The likely demise of Gold Coast United at season’s end has cast a dark shadow over the A-League, but whilst the competition will eventually move on, many of the club’s players may not have the same opportunity and the league will be poorer for their absence.
For Gold Coast players, the past fortnight will have been a nightmare, with the majority of the squad’s professional careers in limbo.
Whilst many have age on their side, the death of the North Queensland Fury highlighted the difficulties players’ can face when a large group are trying to find a new club in a league where employment opportunities are limited.
When the Fury folded, just seven of the 23 contracted players managed to find a new club in the A-League, with the majority forced to return to state leagues.
Due to squad and salary cap restrictions many of the Gold Coast players will also be forced to step down to state league competitions.
This will no doubt be difficult, but it is not just their professional careers that could suffer.
Many will have spent their lives working towards the goal of becoming professional footballers and rightly or wrongly neglected other potential vocations.
Not only will they be forced to consider new careers, they will also have to adjust to life without professional football.
Most players are constantly working towards improving their game with their whole lives, and often their families, centred on the weekend’s match.
Take this away and many will feel as if they are no longer the same person as their identity is very much tied to football.
Some may suggest that like much of the population they will simply have to get on with things as not everyone will live out their dreams.
This is no doubt true.
But the fact that many are also not doing what they love is unlikely to be comforting.
Players will also have to come to terms with the death of their club. Many of the club’s players have emerged from the youth team and will no doubt feel deeply connected to it.
Whilst the current crop of players will be instantly affected by the fate of the Gold Coast the league will not escape unharmed. There will be 23 less opportunities in professional football in Australia and the talent pool will be diluted at a time when the national team is calling out for young blood.
Gold Coast could play a major role in developing the next generation of Socceroos as they have been one of the league’s most successful clubs in developing players in their youth team and then successfully moving them into the first team.
There is also the impact it will have on luring the best possible players to the competition.
How many players will be eager to come to a competition that in the past two seasons has seen two clubs fold and many players lose their jobs? Few who have other options.
The most disappointing aspect of this is that it is not because of a poor playing standard or low wages but rather contract security, something that the sport was meant to have dealt with when the A-League was established.
Gold Cost may not have been a success off the pitch but this will offer little comfort to players and staff who may soon be out of work through no fault of their own. Those who have played a role in the demise of the club will walk away leaving those who are innocent to pay the price for their mismanagement.
Follow me on Twitter @beaubusch
Qantas supports Australian Football
Guest
Beau---- this is an interesting take by SBS on what Frank Lowy did to us GCU and the Fury---it's time Frank Lowy and his CEO Ben Buckley were removed from office---they have been proven to be incompetent dealing with this matter.. http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/video/2203445335/Shootout?from=theFilter
Beau Busch
Roar Pro
Very good point! I think expertise from either the MLS or J-League would be a benefit to the league because as you say they have been through many of the same problems.
Beau Busch
Roar Pro
I think you summed up the situation so well and it should have been handled very differently. There was so much potential for the club, which appears likely to go unfulfilled. If the club was to be handed over to the community, as you say was the plan, the future no doubt could have been very bright.
Nick
Guest
Excellent piece.
Dick Bellow
Guest
I wish we could grab someone from the MLS offices, let them help run the league. The FFA is holding football back in this country, Poor decisions on expanding, without studying if that location is good for the game. MLS have had these problems in their past, why not just ask for some help. The image of the league, might not recover from this ill fated decision of the FFA. Who will suffer? the fans and the players.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
Great perspective Beau, well written and said.
Qantas supports Australian Football
Guest
Good article Beau and you of all people know how those loyal club players, staff, and supporters feel right now. How this incredible, horrible decision made by Lowy will affect the whole of the Gold Coast region is anyones guess. What Lowy has done to all of those who were connected with the club; the punishment really did not fit the crime. Lowy is a dictator and had little regard for those young players and loyal supporters who stuck by the club for 3 years. OK Palmer pushed the FFA to the edge, but Lowy has destroyed a young club because he was not man enough to wait until the end of the season---to work out a sensible solution of GCU's off field problems. Slap a hefty fine on the club, take the points away anything else, but to destroy a club who were developing a great young team for the future was a crime. Make no mistake about it---this is not what Clive want to see---his club, our club, he was building for the community being destroyed by Frank Lowy's desire to put in another Sydney Rovers. This was a community club that, many were mistakenly thinking was a toy thing of CP's, believe me you were wrong those who had that thought, it was in an embryo state that was going to be eventually handed over to a community based committee to run. Now we have lost a good regional club for it's 9k grass roots football participants.