CORICA’S FNQ GOAL MISSED

SYDNEY FC VISIT BID DITCHED:

ALMOST a year to the day since Sydney FC tackled the now defunct Cairns FC in an FFA Cup tie at Barlow Park, a proposal to bring the A-League heavyweights back to the Far North has been scuppered.

A Steve Corica-inspired Sydney FC approached Cairns Regional Council with a view to hosting a training camp and a potential pre-season fixture in Cairns ahead of the upcoming domestic season.

Over the last week, Cairns Regional Council made an offer of $25,000 to support the event but Sydney FC have since declined the funding and will not be hosting the event in Cairns at this time.

A Sydney FC spokesman yesterday said the club was in continued discussions with the local council.

The potential pre-season game would have pitted Sydney against either Brisbane Roar, or an FNQ Select XI, at Barlow Park.

In the lead-up to the Cairns and Sydney FFA Cup tie on August 21 of 2018 – where Cairns FC handed back their licence to Football Queensland just days after the game – Sydney boss Corica, an Innisfail product, flagged the idea of a possible training camp in the future.

“Potentially next year we will. There was some talk we would do it this year, it almost came off but it was a funding issue,” Corica said at the time.

“They thought they had the funding in Cairns but they did not end up getting it.”

Even in Cairns FC’s final days, club director Darren Halpin often spoke of the prospect of making a longer-term partnership with the A-League glamour club, even if the Far North’s NPL side was no longer functioning. New FNQ Football administrator Alex Srhoj is disappointed the four-time A-League champions are not on the way north but is keen to chase up the club in regards to future opportunities.

“I will be contacting Sydney FC to see if we can get it back off the ground,” Srhoj said. “We were not involved in the process.

“We need to follow up on whatever avenues we can to see if we can make it happen but at the end of the day, it is a business decision and things like this come down to affordability.”

Sydney won in their last visit to Cairns, 2-1 victors after Cairns were leading 1-0 at halftime, following a Ryan Cavanah goal.

In late 2013, Brisbane and traditional rivals Sydney battled for pre-season honours at Barlow Park, which saw Italian superstar Alessandro Del Piero travel to the north, but he did not feature in the game.