Western Sydney is most definitely a place where A-League football needs to be. However the case of the Fury still lingers bitterly in the mouths of many football fans.
The A-League is certainly a unique beast. Hot on the heels of Gold Coast being kicked out of the competition, for admittedly, other reasons than money, it is announced Western Sydney will join the league. Funded entirely by the game.
Such a decision comes on top of the move to disband the North Queensland Fury. The club was considered too big a financial risk for the FFA to fund for the 2011/12 season and therefore wiped off the face of the earth.
I do concede Western Sydney is a bigger market than North Queensland but I cannot be comfortable with the choices the FFA has made. The fall of the Fury is one that will be bitter in the hearts of Australian football people for a long time.
Whilst there crowds were small and their team unsuccessful there was a vibrancy and personality to the Fury that Gold Coast never had. It’s the same passion and identity that sees the Heart and Phoenix be strong, even though their crowds aren’t huge.
The Fury needed persistence and investment but the FFA chose to abandon it. Now after completely stuffing up the Gold Coast they choose to fully fund a team from Western Sydney.
Money isn’t something FFA has been great at handling recently. The debacle that was the World Cup hosting bid cost taxpayers millions of dollars and as a result of this earlier in the year they had to get more from the government.
It is such a shame that money couldn’t be put into North Queensland. The fact that they now are prepared to put it into Western Sydney makes it blatantly obvious that Ben Buckley, Frank Lowy and Lyall Gorman simply didn’t believe or have any faith in the community up there.
In my opinion the world game is the only football code and probably sport (excluding cricket) that can be a truly national game. Yet if the FFA sends out messages like they did dumping the Fury but supporting Western Sydney certain parts of the community will become disenfranchised.
It is encouraging that $8 million was secured to go into grassroots development for Western Sydney football. This will ensure a supreme base of community infrastructure to support the new team.
Furthermore, giving the fans a chance to pick the culture, colours, logo and other aspects of the new team is a great idea. This proves the FFA has learnt from previous disasters.
However nonetheless I still mourn the loss of North Queensland Fury and Gold Coast United.
The FFA must understand that what is more important than money is community engagement and proper management structures. They need to get this right or else Western Sydney may not be the success that it should be.
baller
Guest
more money in nth queensland han most of australia, it just doesnt get used for soccer
ItsCalled AussieRules
Roar Rookie
NQF weren't kicked out of the league, the owner pulled out because he didn't have the financial backing he said he did and wanted to get out. The FFA ran the club for as long as they could but no new owner or financial guarantor came forward with suficient money to bail them out.
ItsCalled AussieRules
Roar Rookie
I don't think the FFA are that concerned with the name, logo and colours, do you. Its an opportunity for people to have a say and at least attempt to connect with them. The FFA want it to succeed and they have learnt that to do that they need to connect with the community. Palmer and Mattheson were wealthy men who didn't connect with the community and blamed the FFA for their failures. NQF made a better go of it than GCU in terms of community and attendances, but in the end the owner pulled out, cut his losses and left it to the FFA to manage, not the other way around. The FFA couldn't sell the club and there were no substantial financial backers so the club folded, just like several NRL clubs did during their Super League expansion.
ChrisW
Guest
TBH i can see why FFA cut Gold coast loose it needed A LOT of repairing and we dont have the money for that GCU will still have a youth league team and the aim is to get them back in the A-league within 5 years i think thats a preety good compromise.GCU were badly damaged. Fury though should have absolutely not got cut lose there crowds could of averaged 8k imo if they had a better season and had they not of had bad press about there money issues.I would like to fury readmitted at some time maybe do the whole youth league team thing.
Whites
Guest
The Fury should never have existed. It was bizarre theory they were needed for the world cup bid and it's good there gone.
Lucan
The public got to vote for the name of the second Melbourne team. I'm yet to meet a person who suggested or voted for "Heart". As posted by someone in the other thread, the names, colours, logo would already be decided. These aspects of "engagement" are spin.
Punter
Guest
No money in Nth Queensland, simple truth. It was required for world cup bid after that & after the money dried up, unfortunate as it is no Nth Queensland. Far more potential in West Sydney.