Although A-League expansion now seems firmly on the FFA agenda, it appears the FFA will take a cautious approach and consider all interested bids before making a decision. The FFA confirmed it met with representatives of a Tasmanian consortium in Sydney early in the week for discussions over its bid for an A-League licence.
The Tasmanian consortium, backed by former Melbourne Victory shareholders Harry Stamoulis and Robert Belteky, and armed with a letter of support from the Tasmanian government, made an early submission to the FFA.
But after considering the submission, the FFA has resisted the Apple Isle’s temptation, deciding instead to throw the process open to all interested parties.
The FFA has indicated it will unveil a set of criteria for expansion by early next year, to provide rival bids an opportunity to compete for the new licences, which now appear inevitable.
It is believed that the expanded league will involve 11 to 12 teams, with the new teams ready to go in time for the 2018-19 season.
“We are now working through a framework of what expansion would look like,” A-League CEO Greg O’Rourke told football magazine Four Four Two.
“We’re going through that now and we expect that we will be talking to people next year in respect of that.
“We’ve had a few teams that have come and gone in respect to our 12 years in the A-League – we need to make sure we don’t repeat the sins of the past if you like and build clubs which are not sustainable,” he said.
“We need to make sure we have a robust financial commercial plan for where that team would be … we have to make sure that it had a good business and football plan behind it as well.
“So we’ll be looking at those factors and other factors such as government support and government involvement, player numbers, interest from the broader community and investors.
“Once we get those what we call success factors lined up, we will make some very pragmatic choices about where we place the 11th and 12th teams in Australia.”
