Clive Palmer picks up the ball to head own B-League

CLIVE Palmer has intensified his feud with billionaire Frank Lowy by setting up an organisation to vie for control of soccer.

CLIVE Palmer has ramped up his feud with fellow billionaire Frank Lowy by setting up a "grassroots" organisation to vie for control of soccer in Australia.

The move came as receivers were called in to Mr Palmer's Sunshine Coast resort, intensifying a separate battle with international hotel operator Hyatt.

The larger-than-life Queenslander is set to become the lawyer's best friend as he takes to the courts today in Brisbane to pursue the fight on both fronts.

Mr Palmer will seek an injunction against governing body Football Federation Australia, chaired by Mr Lowy, who also heads the Westfield shopping centre empire, to halt the deregistration of his soccer club, Gold Coast United. This was the trigger for Mr Palmer to announce last night that he had formed a "new independent organisation" known as Football Australia to agitate for reform of the game and ultimately replace FFA.

At the same time, his lawyers will be slugging it out with those for Hyatt, which he has tried to sack as operator of the Coolum resort. Mr Palmer bought the 324-room hotel, golf course and spa business last July for a reported price of $80 million and moved to show Hyatt the door after claiming the US-based hotel giant had siphoned $60m from the business during the past 24 years.

Ginette Muller of receiver-managers KordaMentha said the resort would continue to operate and its 650 employees were not at risk of losing their jobs.

A pugnacious Mr Palmer last night revealed that the administrators were appointed after he resigned as a director on the board of the resort this week.

Asked if the business was solvent, Mr Palmer said, in part: "I can't say . . . I don't know. I could not exercise those rights (as a director) so I resigned."

Mr Palmer revealed he had been involved in 68 sets of litigation over his long and colourful business career, including a defamation action against Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, which was settled out of court. He said he had never been on the losing side of a judgment.

Cheekily, he said the start-up organisation Football Australia would be modelled on Mr Lowy's business and political think tank, the Lowy Institute.

"It will be making people in football accountable to the people who are most important in the game, the fans," Mr Palmer said.

Mr Lowy hit back last night, telling The Australian through a spokesman that Mr Palmer had advised him a month ago that he wanted out of the game.

FFA chief executive Ben Buckley branded Mr Palmer's claims as "farcical", and said they did not warrant a response.

Mr Palmer has recruited former A-League boss Archie Fraser to front the new organisation, which aimed to eventually replace an "incompetent" FFA.

The body's move to strip Gold Coast United of its A-League licence demonstrated the "need for a complete overhaul of football administration in Australia", Mr Palmer said.

Mr Fraser said it was time for FFA "to stop playing the man and start getting on with the job". He cited the need for a "super TV deal" on broadcast rights for the A-League as a priority.

Mr Palmer said Mr Lowy had, in a conversation a fortnight ago, offered him a deal to fold the struggling Gold Coast club and then take the box seat in establishing a new franchise in western Sydney.

According to Mr Palmer, he was asked by Mr Lowy to stump up $5m for the expansion licence, which would be on top of the $18m he had already sunk into Gold Coast United.

"Frank said, 'if you do that, we will give you a nice exit . . . nice media'," Mr Palmer said. He was adamant he had rejected the offer.

Mr Lowy sharply disputed Mr Palmer's account. His spokesman said Mr Palmer had, in fact, written to FFA more than a month ago to advise he wanted to wind up the Gold Coast soccer venture as well as his involvement in the game as a whole. "Palmer had informed Mr Lowy in writing and in a subsequent conversation (that) he had lost all interest in staying in the code," the spokesman said.

"Mr Lowy then put to Palmer a suggestion of possibly investing in a proposed west Sydney franchise, which he (Palmer) rejected.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING: AAP