While football’s stakeholders are united in the commitment to grow the competition from 10 to 12 teams, sooner rather than later, the prevailing wisdom is that a new board - to be finalised at an FFA AGM on November 15 - will want to perform its own due diligence on the would-be entrants.
The existing board, whose chairman Steven Lowy will stand down next month, had planned to name the two successful bidders today (October 31) for entry into the league in 2019-20.
But, in a split decision, they instead opted to pass the ball to their successors, with all indications now that aspirants Canberra, Southern Expansion, Macarthur South West Sydney, Team 11, Western Melbourne Group and South Melbourne will have to wait on the sidelines for longer than they had hoped.
“Nobody is strong enough to be nominated at this stage,” said an influential source.
“It will require a different approach, a preferred bidder approach.
“Everybody wants expansion but the whole football family needs to come together to get the bids up. Nobody wants to set teams up for failure.”
The expectant six clubs are hoping that if there is a delay, the new board will at least announce the two successful bidders before Christmas. But there are no guarantees that will happen either.
The ambitious Western Melbourne Group, for one, insist they are “ready to go” for next year but acknowledge they would also benefit from extra time to gear up for success.
Frontman, and former Socceroos defender, Steve Horvat said: “A delay would give everybody the opportunity to go about doing everything the right way.
“It might not be that bad of an outcome. From our point of view, we are ready to go now.
“But we are not going to walk away if it is delayed by 12 months.
“I think the marjority of the bids all have sound business cases, and I’m sure they’ll also be there still knocking on the door if there is a hold up.
“Of course, it’s frustrating to wait because expansion can’t come quickly enough.
“But I think overall, there’s a feeling of excitement and expectation out there about new teams and new colours.
“Obviously a new board is coming in and you have to give things time. While we don’t like the thought of it (a delay), if there is one you will have to accept it.
“It would give new clubs more time to build a supporter base, fan engagement and community engagement and like everything in life, the more time you have to prepare the better the outcome will be.”
While sharing the frustration that a hold up would bring, South West Sydney co-chairman Gino Marra said his bid wasn’t going away either.
“We’ve already invested a significant amount of money and of course, we want a decision sooner rather than later,” Marra said.
“We’re committed to the area and we’re committed to bringing football to the south west, so we will continue knocking on the door - whether there is a delay, whether we get knocked back - until we get a team in the area.”
