Last Friday, Football Federation Australia succumbed to the inevitable and scrapped the Sydney Rovers franchise – set to be the 12th team starting next year in the A-League – after months of uncertainty.

The FFA said they will open discussions with other interested parties with the national governing body committed to the idea of two teams in the city.  

Ian Rowden’s Rovers consortium were awarded the exclusive bidding rights to the 12th A-League licence in September 2009 in controversial circumstances when the FFA opted for their bid over other apparently better-funded options.

Led by the Saatchi & Saatchi ad boss and backed by former Socceroos including Charlie Yankos, the bid soon established a name and identity, and released their kit plans early in its development.

But funding remained a serious issue and less than a year out from their A-League debut, it was clear they still had not found sufficient backing.

As the current season went on, Rowden avoided the press spotlight and no players were linked with signing for the fledgling club, casting serious doubt on its ability to meet the 2011/12 season target.

Paddy Dominguez, from Inspire Sports Management, arrived back in the country on Friday to be greeted by the news about Rovers. His consortium was one of a number of bidders beaten by Rovers.

Naturally, it’s left a bitter taste in his mouth. Dominguez had the backing of Socceroo skipper Lucas Neill and he felt their bid was a much stronger option from day one, as he explained to au.fourfourtwo.com.

“Archie Fraser [then A-League boss] was quoted saying our bid was technically the best," said Dominguez.

"We put together a 12-year plan with cash flow, had agreements with local government and councils and spent $500,000 on the bid proposal itself.

“Lucas was involved and with our sports management background,  we could have pulled together a really good squad.

“It’s somewhat ironic that the FFA have just been part of a [FIFA] bid process that left a bitter taste in their mouths– now they know how we feel.”

With the January transfer window the last opportunity to build a squad for next season, the reality is the earliest start date for any new bidder will be 2012.

Dominguez is cautious on whether his bid would revisit the idea of putting together a proposal for the FFA.

He’s not had any contact from FFA since they awarded the licence to Rowden but did not rule out anything in the future.

Dominguez said his bid could be ready for next season although he concedes it would be extremely difficult, but not impossible.

“That’s because we are sports management people, we know players so it wouldn’t be too difficult," he said.

“However, a year has been used up, which could’ve been used to find the money.  We’d have to think long and hard about it...

“And the state of the A-League is not as robust as it was back when we put in our bid. So we’d have to take the current state of the league into account.

"But if we were asked, it would have to be on our own terms.”

Dominguez put out a challenge to Sydney’s fans to make the Harbour City city's derby bigger than Melbourne after Heart and Victory played in front of over 23,000 fans on Saturday.

He added: “With all greatest respect  to Melbourne being the supposed sports capital of Australia. I believe a Sydney derby would be bigger.”