Phoenix not for sale, says chairman
Morrison hits back at how A-League is being run by FFA
Wellington Phoenix football club chairman Rob Morrison has refuted claims he wants to sell the club’s A-League licence. But he has echoed the call from other A-League club chairmen that significant change is needed in the way the A-League is run by Football Federation Australia (FFA).
Rumours surfaced last weekend claiming Morrison was seeking an Australian buyer for the licence held by the Welnix consortium, which operates Wellington Phoenix FC.
According to leading Australian football writer David Davutovic, Morrison has already met with interested parties as he seeks to either completely sell the licence or enter into a shared ownership or merger agreement with another group based in Australia.
With the A-League to expand by two teams in 2019/20, Davutovic reported Morrison has held talks with at least two expansion hopefuls — Southern Expansion (based south of Sydney) and Campbelltown (southwest Sydney) — to explore the possibility of a full or partial sale of the Phoenix licence.
“No is the simple answer,” Morrison told the Herald.
“There has been all sorts of speculation about clubs talking to clubs. Parties have certainly talked to us and I know they have talked to other A-League clubs. When you announce there are going to be two new clubs, there’s lots of jockeying for position and that’s stirred up a lot of speculation. We’d be silly not to talk to people but that doesn’t mean we’re selling,” he said.
“However, we’ve always been open to the fact that we’d like to have other investors in with us to share some of the load and who will create more pathways for the talent we produce.”
In February 2016, after a period of uncertainty, Wellington was granted a four-year extension to their licence until the end of the 2019/20 A-League season.
Provided the club meets mutually agreed targets around attendances, television viewership and greater financial contributions to the A-League, a further three-year participation agreement will then be approved, with a second three-year extension to be granted on similar criteria beyond the 2022/23 season.
But what has brought the Phoenix’s place in the A-League into sharper recent focus is their forgettable 2017/18 campaign, avoiding the wooden spoon by only one point and winning just five of their 27 matches.
Coach Darije Kalezic was sacked during the season, but not before top players Gui Finkler and Dario Vidosic had departed, along with Vidosic’s father, assistant coach Rado Vidosic.
Off the field, two of the most crucial metrics for the club’s continued participation — crowds and TV viewership — were down.
Given the downturn in their fortunes and impending A-League expansion, there have been suggestions from across the Tasman the Phoenix should be cut loose before the start of the 2019/20 season to allow for three new Australianbased teams (instead of two) to enter the expanded competition.
Under that scenario, next season would be the Phoenix’s last.
A-League boss Greg O’Rourke confirmed earlier this month Wellington is below where it needs to be to trigger the first extension after the 2019/20 season.
“They have metrics to hit, and we'll continue to work with Wellington Phoenix to see whether or not they're interested in improving their club to a point where those metrics become achievable,” O’Rourke said. But Morrison has fired back. “We obviously had a very disappointing season and we’ve acknowledged that, but the crowds were poor in the A-League, full stop. It’s indicative of where the A-League has got to. The FFA like to use us as a bit of a whipping boy and they’ve been public about the fact and that we’re a concern to them, but the bigger concern is the way the FFA run the A-League.
“When you look at the next couple of years, the biggest thing is what will the A-League look like? Who will actually run it? The clubs are very focused on the fact the A-League needs to be run independently of the FFA. We need a new governance structure,” Morrison said.
“All of the clubs want to see change and change is the best way forward.
“All the clubs are hurting. Everyone has said things have gone backwards. At some stage you have to say, ‘ do we continue to run with this or do we make significant change?’ Everyone with the exception of the FFA is of the view we have to make change,” Morrison said.