The mining magnate publicly put to bed speculation surrounding the club's future, following Monday's announcement by Football Federation Australia (FFA) confirming Gold Coast's participation in the 2010/11 A-league season.

"There was never a doubt that our club would be proceeding," Palmer said on Tuesday. "I was able to confirm that at all times and I know if the club's going ahead or not because I'm signing the cheques, it's as simple as that.

"There is no doubt that Gold Coast United are here and here very importantly to win the competition this year."

Asked whether he was ever close to pulling the pin on the team, Palmer said: "Never, certainly not. You can't really pull the pin on the club if you have any sort of moral commitment to anybody.

"If you take Michael (Thwaite) for example, he's got a three year contract with Gold Coast United and the only way to pull the plug on him is to liquidate the company and say sorry we can't pay you anymore money.

"We wouldn't do that to him, he's got a family and children to support and so do most of the guys that play the game.

"It's very important for me not to do those things ... that's not how we do business in the business sense and that's not how we expect to run the club."

But with $4 million in reported losses and low crowd numbers tainting United's brand, Palmer's intentions of bankrolling the club for the long term remains to be seen.

"We'll examine it every year and see how it's going, we want the club to be self-sufficient and we want more community people involved in the club," he said.

"We have had people wanting to buy the club, but we have found that wouldn't be in the best interest of the players who we are strongly committed to and we didn't do it.

"Our players are very loyal to the club and we're very loyal to our players.

"We see it not just as a business that you make money or lose money, but we see it as a joint commitment going forward together as a team and as one family."

Critical of both the FFA and the A-League in the past, Palmer said he thought the league is due for a restructure and that more funds should be directed towards the domestic competition rather than the Socceroos.

"I was critical of them (the FFA) confidentially and I said things could be done a bit better. So if you're involved in something you like, you put things forward," Palmer said.

"People were losing a bit of money and I thought there was a better way we could organise a few things. I think the A-league itself does need to be re-structured at some stage.

"You have to remember that in the A-league, it's really limited as to how you earn revenue. We get revenue from ticket sales or local sponsorship we don't get any revenue from national sponsorship.

"Most of the money goes to the Socceroos or the management whereas the money should all go to the A-League."

Head coach Miron Bleiberg, who welcomed his players back for pre-season training today, was fully supportive of Palmer.

He also drew some positives out of the drama, claiming that 10 years ago a football story like this would have barely generated interest in the Australian media.

"I never doubted Clive's loyalty to the club because Clive kept me informed from day one," Bleiberg said.

"We knew we were going ahead and I think Clive had the right to put some difficulties in front of the FFA because not every was smooth.

"When I was involved in the industry before Clive came along, a story like this wouldn't have made even one column and the fact that it was all over the media was quite flattering from a football point of view."