Football Federation Australia (FFA) and Perth Glory may believe that we have reached the end of the salary cap saga that has embarrassed the club and its supporters, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
A joint statement from both parties was issued on Thursday night and included a very telling line from FFA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) David Gallop: “We can now quickly move on from this matter and enjoy an exciting finale to the regular season and the Finals Series.”
After threatening to take FFA to the Supreme Court over sanctions that include expulsion from this year’s A-League finals and a monetary fine, Glory backed down as now former CEO Jason Brewer resigned and was painted as a ‘lone wolf’.
“We understand that Tony Sage has today accepted the resignation of the former CEO, who has accepted full responsibility, and acted alone, and we will work with Tony to ensure that Perth Glory rebuilds and has processes in place to ensure this does not happen again,” Gallop said in the FFA/Glory statement.
This, quite frankly, is a load of nonsense because the salary cap breaches, according to FFA themselves, go back to the 2012/13 season and Brewer only joined the club as CEO in August 2013.
Who was crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s during the period that this whole shambles kicked off, and why is Brewer the sole fall guy?
Club owner Tony Sage has maintained his innocence throughout the whole process, but has also been uncharacteristically quiet in terms of speaking publicly about the matter.
“My CEO and his staff assure me 100 per cent that we are under the cap, even though some things were not previously disclosed,” Sage told SBS The World Game back at the start of April.
Who are these staff members and why are they now not also being held accountable?
In most companies the CEO reports to a board of directors, and it would be fair to assume that Glory operates with a similar model. Did no one question the CEO?
Why didn’t somebody privy to the club’s accounts notice that they were spending far more than the salary cap permits? How could Tony Sage not know that payments were made to a family member of Andy Keogh from one of his other businesses?
The club itself emphatically spoke out against suggestions of a cap breach back in February with a tweet that has now firmly come back to haunt them.
Even Jason Brewer was adamant to the end that the club had done now wrong.
“There have been no so-called 'secret' or 'third party' payments made on behalf of the club,” he said in his parting statement.
Well, Jason, if that’s the case, why did you tender your resignation? And why has the club now accepted the sanctions imposed on it?
Debates over the validity of the salary cap will now likely come to the fore but at the moment there are rules in place and Perth Glory broke them over a period of three years.
To be $500,000 over a cap of $2.55 million this season is more than just a slip up, it’s blatant cheating.
The punishment of being relegated to seventh spot on the ladder is also inadequate; they should be stripped of all points and put firmly on the bottom.
While they may not be finals contenders, Western Sydney Wanderers, Newcastle Jets and Central Coast Mariners have also been impacted by Glory’s mismanagement.
The suggestion that any punishment should only come into effect next season is also nonsense because the club’s unfair advantage happened in 2014/15.
They should not be punished for the next campaign provided their affairs are in order in time for kick off.
The club further embarrassed itself by this week hinting at action against media outlets who, as it turns out, correctly reported on the matter.
“…the club notes that certain media outlets have today reported alleged ‘details of the case’ … The Club is currently seeking Counsel on the matter over defamatory reporting.”
Nothing came of that though; instead Glory battened down the hatches and adopted its own media strategy of banning supporters from the official Facebook page for giving their honest views.
Such censorship does nothing to help already strained relationships and, while it is of course reasonable to delete outright abuse, alienating those putting across reasoned arguments and questions is quite simply stupid.
Many supporters hoped that this would be the final straw and Sage would either sell the club or be forced to relinquish the licence by FFA.
However, Gallop’s show of support yesterday should ensure that it’s only a matter of time before the A-League’s problem child acts up again.
It has been one drama after another in the west since Sage took sole ownership of Glory back in 2008, with many previously loyal supporters walking away in disgust.
That is a trend we can expect to continue because plenty of others have already stated that they will not renew their season tickets or attend nib Stadium on an ad hoc basis in future.
While it is not an easy decision to walk away from a club you have supported through thick and thin, the money men at the top of the game only understand the severity of fan issues when they are hit directly in the pocket.
How do you justify handing over a few hundred dollars a year to a regime that has ruined the best overall season that the club has had in a decade?
If Perth Glory are to put this mess behind them then one of two things needs to happen – the ‘jobs for boys’ mentality can no longer exist and fresh minds with no prior connection to Tony Sage and his companies must be brought in or, alternatively, Sage has to go.
The bottom line here is that while it was very important for this matter to reach conclusion, it is also imperative that all parties are satisfied.
That is most definitely not the case, and it is now up to supporters, of both Glory and the game in Australia as a whole, to demand proper answers from the club and the governing body.
This is a golden opportunity to push for change and reform, and it shouldn’t be allowed to pass.
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