We spoke to them at the World Cup qualifier against Saudi Arabia in Melbourne on Wednesday, before Palmer raised the stakes again with his breakaway football body, Football Australia.

Fan: Emerson Kennedy

“Lowy didn’t say the club’s gone. He’s stripped Palmer of control of the club. The best thing would be for all the fans upset by Palmer’s antics to show up to the next home and demonstrate that Gold Coast really does want a team. Everyone’s worried about a long legal battle but if Lowy can nip that in the bud then a chunk of the problem’s gone.

“I don’t want go any further back [to a nine team league]. It was bad enough losing the Fury who had a bigger supporter base [than Gold Coast].

“I suppose the good thing is Melbourne Heart are doing pretty well. Their whole strategy you can see is different in terms of engaging with the community as opposed to Gold Coast.

“We actually went up to Gold Coast for a Victory game two years ago as solidarity for the guys in The Beach and we were pretty upset with the attitude we got from a lot of people on the Gold Coast. They had no idea why we were there; they didn’t know what our tops were. They thought we were up there for a Titans game.

“It was in very stark contrast to, say, Sydney where one of our guy was refused service in a bar because he was wearing a Victory top.

“It’s a bit early to see what is going to happen either way with Gold Coast. For me, I’d just like to see the fans show up and the whole court case be put to bed.

“In my opinion Palmer did all this because he wanted out anyway. He wanted to go out as a martyr rather than walk away. He’s definitely got a bad attitude. And I saw that when he first took over the club.

“It’s one thing to run a business but it’s a completely different thing to run a sporting franchise. They are two different monsters. You can’t put a dollar sign on a football fan."

 

Fan: Tammy

"Give the licence to far North Queensland!"

 

Fan: Donald Sutherland

"It was a good move by Frank Lowy because it’s killed the cancer that was Clive Palmer and the Gold Coast. It’s too premature to assess the success of his axeing. If they get in new backers – and that will be hard given they have few fans, which makes it hard financially.

“If they have sacked him and we do lose a team on the Gold Coast, it’s a market lost in my opinion. So we’ve got to go back, get a new owner in if possible and engage with the community.

“If not, we’ve had a league before with a bye so I don’t see an issue with that.

“The most important thing is; we need every team to be financially sound. We failed in north Queensland; we failed in the Gold Coast and we’ll fail again if we don’t get the structures right.

“It’s already been made very clear by the Smith Report that you don’t expand until every team is financially viable.”

 

Fan: Jay

“I think it was the right decision to strip Palmer of the licence. Lowy’s set a standard for the league so it had to happen. We do need to have a ten-team league but we’ve already had the two Queensland teams fall apart so any new team needs to be set up in the right direction so it works.

“I really don’t think it’s worth it on the Gold Coast. I’m not sure if they have the demographics. It’s more of a tourist area up there.”

 

Fan: Warren Hill

“No he wasn’t right to strip Palmer of his licence. For all Palmer’s faults he put money into the game. And the money he put in meant he deserved to keep the licence with one more year to go. He’s a very wealthy man and we need people like him involved in football because it’s not a self-sustaining sport.

“But the bigger concern is if we drop to a nine-team league. I want to see a 12-team league with Tasmania, Canberra and western Sydney come in. We just don’t have enough teams in the league to be competitive enough. I think we need to think about expanding into these areas earlier than later.

“Especially western Sydney. Sydney needs that rivalry. As much as I hate Heart being a Victory man, the rivalry has made a big difference.

“As for Gold Coast I think it’s a very difficult market. I think it’s been massively under-estimated by all the sports who’ve tried to expand there. I don’t know if Gold Coast United can survive…

“And I’m not convinced Ben Buckley is the right guy to run the proper football in this country.”

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