Sunshine Coast Fire reveal interstate competition plans amid Football Queensland dispute

The Sunshine Coast Fire have unveiled radical steps for their 2024 season as the fallout with Football Queensland worsens, including creating a new junior competition and playing senior games interstate.

Sunshine Coast Fire Football Director Melvyn Wilkes. Photo Patrick Woods / Sunshine Coast Daily.

The Sunshine Coast Fire are looking to join a Football Victoria competition and play all senior home games out of a ground in Melbourne in the 2024 season.

The club is also looking to establish its own junior competition next year after being forcibly removed from all junior and senior Football Queensland competitions.

Sunshine Coast first received a legal letter from their own governing body on October 10, advising them they had ‘no right to continued participation’ and had not been invited to apply for a new license for the NPL.

Sporting Director Melvyn Wilkes said although the club was still working with Football Australia through their National Second Division process, they were confidently exploring further options for their junior and senior teams.

“We’re currently in discussions with Football Victoria and it’s looking likely that we’ll take teams down to Victoria to compete, particularly in the senior bracket for 2024,” Wilkes said.

Wilkes said the senior team would train on the Sunshine Coast each week before boarding a plane to fly to Melbourne.

Sunshine Coast FC Fire. Picture: Facebook

He said the club had sufficient financial resources to fly all Sunshine Coast Fire teams (under 9s to seniors) to Melbourne each week and that was a consideration.

“For our juniors we’ll be taking some interstate, some out of the country and we may be in and around the schools competition as well so the level is going to be significantly higher,” he said.

“It’s pretty much creating a new competition and the teams that have shown interest so far are both interstate and Queensland-based organisations.

“It’s all been carefully put together to make sure we’re not compromising the football club and it fits seamlessly under the education stream.”

Wilkes said because the majority of the club’s junior players were also full time at Peregian Beach College, there had been ‘less than a handful’ that had left the club.

He said the work and final planning was still ongoing but was confident for the months ahead.

“What we’ve prepared and what we’ll deliver is above and beyond what they’ve been getting for the last three or four years and it’ll be a bigger and better operation than just a run of the mill football club,” he said.

“An announcement was made to parents and players on November 8 to discuss our alternative model and it’s a massive credit to the parents who have been absolutely fabulous as they’ve seen it all from a wider lens.

“We’ve made sure, from a legal point of view, that we carry significant appropriate insurance which is covered by global insurance partners.”

Wilkes said that club, parents and players would also be saving thousands of dollars by not having to pay Football Queensland their series of licensing, registration, insurance or affiliation fees.

Both Football Queensland and Football Victoria were approached for comment before the time of publishing.