Winter is coming, and the impending storm has potential to rattle House A-League. A decade on since the A-League’s inception, progress should be the go-to word.
Instead, we have just farewelled a season that dished out a cacophony of wars, all to be battled out over the off-season.
Now with no on-pitch goodness to mask off-field failures, the sticky situations an overwhelming number of clubs are mired in has been laid bare.
Perth Glory must be licking their lips at the brief reprieve from the spotlight, as Nathan Tinkler again forced himself onto the back pages this week.
According to Newcastle Jets owner Tinkler, the story goes that he wasn’t willing to pay staff and player wages until he was guaranteed the club’s licence.
That didn’t happen, so he placed Newcastle into voluntary administration on Wednesday – the same that day the FFA revoked the licence held by Newcastle Jets Football Operations Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Tinkler’s Hunter Sports Group.
The situation has been brewing for years. So often there has been uncertainty at the Jets at top level, before a last ditch intervention from Tinkler. Chaos, control. Chaos, control.
This time, things have certainly reached a boiling point. FFA now have control of the club and are in discussions regarding a takeover.
That’s where a new problem has arisen. Tinkler has suggested he was on the verge of selling the club to a consortium including Dundee United chairman Stephen Thompson. The mining magnate has not so subtly accused FFA of swooping in and hijacking his deal, claiming the governing body were made fully aware of his plans.
“The FFA have set the template here of ripping off owners and thinking it’s OK,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “They peg us guys to put our hard-earned in and we do and then they want to rip it from you and basically, they are saying that all A-League licences are worth nothing.”
It sets a dangerous precedent, one that threatens to create a greater divide to what is already a tempestuous relationship between the FFA and all A-League owners.
Tinkler has made very few friends as Jets owner, though his plight isn’t without merit.
Make no mistake, both Tinkler and former Gold Coast owner Clive Palmer have done their clubs and the league more harm than good. Regardless of motive, their antics have led to the demise of one and a half clubs between them.
FFA intervened before, by their judgement, Newcastle became another Gold Coast, North Queensland Fury or New Zealand Knights. And there is no excuse for Tinkler leaving Jets staff and players stranded without pay.
But perhaps the message of the 2003 report of the Independent Soccer Review Committee, known as the Crawford Report, needs to be taken seriously.
The report, a precursor to the foundation of the A-League, suggested an independent commission oversee the A-League to allow for greater transparency. It was a notion rejected by the FFA, who believed themselves to be independent enough to make decisions in the best interests of all stakeholders.
With an obvious fraction between the FFA and respective owners, it’s clear that this suggestion deserves to be brought back to the fore.
Progress can only be achieved if clubs are enabled to step out from the FFA’s shadow and quit being a parody of one another. Sure, that comes with an element of risk, for example if Tinkler was further from a sale than insinuated. But it also provides a greater reward for individual clubs whose greatest crime is a sense of ambition.
Now, the Jets are back at square one. New owners will come in, with a heavy influence initially from the FFA. Though all players and staff will be offered their contracts again, the face of the club will undoubtedly change.
A number of key players have already run from the mess and it now seems very likely that there will be a new coach on the touchline next season, with a growing voice of dissent against Phil Stubbins’ management.
The simple fact is that the city of Newcastle needs the Jets to thrive. The market is there for it to return to the heights of the championship win in 2008.
It’s immensely important that things are done right this time around. The new owners must place particular emphasis on community engagement.
At present, the Jets seem more distant than ever to their fans. Tinkler has undoubtedly earned the ire of locals with his ruthless and impersonal approach to business and in that regard, he may have done the club a favour by going toe to toe with FFA, as many fans had threatened to walk away after another rough season in protest to his ownership.
Though they share a stadium, the Newcastle Knights have averaged double the crowd this season of the Jets. Community engagement doesn’t just mean showing your face in public. It means operating in the interest of players and investing in building a club that is going to benefit the city of Newcastle.
Here’s to hoping the FFA are much wiser in this Jets takeover than the last.
Meanwhile, across the country, lest we forget about the dirt tracks Perth left behind this season. The salary cap saga has paved the way for an exodus. Jamie Maclaren has asked for a release and Danny Vukovic is tipped to be on the way out, with Josh Risdon, Michael Thwaite and Dino Djulbic and Scott Jamieson all rumoured to be attracting interest from across the league.
Throw in the hunt for a new CEO and Glory could be counting the cost of the scandal all off-season.
Speaking of clean outs, Western Sydney have plenty to do before pre-season starts. Consistency was by no means prevalent at the club this season.
Asian Champions League success was juxtaposed with dismal league form; while the recruitment drive proved mostly fruitful – Vitor Saba and Seyi Adeleke given the premature chop.
There could be similar rebuilding for Brisbane, who are set to report a loss in excess of $2.25 million for the 2014-15 financial year, according to News Corp.
The Roar could also be destined for new owners, with chairman Chris Fong in discussions with current owners Bakrie Group over their future plans. A busy period will be capped off by the hunt for a new man to replace interim coach Frans Thijssen.
Just years after the A-League seemed destined to reach an unprecedented level of quality and interest, the Australian game has taken a significant step back. The way this wave of turmoil is handled over the coming months could be decisive to the short term future of the league.
Rob Gremio
Roar Pro
I disagree with this point: Tinkler's "plight isn’t without merit". He was using the players' pay and superannuation entitlements as bargaining chips, so he has no leg to stand on in my opinion. He abrogated all rights to argue he has been hard done by because he failed to honour is commitments to his employees. The FFA is right to do this, in my opinion. Had he paid up all the entitlements and then had the rug pulled out from under him just as the club was about to be sold, then sure, he would have had an argument. However, he had not, so he has no reason to feel screwed. Screwed are the players and their families who weren't paid their super for months and whose pay cheques never arrived.
Justin Mahon
Guest
Agree with all that, however, in order of OWNERSHIP model preference 1. A smart incorporated members association. 2. A smart private consortia (with a proportion of member shareholders) 3. A smart private consortia. 4. A smart private billionaire. 5. A dumb private billionaire with a huge football heart and mind. 6. A dumb private billionaire with no idea, but who can pay the bills while the FFA builds its revenues and can manage future ownership changes without such idiots. Guess which one Tinkler was. Regardless of the ownership structure, ALL have to do the hard work of building value. Each and every one of these will fail if they adopt Tinkler's BUSINESS model.
Justin Mahon
Guest
Yep, almost 1/4 of the original licence fee returned in a single financial year. Not bad - if you run your club properly. The balance sheet is about much more than last years profit though. MVFC likely worth 30M ish
aladdin sane
Guest
MV recorded a profit of about 950k.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
You are correct in everything you say, but I see a pattern emerging: 1. rich man pays a lot for a license (often after a previous owner has gone broke propping up the very same club) 2. rich man plonks millions into the club 3. rich man dismayed that opportunity to generate sufficient revenue is hindered by the governing body 4. said governing body takes back license because rich man can't generate sufficient revenue to cover the millions he has lost 5. governing body sells license on to next rich man 6. everyone keen to see the back of previous rich man who has just lost millions of dollars (having saved the club having already gone broke, once or even twice) If the cycle can continue ad inifinitum, then the FFA has absolutely nothing to be worried about - as long as dumb rich men continue to show up - it's all coming up peaches.
Justin Mahon
Guest
The FFA may well have been talking to the Dundee Chairmans consortia, however, as the only real asset Tinkler's football business owned was an A-League licences with strict financial management clauses, any prospective owner only had to read the newspaper to do their due diligence. I'll bet 'London to a brick' the Chairman waited to bleed Tinkler knowing full well the FFA would immediately take the license back, tidy up the operation and then sell at cost (I.e running expenses between now and sale day). Smart men both. He and Gallop need not even have picked up the phone.
Justin Mahon
Guest
What debt? When the Newcastle Jets are next sold, they will be a new, seperate, debt free organisation. Tinkler's creditors have all the debts. Tinkler chief amongst them. Those creditors won't see a cent, because Nathan's sports business company has no assets. The only one they had the FFA lawfully reclaimed.
Justin Mahon
Guest
Hi MF, At (1) replace "all", with "key" or "strategic". I am no ideologue. At (2) replace "that's tough", with "that's the measure of their football business acumen and they should improve or sell". Again, I am no ideologue, so I would rather owners understand their limitations and make rational business decisions. Lending yourself $15m against an asset, defaulting on its terms (and the loans), shitting on the NNSW federation and hoping to trade your way out by reducing prices seems to me to be poor strategic thinking. I do agree with your last point however. Each time an owner in a single market fails, the value of the license for that market diminishes. That, however, is precisely what should happen. The next owner should benefit in price terms from and loss of 'good will'. We will soon find out the value of the Newcastle licence when the FFA sell. A great deal of its value will be determined by how good a job they do in rebuilding the club. Again, precisely as it should be. The value will be the result of hard work. Something. Nathan Tinkler failed to learn, believing instead he could 'lend his way to success'.
Justin Mahon
Guest
Is that a figure slightly higher than "worthless"? If so, there is a problem with the arguments of my free-market, incorporation fettishistic, nut job mates on this forum. The only determinant of value in any asset is the state of its balance sheet and the demand for it. Everything after that is politics. A-League licences are worth money for a reason. Newcastle won't have any problems finding a buyer. No matter what the confused Thatcherites claim. They are a rare breed. Starved vultures. The carcass just won't come dammit!!!!!
Lionheart
Guest
Waz Our overall performance this year, with NYL and W League, has been very good. Our main team suffered badly with injuries, some games with 7 or so first choice players out injured, and this remained the case for much of the season. If you look at attendance figures, our first 5 or 6 matches averaged about 16-17K, as good as any team. Then the rot set in, with two games rescheduled to mid-week and crowd numbers down below 10K. We also had a long run of away games, and no home games for the FFA Cup or ACL. The whole season seemed to fall over in a mighty crash with Mulvey's sacking and poor management adding to our misery. Lower crowds getting lower, little wonder money was lost. I still think our biggest issue is publicity. News Limited owns the media in Brisbane, and sadly for us, they're also the majority share holder in the Broncos. Read the Courier Mail any day and it's all about the Broncos. Same for the TV news. I suggest Roar seek to sell a share of ownership to News Ltd. The Roar have actually done very well considering the injuries, and the lack of coverage in local media.
brian drian
Guest
yes indeed. The 4 corners episode on Tinkler was an eye opener.
aladdin sane
Guest
so would everyone, but who is going to pay for the millions of dollars of debt?
aladdin sane
Guest
If you mean MV, the value set last year as indicated by their share offer was $30 million.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
But this might be precisely Tinkler's beef - that while he was talking to the Dundee Utd chairman about the possibile sale of the club (so that he can recoup a tiny fraction of the millions he has lost on the Jets), the FFA were talking to him as well, perhaps telling him that they are about to pull the license off Tinkler, thereby denying Tinkler the possibility of getting anything back.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
JM I have been reading your views with interest on this subject in a number of threads. Your argument appears to be (please correct me if I have got any of it wrong): 1. it is preferable that the FFA control all aspects of the game, including the elite competition; and 2. owners who purchase a license understand the risk, understand what they are getting themselves into, and if they lose millions of dollars in keeping their club afloat, that's just tough. In the current example, the bit I am struggling with, and others have raised this point above: should Tinkler not be entitled to sell the club to help offset the millions of dollars he has ploughed into the club (over and above the $5 million he spent on the license in the first place) - obviously the club only has value while a license is attached to it, but regardless of the $5 million fee paid upfront, the FFA appears to retain control of the license and can re-sell it at anytime. Maybe it is a case of tough for Tinkler, and tough that he has lost millions of dollars (at a time when the Jets were struggling financially under a previous owner), but each time something like this happens, does the value of a license diminish because it appears to represent the right to lose millions of dollars.
Matthew Skellett
Guest
I wouldn't believe anything Mr Tinkler says -you just have to get out the old " moral-measuring tool" of who has to gain most by lying - the FFA can't gain anything they already have the license back and and are busy spending the big bucks to clean up the mess Tinlker left in his wake -you only have to get the testimony of Tinkler's creditors and the fans /staff/members for that whereas for Tinkler this is all about trying to look good being attached to a corpse of his own creation. Apparently he has a history in business of not paying bills etc. -Mr Norman was a powerful friend of Mr Tinkler and let him borrow out of trouble for a while but we all know you can't 'move on' from robbing Peter to pay Paul lol
Waz
Guest
We are in ghd dark I agree; but 20,000 seems realistic on the reported loss this year. Interesting the move to Perry Park hasn't taken place despite the fanfare this time last year. Suggests the financial issues stretch back that far. Mulvey isn't sorted out yet it was in the news a month ago that he was planning to take Roar to court over it. The other area of cost that will drive losses is the $330k cost of flying the NYL team nationwide each season plus the $275k for the women's team. That's $600k in travel each season that isn't really offset by other revenues such as gate money and sponsorship
Ian
Guest
Not questioning you in particular - but needed 20,000 to break even seems ridiculous to me. So i don't have much faith in what Fong says. Other points I was just throwing some other unusual expenses in there........I would have assumed Mulvey had a payout of his existing contract. There is a couple to a few hundred thousand. I took a stab and thought they would have incurred expenses to do with the whole Perry Park move, regardless of if a new building etc..is there........because really I can't figure out how so much money has been lost. We're all guessing really.
Waz
Guest
Ian, there's been plenty of chatter on the expenses for Roar but without any factual or clear picture being available but to some of your points: - Suncorp rental is believed to be $220k-$240k per match -Robina Stadium would have cost somefhing like $180k per game so $540k to stage home ACL games - you said new facilities, what bew facilities? Roar still train at Ballymore but is expense being laid out at Perry Park (I was there last week and couldn't see anything) - Mulvey hasn't been paid out yet and we may end up in legal with that Fong stated Roar needed an average crowd of 20k per game to reach breakeven and 11k were needed on game day to pay for Suncorp. So the profit/loss on the ACL this season was maybe about a $750k loss but that's only a third of the rumoured full season loss so yes, where does the loss come from?
AR
Guest
Green Bay is indeed in a league of its own when it comes to community owned clubs.