For $1m You Can Cover Yourself In Glory

Sydney Morning Herald

Wednesday March 29, 2006

Aaron Timms

YOU'LL need $1 million and a love of Western Australia. In return, you'll get a football club with a dwindling fan base and a recent record of underachievement.

Interested? If so, the FFA would like to hear from you, because Perth Glory need a new owner.

The FFA yesterday announced it would be assuming interim control of the club from the beginning of May after reaching an agreement with the owners to terminate their licence.

The move comes after the Glory, long the engine room of the old NSL, finished a disappointing fifth in the inaugural season of the A-League and watched their fan base drop dramatically from the heights of the late 1990s.

It has long been an open secret in football circles that club chairman and majority owner Nick Tana wanted out of the club he founded in 1995.

The main reason for the cooling of Tana's once feverish ardour for the Glory is money. It is understood Perth Glory Pty Ltd, the corporation he set up to run the club, has accumulated losses in the region of $7m. That's more than double the loss Sydney FC incurred over the course of its first season - a drain that Tana, a foodstuffs czar, can ill afford.

Now, under the agreement brokered with the FFA, the club's accumulated losses will remain attached to Perth Glory Pty Ltd, while the club's intellectual property, players and other employees will come under the control of the FFA. This means that the new owner will be able to begin life at the club with a clean slate, free of the financial burdens of the past.

FFA head of operations Matt Carroll said the governing body was in negotiations with four groups to buy the club. He declined to identify them, though it is understood that both Paul Afkos, a former part-owner of the club, and David Rodwell, the current deputy chairman, are heading two of those groups.

Fans are concerned that this new period of instability will lead to further deterioration of the club's standing in the national league. But Carroll said: "It's our business to ensure the A-League is successful. So for us, it's critical that Perth Glory remains a viable, healthy club."

Asked whether this commitment to the club could extend to buying new players or investing in new infrastructure, Carroll responded: "Absolutely, if necessary."