FFA, What about Canberra and/or Western Sydney?

Second Melbourne team to be ready for 2010

04.08.09 | Andrew Slevison
Football Federation Australia is confident that a second Melbourne A-League team will be ready by next year.

Despite not having a chief executive, coach, name or colours, the proposed franchise is expected to come to fruition prior to season 2010/2011 according to FFA chief Ben Buckley.

"I don't think that they haven't got anything in place," Buckley said at the A-League's season launch in Sydney yesterday.

"They might not have a team, but we know they're close to appointing a CEO, there's discussions with coaches and they're working very hard on a playing list.

"There's a lot of work going on behind the scenes.

"We're pretty confident and comfortable they'll be ready when the time is right. It's a tight time frame, but that's the nature of rapid expansion.

"Gold Coast United and North Queensland proved they could do it in 12 months.

"You look at the quality of staff and players and you take your hat off to them for showing it can be done."

The second Melbourne team, which is backed by businessman Peter Sidwell, was not given entry until April this year which seems like little time but Buckley is confident it can be done.

“You've got to ensure all the building blocks are in place, otherwise we could meet problems down the track,” he added.

"We were very rigorous and we asked Peter and his team to jump through some pretty big hoops. We've got faith in them and we're confident they will be successful."

http://www.tribalfootball.com/second-melbourne-team-be-ready-2010-261091

If Ben Buckley is saying that Melbourne Heart should just be right and have everything in place, what about the 12th team that comes in.

The FFA should've made this decision ages ago.

Proud2BeCanberran, we still have 1 year for the 12th team to be ready, but I can see where you are coming from. GCU and NQF had way more than a year, so the FFA are very inconsistent.

....Maybe this is why Western Sydney approached Gary Van Egmond early.....?

i dont really know what happens back stage in football but the ffa need to understand that just because GCU and NQF were ready in 12 months doesn't mean we would be... it would probs take us longer because it would be more difficult for us to attract players and sponsers

Yeah there is no doubt that we are running out of time...

Especially with Canberra, we will need as most time as we can get, because as johnlovescanberraunited (jeez, that is a long username) said, it will be harder to attract players here.

yeah come on already make a fricking decision.

ivan slavich told the Canberra times a decision is surely going to be made later this month...

Do you think it's worth putting a list together of players who are available and who we would like to see come to the club and then forward it on to Ivan?

^^
yep i do, if we get in we'll do have an in-depth look at who's available.

sounds good.. we can check players coming off contracts in the a-league, then out of interest we can have a search for those who realistically we might be able to pull over from the wider world..

damn FFA, they don't have a contact e-mail on their website, all they have is a postal address and i can't be bothered writing a letter.

aleague4canberra wrote:damn FFA, they don't have a contact e-mail on their website, all they have is a postal address and i can't be bothered writing a letter.

If we don't get that team the're will be lots of letters to the FFA!