Expansion Hotting Up

It seems that the race for the new spots is becoming serious business, just ask Fred Taplin. Apparently tonight he has raised the white flag and dropped out of the race for the Gold Coast franchise leaving the Gold Coast United bid the clear winner.

The speed with which Gold Coast Galaxy bid has gone from almost certainties to yesterday’s news has been breathtaking. It was only a couple of weeks ago that we were getting reports that the final stumbling block (the long term stadium deal) had been resolved and it was all go. Then out of the blue a couple of days ago we starting hearing about a possible rival bid fronted by Queensland Billionaire Clive Palmer.

So what happened? It seems that Mr Palmer has made the FFA an offer they cannot refuse. There is a old saying “Money Talks....Bullshit Walks” and it would appear that Clive Palmer is the money. Ben Buckley and the FFA can recognize a golden opportunity when it presents itself and there is no doubt they have no intention of letting a billionaire slip through their fingers.

But Clive Palmer is not the only one whose has put up his hand it seems. As of today the FFA have confirmed that they currently have ten active bids for four places. There is no doubt that we will now see two new teams at least in the league next year and it is still a good possibility that we may even see four new teams. The flood of interest is a very positive sign for the A-League and the sport as a whole.

With the FFA ticking all the boxes I am still bemused at the talk of a promotion/relegation system being introduced. The FFA came out this week and announced that plans would be in place by October. This obviously is to meet the AFC expectation as outlined in the Champions League review but it still leaves me wondering what exactly they are going to announce. I still stand by my comments that the FFA priority must be to stabilise the League and ensure we have a solid base from which to grow. All this interest in new teams is going to quickly disappear if teams start to go under.

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