fresh” potential supporters, such an approach might find some success but in Townsville, I suspect that wont be the case.
The second point is even more pertinent as in my opinion the loss of the Fury will do intrinsic harm to the public image of the A-League.
What’s amazed me most about the club with the league’s most hideous colours is how much support and interest the Fury has elicited from around the Australian football community.
How many times have you heard someone say the Fury is fast becoming their “second team”?
Forgive me for using some marketing jargon, but this kind of traction is priceless.
It’s remarkable in a league filled with somewhat faceless sides that were plucked into existence over the last six years, that so many people with no direct affiliation to the Fury are not just showing a genuine interest but actually care about their future.
If FFA need to dig into their own pockets to save a club there’s clearly a problem. Yet, at the same time, to let a club that is so widely appreciated go under will do the league much harm.
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