Sydney Rovers given week to stump up
A-LEAGUE club-in-waiting Sydney Rovers has been given until next week to "show us the money".
If it fails it will have its licence to play in next season's competition revoked.
In what is looming as yet another seriously embarrassing situation for Football Federation Australia, the head body is understood to have issued the ultimatum after running out of patience with the western Sydney consortium.
The latest controversy could not come at a worse time for the FFA, which is already under fire over the declining state, on and off the field, of the A-League. Crowds have fallen alarmingly over the past two seasons and there are concerns over the financial viability of a number of clubs.
The Rovers consortium, led by company executive Ian Rowden and former Socceroos Charlie Yankos and Peter Tredinnick, has been struggling to come up with the $5 million funding required to get the club off the ground. Rovers have released their playing strip and logo but still don't have a chief executive, ground arrangement or coach in place 12 months after they were granted the licence.
With a little less than 11 months before they are due to kick off, the situation has reached a critical stage.
Despite Rovers admitting they did not have the financial backing at the time, the FFA controversially awarded them the 12th spot for the 2011-12 season, allowing them to leapfrog bids from the Greater Western Sydney Football Group, a separate consortium supported by Socceroo captain Lucas Neill and bids from Canberra, the NSW South Coast and Tasmania.
The FFA's decision. described by chief executive Ben Buckley at the time as "a giant leap forward", caused rumblings of discontent among some fans and the other two bids from the area - the GWSFG and the Neill group.
The Rowden group had only been formed several months before being granted the licence, leading to questions about how the FFA could make a decision in such a short time with the knowledge the franchise lacked the necessary funding.
The Australian raised concerns about the haste in which it was done and the seeming lack of transparency, given the other franchises had all put in as much as 18 months' work to get their bids to the final stages.
Former A-League boss Archie Fraser, who left the FFA last year, acknowledged those concerns when he spoke out against the head body in a far-ranging interview with theworldgame website on Tuesday. He said he was convinced Rovers was "unlikely to see the light of day" as the hunt for potential investors continues to come up empty.
"I don't think you will see them next season because the backing just isn't there at the moment," Fraser said. "There were other more deserving causes for an A-League licence."
A spokesman for the GWSFG said yesterday the consortium still had its model in place and "we still have the universal support of associations from all over western Sydney".
Rowden, who is executive chairman of advertising company Saatchi & Saatchi, said at the time of winning the bid that his group was not concerned about the financial aspects as it was in discussions with potential investors.
Rovers officials did not return calls from The Australian yesterday.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...week-to-stump-up/story-e6frg7mf-1225916751966
