A-League faces $60m hit as last code to fall

Football Federation Australia could be hit by Fox Sports walking away from its $60m deal or be forced into accepting a less lucrative contract.

Football’s deal with Fox Sports is under threat by the A-League shutdown

Football Federation Australia could be hit by Fox Sports walking away from its $60 million annual broadcast deal or be forced into accepting a less lucrative contract should the 2019-2020 A-League season not be completed.

The league was officially postponed on Tuesday as FFA chief executive James Johnson announced the competition was going into hiatus until at least April 22 given the logistical difficulties of moving clubs around the country as state borders shut due to the spread of the coronavirus.

“Mission complicated became mission impossible,” Johnson said.

It left soccer as the last football code to call a halt to play, but the decision also leaves the A-League tantalisingly close to the end of the season with only about five weeks plus finals left on its schedule.

“To get so close to completing the season is a disappointment and to miss out by a few short weeks is heartbreaking for the players, clubs and fans,” Johnson said.

The FFA chief admitted the sport would “feel the financial pressure at all levels” and “there is going to have to be some financial adjustments within FFA operations,” but said it was too early to reveal exactly how costly the shutdown would be for the sport.

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A cancellation of the season would allow Fox Sports to send FFA a breach letter giving the governing body 10 days’ notice of terminating a deal, given there was “no seamless continuity of services” as detailed in the broadcast contract.

The contract calls for FFA to provide Fox Sports with a 27 round season plus finals. Fox could walk away from the contract altogether, or break the deal and then enter into negotiations to keep the broadcast rights at a lower annual cost.

The clubs, FFA and the Professional Footballers’ Association have said they are keen to have discussions with broadcasters and other partners about the future of the league and code. Johnson said he had yet to have any commercial discussions with Fox Sports.

When asked about the potential of Fox Sports walking away, Western Sydney Wanderers chairman Paul Lederer said: “I’m concerned. Under these conditions I think all of us have got to work together. I think it would be pretty immoral to even attempt it.”

Lederer mirrored Johnson’s comments in a press conference on Tuesday morning by saying the A-League would continue in the future.

“Football will survive, of course it will. But this will change all of us,” he said.

But with the private owners of the 11 A-League clubs already coping with $20m in annual losses, the prospect of no revenue for months will be a further blow.

Melbourne Victory chairman Anthony Di Pietro described the shutdown as “the biggest financial challenge Melbourne Victory has ever faced.”

“What this means at least is the game is united and working harder than ever together to deal with this and look to the future,” he said.

Wanderers CEO John Tstatsimas said the club had stood down or had up to 83 per cent of its fulltime equivalent employees go on leave.

“We’ve also had executives take pay cuts. We are doing as much as possible to get through this,” Tstatsimas said.

PFA chief executive John Didulica warned that many A-League players would be hit hard by the stoppage.

“We have 50 per cent of the workforce coming out of contract on May 31 anyway, so that is 125 players. We also have ... players overseas, so that is what we are dealing with day-to-day.

“But as a game we need to work collectively to look at what the sport and the league will look like after all this is over. We need to try to plan for that. So we don’t have to rebuild completely.”