Jets boss wants free TV football

Newcastle Jets supremo Con Constantine has called on Football Federation Australia to make the A-League more accessible to mainstream Australia by showing one match a week and a highlights package on free-to-air television.

Two days after realising his childhood dream of leading a team from his beloved Newcastle to the national football title, chairman Constantine said more Australians should be able to watch the fast-improving competition.
Fox Sports has exclusive rights to the A-League and Socceroos for seven seasons in a deal worth $120million.

“I deeply believe that a free-to-air channel which could be SBS or any other should be allowed to show a highlights package at the end of the week so the 75 per cent of the people who do not have Fox will be able to see our football for free,” Constantine said.

“I would like to see a situation where we have the last game of the round on Sunday night shown free and then a highlights show.”

“Fox would still get what they paid for. But it is a fact that they’re offering a product to only 25 per cent of the people.”

“I want to give Mr Jones and Mrs Smith the opportunity to watch the A-League on Sunday night for free.”

“The A-League is going places and for the first time I can see a light at the end of the tunnel.”

“The game has definitely gone to another level and (free-to-air games) will give the competition more hope and scope.”

Constantine is one of the true characters of Australian football. The multimillionaire owner of Parklea Markets in Sydney’s west has become the patriarch of the Hunter’s football.

He has invested millions of dollars into the area’s football after taking over the struggling National Soccer League club Newcastle Breakers in 2000, at a time when the competition was on its last legs.

The huge potential of one of Australia’s most important football hotbeds was not lost on him.

And when the A-League started in 2005 he proudly led the Newcastle Jets into another era that would reach its glorious climax only three years later.

There was no prouder person than the portly chairman when his Jets overcame Central Coast Mariners 1-0 in Sunday’s spicy Grand Final in Sydney.

“I fell in love with Newcastle 40 years ago when my eldest daughter used to go to Newcastle university, that’s when I was introduced to the place,” Constantine said.

“The thing about Newcastle is that it is a beautiful city with a beautiful lifestyle. It’s got everything going for it.”

“I’ve always loved football and I’ve been involved with it for the last 50 years so I’m not a Johnny-come-lately, you know.”

“I’ve always believed in the city’s potential. Three years ago I told them in Newcastle that it was only a matter of time before the city would have a football team in a grand final.”

“They laughed at me then but they’re not laughing now because for the first time rugby league and football are even stevens.”

“I knew it in my heart that this would happen and when you’re fighting with your heart no one can beat you.”

“Some people play golf or go fishing but this is my passion. I’ll never make any money out of this.”

Constantine, who is to the Jets what Roman Abramovich is to Chelsea and Silvio Berlusconi to AC Milan, has become one of the city’s favourite sons.

Yet his modus operandi occasionally can come under criticism.

He bankrolls the club and basically runs it on his own. And his policy regarding the payment and retention of players has raised many eyebrows.

Coach Gary van Egmond told TWG only last week that the club had little hope of hanging on to its key players if Constantine’s rigid policy was not changed.

Grand Final stars Mark Bridge and Andrew Durante are tipped to be joining Sydney FC and Wellington Phoenix respectively while out-of-contract young guns Stuart Musialik, Tarek Elrich and Adam D’Apuzzo are also touted to leave the club.

The bones of contention are:

:: The $450,000 kitty the Jets cannot use because they do not enter into service agreements with their players.

:: Constantine’s refusal to allow players to leave the club if an offer from abroad came along.

Constantine, who is fully conscious that the corporate dollar in Newcastle is limited, is adamant that this is the best way to go for the club.

“I’ve always been against the service agreements on the basis that they are not transparent,” he said.

“I don’t want to know what other clubs do. I simply disagree with the notion that businessmen can come in (with their money). I don’t believe it should been put there in the first place.”

“I’m quite happy for the FFA to raise the salary cap by, say, $400,000 and then it is up to the clubs to find the money in any shape or form.”

“About the players’ contracts, as you know they will try to get as much as possible from their club and vice-versa.”

“If I give Mark Bridge different conditions to his contract, allowing him to go abroad if the opportunity arose, then all the other players would come up to me and say ‘hang on, you gave this to Mark Bridge, why not us’.”

“So there has to be a policy at the club whereby no one, I repeat no one, gets anything more or less.”

Constantine’s stance is a major talking point in a football-mad city that is still basking in the glory of its first national title.

But Constantine is adamant that this policy is in the best interests of the club.

And after taking the Newcastle Jets so far in such a short time, few people can argue with him.