AND SO the day has come that I never really expected.

As of the end of this season, Uncle Frank (or more correctly – the Lowy family) is no longer the majority shareholder at Sydney FC. His 15 percent share in the club now mirrors the level of investment he had in the club at the beginning of the A-League four years ago.

The new owner is a partnership of a Russian bank tycoon, with a clear interest in football. David Traktovenko used to hold a majority of shares in Zenit St Petersburg (notorious around these parts as the club who kept Dick Advocaat from taking up the Socceroos job, as well as last season’s UEFA Cup winner), and has had a presence on the SFC board since day one.

Alongside him is local millionaire Paul Ramsay, whose background is less football-related, but looks financially stable to say the least.

So it’s one half snazzy, foreign, exciting and RICH, and one half low-key, local, and also RICH.

In theory it’s a good combo, but that’s about all we know.

But finally, Uncle Frank has done what he claimed he always would and sold the club to a ‘safe’ pair of hands. Across all seven other A-League clubs, there are sighs of relief as the perceived conflict of interest (Uncle Frank in charge of both the FFA and an A-League club) comes to an end.

So all is now meant to be fine and dandy. Frank claims to have solved many problems and is everyone’s friend at SFC. But it’s not all that simple...

This isn’t the first time Traktovenko has tried to do this. In fact at the end of Season One, he tried to take a controlling share in the club.

After the reported loss by the club of several million dollars in its first year, Traktovenko was willing to pour capital in to SFC in exchange for a majority share. Pretty much exactly what has been done now.

But Uncle Frank stepped in, declaring that the ‘financial crisis’ at the club had ‘forced’ him to take control personally, so he could steer the club in the right direction.

Cue the ownership battle that stretched in to the A-League’s second season, shredded the club’s image, saw other prominent share holders leave the club (including now key Mariners shareholder Peter Turnbull, and the much publicised Anthony La Paglia), and Team Lowy eventually take over.

Several years later, the club is now ‘safe’. Uncle Frank claims to have steadied the ship and is now ready to hand it over.

But what exactly has happened since the takeover?

* The Lowy administration has had two different chairmen, and two different CEOs.

* The Lowy administration has fired two coaches (Butcher and Culina), and hired two coaches (Culina and Kosmina)

* The Lowy administration has overseen the team bow out at the A-League’s semi-final stage twice in consecutive years

* The Lowy administration has overseen a dramatic fall in crowds. With the SFS average attendance plummeting over the last 12-18 months.

* The Lowy administration has overseen a significant decline in the image of Sydney FC across the public eye in Sydney, powered by an enormous drop in marketing activity. In a city swamped in advertising, Sydney FC is now infinitely less visible than it was in the first two seasons of the A-League.

And then Uncle Frank has the gall to say in today’s SMH that the league has hit a ‘plateau’ for some reason.

So now, after all of the above, we’re expected to thank Uncle Frank for stepping in to ‘steady up the ship’ and hand it over to those who can take care of it for the future?

Well I won’t be.

If the Lowy family had the best interests of the club at heart, then why have they helped the decline of the club’s public image whilst tidying up the financial side over the past two years?

If Traktovenko is a good option now, what made him a poor option two and a half years ago? With a similar deal on the table, why did Lowy insist on taking control? For all his talk of the conflict of interest being ‘necessary’, why was this option never considered back then but all of a sudden taken up now?

These and many more questions remain unanswered. It seems that to many, Uncle Frank is the saint that rescued Australian football and can do no wrong.

But to me, and thousands of the other educated supporters who’ve been with SFC since day one, the Lowy ownership of SFC has caused a huge amount of damage to the club (part of it irreparable), and is a stain on his image that more people need to see.

So I won’t be thanking Uncle Frank.

Instead I’ll have my fingers crossed that our new Comrade David and his team are capable of continuing the good work on the football side of the club (great training grounds, great youth team, re-energising of squad next year), whilst properly taking care of the non-football side... Which is something Frank Lowy never did.