A Warning to All

It was very sad to read the letter posted on social media from the Chair of the Board of Floreat Athena Soccer Club, stating the financial situation the club found itself in, but in truth it comes as no surprise. (Is a Club About To be Consigned to History?)

The word is that the club has managed to raise the funds it was chasing before the deadline mentioned in the letter, but there are still so many questions that need to be asked. For example how long will this money keep the club afloat?

No doubt the new board will reveal its plans to the club’s members, and the actions that they will need to take in order to ensure the club survives longer than a few more years.

IN light of this news on a general note one has to ask the question as to how our Federal Government could approve a $3 million grant for refurbishment of the club’s grounds, which they currently lease from the City of Vincent, so do not own? What checks and balances were carried out by the Government?

WA One Nation senator Peter Georgiou announced the funding in August. It has since appeared that the announcement was made without any formal review of the club or its project and that the funding was agreed after the Finance Minister Mathias Cormann backed such expenditure as a trade-off for a vote on the Government’s company tax cuts.

It was a bizarre situation, in which someone renting a facility had applied for funding to develop that property without advising the owner of the property. Like someone renting house, applying for money to redevelop the site into a block of apartments, but not telling the landlord. The posting of the financial state that Floreat Athena finds itself in has to now put that Government funding in jeopardy.

Yet in Football terms the issue is that Floreat Athena are not alone. They are not the only long-standing football club in Western Australia that is poring over financial statements wondering how they can stay afloat beyond next season.

It is easy to point the finger but the truth is having the State League or NPL run under one Governing body rather than being run by itself, as in the past by Soccer West Coast, has been a move that has been detrimental to the game as a whole.

It made sense that Football had to bring all of its various sections under one Governance model. So when the Football Federation of Australia was set up so too were state bodies which saw the Semi-professionals, the amateur and social leagues, juniors and eventually women’s football all brought under one roof.

Credit to Women’s football who had always been shunted to one side, they refused to come under the umbrella until they received some assurances, and they did not hand over monies in their bank account until those assurances were met. One of which was that they had representation on the Board of Football West.

Whereas from a Governance standpoint having all sections of the game being administered under one roof made perfect sense it has of course created problems. As Football West is now expected to be all things to all people. The government may like the model, as now they issue one lot of funding to the state body rather than splitting it between four sections of the game.

One of main reasons that Floreat and number of other clubs find themselves in the predicament that they are now in is because the FFA and Football West pushed through the National Premier Leagues concept. It was ill-conceived and as reported many times on this website, was pushed through purely to satisfy promises made to the Asian Football Confederation when Australia was accepted into this region.

You cannot build anything solid on shifting foundations.

The National Premier Leagues saw clubs put their own self interest ahead of the game’s future. That is why amongst many there is little sympathy that some now find themselves in financial difficulty.

When the National Premier Leagues participation agreement was drawn up, clubs were advised by legal experts not to sign up to it. They were warned that they would be signing away more than they would be gaining. Yet they opted to ignore that advice.

The fact is here was a league that at the time had no sponsor. Sponsors were promised. Sony Playstation came on board, but no money from the deal filtered back to clubs, yet they were forced to promote the sponsor in prime locations at their grounds. In fact the value of the sponsorship was not even shared with the stakeholders. Sony has since withdrawn that sponsorship.

A criteria was created that clubs were told they would have to meet to be in the NPL. Yet once these criteria became “flexible” the alarm bells should have been ringing. Yet sadly the clubs were once again blinded by self interest. If they were selected that was fine, and they would turn a blind-eye to the fact that some of the others selected may not meet the original stipulated criteria.

One of the criteria was strongly linked to the quality of the venues that would be showcasing the best in the state. This was a good strategy, but again not thought through.

The clubs were expected to source funding to make the necessary upgrades to their stadia. When in truth the Governing body should have come up with a strategy that would have helped all to build a case with their local councils, where grounds were leased, and with local MP’s to obtain funding for the upgrade of facilities. Linked into each and everyone of these case studies should have been a component which saw the club make its facilities available to local schools and community groups. This would have immediately created another venue within those council areas and won local councillors over. It would also have brought locals into the venue and given the clubs the opportunity to win them over so that they came back again when they were playing or for club events. (Is It Time to Change Priorities?)

Who will spend money on a facility they do not own if they do not have any guarantee that they will still be using the venue in ten years time? New lease agreements needed to be arranged to encourage investment by the clubs, based on the surety that they would be tenants into the foreseeable future.

Grounds aside, there was no Marketing plan in place for the NPL. Football West who as the Governing Body in Western Australia own the League, have done little or nothing to promote the League.

A salary cap was allegedly introduced but was not policed. Some clubs adhered to it, others chose to ignore it and the clever clubs found loopholes that helped them circumnavigate it.

The clubs must accept the blame in regards to players wages as they pay more in wages per season than the prize money on offer at the end of the season. Since when does that make good business sense?

All the club’s were forced to employ a Technical Director that Football West estimated would work “4-5 hours per week.” A head coach was already working more hours than that! This emphasised just how out of touch those running the game were to the realities of running a club. Coaches now had to become qualified to a certain level and each club was required to have junior teams. A failure to have the required junior teams meant that promotion could be denied. So no longer was a club rewarded for its performances on the pitch which is the true goal of competition.

There was a points system introduced so that clubs were restricted as to what players they could field. This was aimed at culling ageing players from the competition and making the league a place where young players developed. Yet with A-League clubs having sides playing in the competition, something that the AFC and FIFA do not recognise or allow, “dual registration” suddenly appeared.

This allowed the A-League club to play senior contracted players in a different competition and essentially for a different club. Under FIFA regulations a player on a professional contract with one club cannot play with another club unless their contract at their existing club is terminated. Loan agreements can be arranged but once again they would be hard to formulate in this scenario as they would most likely see the contracted player taking a reduction in salary.

With the dawn of the NPL which we were told was unashamedly ‘elitist,” the clubs were supposed to present full financial statements to Football West to ensure that they did not get into the situation that Floreat Athena find themselves in. If these were in fact presented then questions need to be asked as to what was presented, and whether it was in fact audited. If these were falsified then the club should face the consequences.

There was and is so much wrong with the National Premier Leagues model, and as predicted it will no doubt take a Floreat Athena or another big name club in Western Australia to go to the wall before anything is done to right the ship.

Football West’s argument, which is a valid one, is that the clubs and players in the NPL and State Leagues do not even make up a third of those players registered with them, so why should they dedicate so many resources to so few?

It is an argument the Government could make to Football West. Football West claims “over 230,000 players in the sport,” – it was 200,000 a year ago – yet they only have around 42,000 of those players registered and playing in their competitions. That is just 18% of those playing the game in the state!

So what is the NPL and State League to Football West? Are they simply a cash cow in terms of junior registration fees and money obtained from compulsory coaching qualifications? Why have they not in four years managed to source a sponsor, marketed the league and helped the clubs overcome the financial hurdles they face? Why have they not done more to assist in the upgrade of the grounds? Why have they not policed the salary cap, if they are sure that paying inflated salaries is going to send clubs broke? Why have they not stepped in when clubs have failed to pay players?

Once again, to be fair the clubs themselves must take a great deal of the blame. They too could do more to help themselves. First and foremost by not paying players inflated salaries that do not match their abilities. They could put in place a set of protocols by which all clubs are bound to rebuild a trust between them all. They could start trying to work together for the common good of the game rather than their own self-interest.

As the A-League owners look to have their competition run separately from the Game’s governing body, should the State League and the NPL look to also go back to being a stand alone competition? A competition in which clubs have junior teams but promotion and relegation is not linked to these teams, but solely to the club’s performance on the pitch?

Would the competition benefit from going back to having its own administration? To going out and finding its own sponsors and creating its own brand and marketing that? The league and the clubs then ensuring that clubs are given what is owed to them when young talent is snapped up by A-League clubs or clubs overseas.

There is an old saying that you are only as strong as your weakest link, and if Floreat is one of many weak links then the competition is reaching breaking point. It is clearly a time for change.

When the NPL in Western Australia was launched the then CEO told the clubs that it was a “leap of faith.” It has proven to have been just that, but one of misguided faith. One that is going to cost our history a few established clubs. Floreat Athena may have survived for now, but rest assured other clubs are in a similar position. Which will be the next to reveal that they can no longer continue?