Board uncertainty delays A-League expansion

The anticipated announcement of which teams will be admitted into an expanded A-League is expected to be delayed.

Outgoing FFA Chairman Steven Lowy. Picture: AAP

The anticipated announcement of which teams will be admitted into an expanded A-League is expected to be delayed until a new Football Federation Australia board is put in place next month.

The Australian understands the current board made the decision yesterday at its penultimate meeting as the custodians of the sport in this country and will issue a statement this morning.

It leaves the eight expansion hopefuls in the dark for at least another six weeks and heightens fears expansion could be put on the backburner for another season.

It had been hoped the board meeting would decide on two new teams to join the league for the 2019-20 season. A decision was due to be made by October 31 but that was put off the table after the successful vote earlier this month to revamp FFA’s voting Congress.

It is also understood that yesterday’s meeting was split with some directors wanting to go ahead with an announcement and others preferring to leave it to the incoming directors.

The bidders — Western Melbourne Group, Southern Expansion, Team XI, Ipswich Pride, Marcathur South West Sydney, Canberra, South Melbourne and Wollongong — will be informed of the situation this morning.

Millions of dollars and lots of man hours have been spent on the bids and the delay will be a kick in the teeth for them.

A source from one bid team fears the worst and that expansion won’t come in until 2020-21 despite fans, players and coaches calling for it to happen sooner rather than later because the 10-team competition has become stagnant and boring.

It remains to be seen if the incoming board will move quickly and make the decision to bring in expansion next season.

Given the FFA management team handed an expansion paper on the bid teams to the board yesterday with all the relevant facts, there would appear to be no reason why they couldn’t press with expansion.

The new board will be voted in at FFA’s AGM in November. It could meet before the end of the month and make a decision on which bids will come into the competition, leaving them at least 11 months to get ready for the new season.

Western Melbourne Group and Southern Expansion are believed to be the frontrunners for inclusion into the A-League though it was suggested by FFA chief executive David Gallop on Monday that all the bids still had some issues to work through.