A-League owners have warned the competition urgently needs $120m spent on it to bring it up to scratch...and urged Football Federation Australia to let go of the reins.
The FFA yesterday revealed the full report from the New Leagues Working Group set up to create the new breakaway A-League structure in the wake of the boardroom coup late last year.
But today the Australian Professional Football Clubs Association - set up to represent the A-League owners - criticised the limited time the working group was given to prepare the report.
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The new breakaway league was approved by the FFA in October but the committee was only set up to finalise the details six weeks ago.
The APFCA said the process should have taken six months to do it justice.
"This has placed an unnecessary time pressure on what was and is a vital process for the Australian game," they said in a statement today.
The FFA yesterday conceded the process was proving more complex than first estimated and extended the deadline for the final report until June 30.
But the APFCA want to see more action – and warned owners were already facing a $25m bill for this season alone.
To keep the A-League a viable spectacle – which will bring back fans and return ratings to a level that will keep TV companies interested – will cost a further $120m over the next four years, they say.
And the owners stress that if they are to invest that kind of cash into the league, they want to make sure they own and run it.
"The APFCA is of the strong view that Australian football is at a critical juncture in its history," said the APFCA statement.
APFCA Chairman Paul Lederer added: “The message from the broadcaster and sponsors is clear.
"Our league needs to be immediately turned around and put on a growth trajectory, together with the W- and Y-Leagues. They must be invested in now.
"The message from the A-League clubs also needs to be clearly understood. The professional game must be transformed now in order to make it something that can be invested in.
"The clubs are the only investors ready to provide the capital required to see our domestic elite professional game flourish."
He added: "Combined, the clubs will lose more than $25m this year and we and the game will have little to show for it.
"If we are to turn the professional game around and fulfil its potential, the clubs will need to invest more than $120m over the next four years. Only in that way can the value of the League’s broadcast rights be maintained or grown at the end of the current cycle.
"We cannot be expected to continue to financially prop up something that we do not own and that is managed by a third party that is failing to perform.”
The working group's report published yesterday was still unclear on the the final ownership of the new A-League structure, and said the EPL model originally favoured by owners was unsuitable for the Australian landscape.
But the APFCA wants to see action sooner rather than later and an end to any stalling tactics by the FFA over the split.
Lederer added: “The FFA and the stakeholders of the Australian game need to decide, and do so quickly.
"Do you want a domestic professional competition that maintains us as an advancing football nation?
"Or in four years’ time do you want to go back to the days when our elite player pathway was based entirely overseas?
"That is the decision to be made in the coming weeks. The game is at a critical decision point and the clock is ticking.”
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