Adelaide United confident it can survive a potential competition-wide player exodus should the A-League recommence in June
A commitment to re-signing key personnel has Adelaide United confident it can cope with a potential competition-wide player exodus should the A-League resume from its coronavirus hiatus in June.
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Adelaide United is confident it is well-placed to cope with a potential competition-wide exodus of talent should the A-League resume in June.
More than half of the league’s players come off contract on May 31 and it remains unclear whether their deals will be extended to cover the remainder of the season when it restarts.
Football Federation Australia announced on Thursday it intended to lift the league’s coronavirus suspension as soon as possible.
But the governing body said clubs were unlikely to be allowed to return to training before late May, leaving more than 100 players in limbo when the campaign recommenced.
Reds chief executive Nathan Kosmina said uncertainty surrounded the status of soon-to-expire contracts, despite FIFA giving national associations scope to amend registration windows.
But he said United was in a strong position for the remainder of the rescheduled campaign, given just five players were nearing the end of their deals.
“We’re relatively fortunate that we’ve signed the majority of our squad for next year,” Kosmina said.
“We’ve been strategic with that over the past few years.
“Currently everyone has still got five to six weeks on their contracts for next year and with no set dates for the recommencement of the league, there’s no need to extend those.
“But we have to consider what teams will look like (when the league restarts), players that might have contracts elsewhere for next year, what does that then mean?
“There’s clubs that would have a lot more players off contract (than the Reds) and their capacity to compete would dictate that discussion ... regarding extension of contracts.
“Other clubs are impacted to a greater degree than what we are.”
Four of Adelaide’s five imports are among those coming off-contract.
Danish captain Michael Jakobsen, Norwegian striker Kristian Opseth, German midfielder Mirko Boland and Chinese youngster Yongbin Chen are set to become free agents next month.
Australian under-23 striker George Blackwood’s deal is also due to expire.
Kosmina did not rule out the possibility of the quintet lining for the Reds, should action resume in June.
But the likelihood of Boland featuring appeared slim, given he had already returned to his homeland and signed with fourth-tier VfB Lubeck for the 2020/21 season.
The potential departure of Chen was unlikely to hurt United, as he was yet to feature in a first-team squad.
Opseth’s debut campaign Down Under had also been marred by a string of injuries, restricting him to just nine starts and two goals.
But he backed FFA’s criteria for a restart, including assurances of player and staff health and safety, as well as the relaxing of large gathering and social distancing restrictions.
The need for state and federal border restrictions to be lifted before play resumed seemed to rule out the previously floated concept of all games being played in a single-city hub.
“There is a general consensus which is positive,” said Kosmina, who revealed officials from all clubs were participating in group phone calls up to three times weekly.
“But everyone realises that the want to play is outweighed by external factors at the moment.
“Regardless of the players or clubs wanting to come back and train and be proactive in preparing for games down the track, there’s just not the capacity to do so at the moment.
“If that changes by the end of May, great. But there’s a lot of water to go under the bridge.
“The key aspect of it is getting everyone to work towards a goal and restarting the season is ideally what we want to be doing.”
The NRL this week announced it planned to return to matches on May 28.
Kosmina said the A-League faced a different scenario, as it was at the tail end of its season and had the ability to finish the campaign “relatively quickly”.
He believed the competition was unlikely to seek government permission to begin training before national coronavirus controls were lifted, as suggested by the players’ union.
Adelaide’s players and the majority of its staff remained stood down without pay, as they had been since April 1.
“They’re the same as coaches, they’re the same as staff, they’re the same as our fans and members, they just want to play games and get back to training.
“We weren’t having a great run leading into the postponement, but we were still in and about finals.
“It’s an exciting time of the year traditionally for the playing group.
“It’s something they work for for nine months and then to have to step away from it now, players are disappointed.
“But they understand and they’re patient.
“We’ve got a really good group of players and a really good culture among the playing group, so that’s held us in good stead throughout this period.”
FFA was expected to provide a further update on the season next month.