A-League bidders fear expansion licences will be handed to those who offer more money
With two new teams to be rubber-stamped at the next FFA board meeting, concerns are growing that A-League expansion will be driven by those who offer the most money upfront.
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CONCERNS are growing among some A-League expansion bidders that Football Federation Australia will opt for the consortiums that pledge the most money upfront, after several were advised to offer higher bids by FFA’s corporate advisers.
But A-League bosses insist that all bids which are deemed financially viable will be assessed on their merits when the final decision is made next month.
With the governing body’s new board poised to rubberstamp the addition of two new teams for next season at its first meeting on December 12, FFA management will recommend two of six bids whose offers are understood to span a broad range in value from $10m to $20m.
All bidders have been told that the licence fees they pay will have to cover all of the running costs of the new teams for the four years until a new broadcast deal is signed, though FFA will receive a small amount more from its current TV deal in two years’ time if the league has expanded.
For the bidders that amounts to some $12m for the salary cap plus extra for flights and other running costs, as well as an extra margin as contingency funding in case the new clubs run into trouble.
Some expansion bidders are believed to have offered an added premium in the hope of securing a licence, while others have been asked if they can raise their bids.
Though potential bidders were presented with a list of criteria earlier this year, including factors such as fan engagement, youth pathways, connection to their area and an understanding of the local football community and its history, some bidders say that the consultants advising FFA, Deloitte, have concentrated on the finances of the bids.
The lead adviser is Aaron Black of Deloitte, whose company biography describes him as having experience in “a broad range of industries including technology, financial services (and) mining services” among others — though sport is not mentioned.
Deloitte declined to answer questions from The Daily Telegraph about Black’s experience of evaluating sporting franchise bids.
A-League boss Greg O’Rourke said that FFA and Deloitte would take all of the criteria set for the bidders into account, though he was unapologetic that each would have to be financially self-sustaining.
“As we’ve made clear, FFA management still intends on putting recommendations to the board in December about expansion, and we are in the final stages of negotiations over the bidders’ final positions,” O’Rourke said.
“As we have always said, we will be looking at the whole range of defined bid criteria — what will they bring to the A-League, what will the competition’s geographic spread be, all of that — in addition to the finances.”
Meanwhile, the A-League clubs association, APFCA, have elected Wanderers owner Paul Lederer to be chairman — potentially lining him up for a similar role when the competition is reconfigured to an independent model next year.
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Originally published as A-League bidders fear expansion licences will be handed to those who offer more money
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