What a week or two it has been for the A-League, and in particular Gold Coast United. Clive Palmer has put on a show so spectacular that even the biggest of optimists in the FFA and Australian football community are finally aware of what some people knew a long time ago - the Gold Coast Emperor isn't wearing any clothes. And it isn’t a pretty sight.

For the FFA, this situation is an unmitigated public relations disaster. While they could surely not have known the consequences of signing up Clive and his golden chequebook for the launch of GCU, their approach to his many indiscretions over the past few years can only be described as pussy-footed. As a result an emboldened Palmer has, in the space of a week, 1) suspended his own coach, 2) appointed a teenage debutant captain, 3) launched a stinging and humiliating attack on the FFA, the A-League, and football as a whole and 4) driven his coach to quit the club.

That of course is just the tip of a very large iceberg, too - when you consider all the things Palmer has done in the last two years to embarrass the game, it makes Ben Buckley's retort to Clive on Sunday look even more ridiculous. The fact that Buckley could manage nothing more than a mere "Those comments aren't very nice Clive" speaks volumes to how impotent the FFA have become on the Gold Coast failure.

Because sadly, while I feel for their fans, that's exactly what GCU has become - a failure. It is a failure to attract a community base to the game; a failure of responsibility on behalf of the owner; and a failure of FFA governance of the highest order. Now Palmer has the FFA in a vulnerable position, and he can land several telling blows with the governing body seemingly able to do nothing in reply.

As Palmer asserted in his talk with The Sunday Mail, the ball is in his court. If he does not want to give the licence back, and the FFA try to take it from him, he has the monetary resources to make Buckley and Lowy's life a living hell through litigation. And to be frank, he leaves Ben Buckley looking a complete idiot. While the governing body has things like the Perchtold contract saga as an attacking weapon to use in any court case, you can be sure that Palmer would be more than happy to drag football's name through the mud in return.

If the football fraternity thought that the dropping of North Queensland Fury was damaging to the game in this country, it has absolutely nothing on the hurt inflicted over successive years by Palmer's ownership, and the possibility of even more pain to come. Honestly, if you're a journalist or editor with an anti-football bias, Gold Coast United is a factsheet for how to make a mockery of the game in Australia. If nothing else, this whole situation is a massive slap across the face of the FFA, a lesson for them to learn - just because someone has a lot of dosh, it does not make him the best candidate to own an A-League franchise.

There are other lessons to be learned here, too - and surprisingly they come from the mouth of Palmer himself. The A-League is a joke, he asserts - and while he is of course wrong, there is still some sense in his insanity. The FFA doesn't give enough control to owners of A-League clubs; this is something that people like Tony Sage and Nathan Tinkler have said for a long time. While some have tried the path of negotiation with Lowy and Co., Palmer has instead decided to go whole hog, down the road of bitching and moaning, rebelling against the system to try to get his own way, no matter how bad it looks for the sport as a whole.

Perhaps he sees himself as some kind of Kerry Packer ‘World Series Cricket’ figure, a messiah sent to change football in this country; but given his recent comments about the game this would seem unlikely. Either way, it’s hard to argue against the fact that if the FFA had loosened restrictions on owners a little bit, Palmer wouldn’t have been quite so belligerent and people like Tony Sage wouldn’t be threatening to leave their franchises once or twice each season.

Further to the restrictions and costs associated with franchise ownership, surely this whole sorry saga demonstrates that the model of single-owner A-League teams is well and truly broken? One man serving as a financial lifeline for an otherwise stricken club; the FFA at the mercy of his whims and indulgences because they so desperately need these expansion clubs to survive. Well, perhaps it is time for reality to hit home at football’s head offices in Australia and a new way of thinking to emerge.

Over in America, the MLS had to contract in order to expand, and the league’s bosses had to put their own money in when it counted. Frank Lowy may soon find himself in a similar situation. He’s often spoken about wanting to leave a legacy for Australian football; and whilst I’m not telling him how to spend his money, surely the current off-field situation in the A-League is not what he had envisioned.

The mindset of Lowy and his key decision makers needs to change, and change quickly. Having the biggest wallet should not be a key indicator of potential future franchise owners. Surely some kind of fit and proper owners test should be constructed; and the governing body needs to grow the balls and if necessary make the regulations that would allow them to punish wantaway or detrimental owners in a quick, effective, and legal manner.

Finally, the thinking of “a big TV deal will save us” needs to stop right now. It is pointless to hope for a massive broadcast deal if you cannot stop your own franchises making a mockery of the game. Only time will tell just how much damage this saga will do to the FFA and the A-League, but it certainly isn’t improving anything in the meantime.

Clive Palmer is essentially the giant hippo that has gone for a rampage at the zoo, maiming several people and damaging the park’s reputation severely. But the FFA are the keepers who were derelict in their duty, and also deserve their fair share of condemnation for the whole incident. Nobody has come out of this smelling any good, and the game of football will get its’ fair share of heat as a result – and rightly so too, because the entire situation is ludicrous.

I only hope this whole situation is put to bed quickly, and we can push it aside and remember that it is football, not wads of cash and petulant individuals, that actually matters in the A-League.