As far as timing goes, this was impeccable. Nathan Tinkler waited until precisely the right moment to drop the latest bombshell on a besieged Football Federation Australia.
This drama was meant to be over last week, when Gold Coast were cut for Western Sydney.
The problem club was kicked out, the golden goose was in. Done and dusted, let’s have a few drinks at the Johnny Warren Medal count and then start planning ahead, right? Wrong.
Tinkler caught the FFA with their pants down when he pulled his funding of the Newcastle Jets.
While the news felt like a bolt out of the blue, the reality is it has been on the cards for some time. Rumours continue to circulate that Perth Glory’s Tony Sage will be the next chairman to push the red button.
Nobody except for those right in the thick of the drama are privy to the full details of what has happened, but it appears that Tinkler was genuinely outfoxed in the case of the mysterious license fee.
The cash-strapped federation squeezed as much money as they could out of him back in 2010, and he obliged. Obviously, having done his homework (we can only assume), he thought $5 million was fair enough. It was profiteering from FFA and they got away with it.
Tinkler went ahead and took a club that was struggling under its former owner, Con Constantine, and turned them into one of the success stories of this A-League season. Happy days, until Clive Palmer flapped his gums and told him that he’d been ripped off.
That – combined with the Jason Culina affair, the frustrations of an unsustainable business model and a variety of other issues – was the straw that broke the coal-mining camel’s back.
The FFA should have known it was playing with fire – that if a guy like Tinkler ever found out that he paid far more for his club than any of the other A-League owners, then it was going to be on like Donkey Kong.
And so it is. To say that this is just a Nathan Tinkler problem – that he’s another hot-headed mining baron in the mould of Palmer, who never really had the best interests of the game at heart and threw his toys out of the pram when things didn’t go his way – is to overlook the issue.
FFA have made some incredible strides forward this year. All the important metrics – crowds, ratings, memberships, even the standard of play – are up.
Ben Buckley deserves credit for that, as does Frank Lowy, who has done wonderful things for the game in his time as chairman. Nobody should ever forget that, especially given where football used to be.
But all the goodwill they’ve built up has gone. Their credibility in the eyes of the average punter has taken a massive hit.
Buckley claims that the Hunter Sports Group hasn’t a leg to stand on, and that they must continue to pour money into the Jets until 2020 as per their contract.
Whether or not he is right, does the FFA really want another unwilling investor? Isn’t the whole ‘Freedom of Speech’ saga still fresh in the mind?
Tinkler, and the other owners, demand change. Despite the formation of a steering committee that will represent their interests and give them a ‘say’ in the running of the game – according to the federation – they want a seat in the FFA boardroom, and that does not look like happening on the current regime’s watch.
Who can deny them this when it costs them a sum total of $27 million every year to keep the competition afloat? The A-League can’t work without them, so their grievances must be heard.
They join a growing list of football figures to accuse the FFA of a lack of transparency, and pure weight of numbers suggests that they can’t all be angry axe-grinders.
The most shameful part of all of this is that just days after Gold Coast United were abandoned, it looks like more innocent parties are about to have their lives turned upside down.
Players, staff and supporters – the triumvirate that is the essence of the game – have become the unwitting pawns in a billionaires’ game of brinkmanship.
Nobody involved in this can escape blame, but worse still, nobody can say for sure where football will go from here.
j binnie
Guest
Boris - And one of them is a reported 145 million pounds in debt and that can only be put down to one cause ------------bad management practice. So is there a lesson to be learned from that occurrence? Time will tell. jb
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
AUFC made a profit last year. MVFC has more than 25 owners and MVFC has made a profit in 3 out of the 6 years that have been completed. This year's results are not yet known.
Boris the Mudcrab
Guest
I support soccer as a 3rd choice sport and initially was blase about the demise of the Jets. But I have reconsidered and I am saddened for the supporters of the Jets and the code. It seems to me that the FFA is probably more to blame than Tinkler and its model is seriously flawed. Its mission to expand while teams are folding is foolhardy and take away the Russian money I am sure that a few others would be it strife. At the moment it seems that the competition can only really support teams from the capital cities and the danger is over time that the competition could head the way of that ridiculous competition in Scotland in which only 2 teams have a chance of winning the championship.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Guest
No, it is a different model. If one decides to go it is only part of the whole. Hence it is easier to find a replacement. If you are asking about "big losses" and who pays for it then the same problem exists with community run clubs....... which is why Adelaide City and West Adelaide pulled out of the NSL and Adelaide United was formed.
jbinnie
Guest
A couple of things distress me about this whole episode that has occurred over the last few months and I thought for a minute one of them was going to disappear when the CEO of Jets held his press conference,but no, not only did we not hear the questions being asked but we had to formulate what might have been asked by analysing his answers. What I did not hear in his answers was exactly what the club saw as the flaws in FFA management that have to be changed so that the breach between the club owners and the FFA may be worked upon.Sure we can assume they don't like the alleged lack of communication,& the Culina insurance debacle,but what is the deep down reason that would make people like Palmer,Tinkler,Constantine,Sage,and others come out and publicly state their dissatisfaction with the way the game is run, or the opinions of people like Paul Lederer ,who it is reported, categorically dismissed the FFA's business plan proposed to him. Despite what people in these columns are inferring, all these men are street - hardened business men and are not asking questions or spending millions just to simply satisfy whims. I assume it must be the business plan being used or the actual business principles being adhered to but that is only supposition and I would have thought by now some investigative journalist would have got his teeth into this and got the the root of the problem for,without finding that, and fixing it, the game is fighting a losing battle against all the odds. jb
The Cattery
Roar Guru
They either find contracts in the same club, elsewhere in Australia, or try their luck overseas. If you listened carefully to Bozza's point yesterday on Fox FC, he made the point that we can't continue with a minimum salary cap, that clubs need to find their natural fit in terms of finances, and this is one approach that helps do that. Those clubs that can afford it can fill their 8 open age positions with expensive players, but everyone is able to compete because the other 15 positions are U21 players on low wages. It's a financial model that can work, plus, the league is forced to develop young talent and play them in senior competition. Also, it would be wrong to say a third of the team would be turning 22 each year. You would have 15 players spread across the ages of 17 to 21, or roughly 3 in each year, so around 3 of 23 players would be turning 22 each year, that's about 1/8th of your team. It all comes down to list management, you make sure your best 21 year olds are locked in with longer contracts, the 50/50 ones, you work it out when it's time to finalise your list, professional football is a tough business.
Jack Russell
Roar Guru
Point still stands - presumably they're making a big loss, so who is paying for it, and what if they decided to stop?
King of the Gorgonites
Roar Guru
As a RU fan i am glad we got into bed with the likes of Harold Mitchell and not mining magnates. What once was seen as a saviour of Australian sport, is quickly causing its demise.
Stumpy
Roar Rookie
If the FFA think this has been embarrassing watch what will happen if they force Tinkler to retain the licence. He could turn the team and the competition into a circus that will make what Clive did look subtle. They need cut their losses because they are about to send soccer/football back 20 yrs in this country, it will become a joke and may take 50yrs to recover in the minds of the general public.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Guest
Adelaide has a consortium of owners.
mikeylives
Guest
Where do a third of the team go each year when they turn 21?
Kasey
Guest
You must work for SBS...Chill Chicken Little. Its not the end, or even the beginning of the end just a speed bump in the road.
Raghu
Guest
Hear Hear..
Roarsome
Guest
The future of the game, come on. Now who's 12? I was referring to the unexpected nature of the incident given the bad press with GCU appears to have mostly passed and the focus recently has been on the great on field action and preparing for tonight. I'm sure this would have been a "what the?!?" moment like something from a farcical comic sketch. This will all be over in a few days. Either the FFA will take over or Buckley will resign and Tinkler will stay. The game is stronger than a few Billionaires, FFA included. This weekend's match will be a cracker and there will be 50k at Suncorp. AUS teams are fairing alright in the ACL and the Socceroos have WC qualifiers. All will be right for next season. -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.
Realfootball
Guest
Oh for God's sake, grow up. How old are you? 12? "Loved to have seen Buckley's face". Infantile. This is the future of our game in this country we are talking about.
Roarsome
Guest
Julia Gillard throwing money at GWS after the mining tax and upcoming carbon tax would have REALLY annoyed Tinkler. I would loved to have seen Buckley's face when he was first contacted by HSG. -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.
Stevo
Roar Rookie
When I wake up tomorrow all of this will have just been a bad dream and Clive and Nathan will kiss and make up with Frank and we'll talk about the HAL finals and the new WS team and Harry and Emo and Herdy doing well at Villa and you know, football stuff, not about inflated egos and manic characters who one moment are pulling fights with federal and state govts as a show of their strength and in the next breath putting crap on our game because they don't give a rats.
asanchez
Roar Guru
This issue needs to get sorted ASAP. The FFA will no doubt have to fund the Jets until they can one or a group of willing owners to come in. They can't afford for the league to have 9 teams, that would be against what they've done in WS to guarantee 10 teams and therefore a decent TV deal in the next 12 months. Private ownership is a huge issue, good when the owners put in and comply with the rules, not so good when they want to run the show because they obviously fund the clubs. At the moment our game needs these people. Ben Buckley also said today that Nathan Tinkler bought the license for $1m and another $3.5m for the acquisition fee, not the $5m acquisition fee that everyone has been reporting. Clive Palmer bought his license for $500k with no other fee as it was a new entity. The way I see it, Tinkler or HSG bought a business, with existing fans and members, and huge potential if operated correctly. Worth much more than GCU, which at the time when Palmer bought the license didn't even exist. As much as I think HSG should be held accountable, this battle will probably end up in the courts and take a long time to get a verdict. But in the meantime, Football and it's fans are the ones who will get screwed, this is why I think the FFA should part ways with Tinkler and at least run the Jets till work out a solution. Single ownership isn't the answer, as we've seen in recent times. People with big money bring big egos and not much common sense. An arrangement like the Melbourne Victory where 70-80 investors have a say in the club, and if need be, share the club's losses is better way of running the current business model.
AFLhype
Guest
The beginning of the end. Sad day for football. It will be a impossible road back, the AFL/NRL media will have a field day with this. Either you want to see 100pt blow out AFL games or men running into each other all day, this is Australia and that is the choices we have for football.
Victer
Guest
12 teams with 22 rounds (each team) playing each other twice (home & away). with one month finals. 1.6 - 1.7 million FLAT CAP, no marquee spots (senior or youth) and no more Additional Service Agreements. Scrap the NYL and W-League, they are a drain on clubs. Let women play in amatuer state leagues and get mens youth league players from the state premier leagues. Start in October end in April (currently happening) Give state premier league clubs a 25% cut in transfer fees for players a-league clubs sell overseas in which they had a 3 year hand in developing to add incentives for player development at State level. Its time to severely cut costs in order to ensure a-league sustainability and to properly manage the system we already have.