By David Gold
April 7 – The Australian Football Federation (FFA) has officially announced that Gold Coast United will be axed from next season’s A-League and replaced with a new team in West Sydney.
The announcement that a new club would be created was made by the country’s Prime Minister, Julia Gillard (pictured in purple), at the New South Wales (NSW) Football headquarters at the Valentine Sports Park.
She unveiled an A$8 million (€6.3 million/$8.2million) funding package for football development in West Sydney, half of which will go towards women’s football and a redevelopment of the NSW headquarters.
“I’m delighted that the funding from the Gillard Government will help create a fertile environment for the new Hyundai A-League club in Western Sydney,” said FFA chief executive Ben Buckley.
“From day one of its existence the new club will have a core focus on community engagement.
“The community will have a say in the culture, colours, name and logo of the new entity and we will explore a model that would allow for community ownership.
“In partnership with Football NSW, FFA will ensure the club is truly integrated in community football, schools programs and the elite player pathway.
“We intend to build a model that will be driven by the passion of the football people in Sydney’s west.”
The new team will replace Gold Coast, whose owner Clive Palmer was stripped of his license after breaking league rules following a war of words with FFA chiefs earlier this year.
The Australian reports that the FFA failed to bring on board a number of high profile business people and so are forced to fund the new team themselves, as they have done with a number of other teams in recent years.
Gold Coast were officially axed with the FFA citing a lack of public and corporate support in the city, which will host the Commonwealth Games in 2018.
Laying the blame for the team’s demise at Palmer’s door, Buckley said: “FFA is bitterly disappointed that Gold Coast United failed to develop a market for football on the Gold Coast over the past three seasons.
“We acknowledge the hard work and commitment over the past six weeks by Football Queensland, Gold Coast Football Association, the Gold Coast players and coach Mike Mulvey.
“The team showed great professionalism and pride in performance in the way they completed the season.
“FFA’s mandate is to govern for the good of the game and this decision is the only responsible course to take in ensuring we have a sustainable A-League.”
Gold Coast are the third team to go under in recent years, following North Queensland Fury and New Zealand Knights.
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