United offering strong case to join A-League
GOLD Coast United will know by mid-June if they are a serious player in the A-League expansion race.
Less than two weeks after announcing their plans to join a 12-team A-League in 2019-20, United are now working on their expression of in- terest (EOI), due by May 24, following the release of Football Federation Australia (FFA) expansion criteria.
On June 11, FFA will ask for full bid proposals from selected EOIs by August 31, with an announcement on the two successful bids – expected to come from Sydney, Melbourne or southeast Queensland – to arrive on October 31.
United chairman Danny Maher said the EOI criteria was “very broad”, adding he was confident the club would be asked to submit a formal bid.
“FFA obviously just want to find out who’s interested in applying, what the credentials of that party is and why they think they deserve an ALeague license,” Maher said.
“The first thing for us now is to put forward what our strengths are and why the Gold Coast needs a license. Talk about the fact we’ve got Cbus (Stadium) there, we’ve got men’s and women’s programs and the fact we’ve got the Bond sports fields.
“We’ve got the academy up and running and classification of the coaches. We’re the largest city in Australia that doesn’t have an A-League license, so we’ll just put forward all that and hope to get through to that RFP (Request for Proposal) stage. “I’d like to think they couldn’t exclude us before the RFP.”
Maher said he believed one of the major expansion deciders would be stadiums, a factor that could work in United’s favour.