Players and staff at Australian A-League team Newcastle Jets have not been paid for the last two weeks. The Jets have problems of their own, but they are a symptom of more fundamental problems in the A-League.
Players and staff at Australian A-League team Newcastle Jets have not been paid for the last two weeks. The Jets have problems of their own, but they are a symptom of more fundamental problems in the A-League.
Some question, certainly the team owners, whether the league should be run by the Australian Football Federation. The AFF has been somewhat preoccupied with its World Cup plans in the recent past. It has got its own financial problems with a $A5m cost cutting programme in progress at head office. The league stumped up the cash to enable the Jets’ last game against Brisbane Roar to go ahead and ultimately will have to find some way of keeping the Jets alive. This could involve bailing the club out, as they have in other cases, or finding a new owner.
The flamboyant property developer, Con Constantine, who owns the Jets has run up losses estimated at $A12m-$A15m over the last decade. At the moment he is encountering a familiar problem for owners: he is asset rich but cash poor. His relationship with the AFF has been tempestuous,
There is a strong football culture in Newcastle. There have been teams there since the late 1800s and they took part in the National Soccer League as well as the A-League, winning the latter’s title in 2008. However, the club simply can’t make money on their own games. They lack a major sponsor and they play in a publicly funded stadium but the lease is held by the NRL Newcastle Knights who don’t give them a good deal.
Soccer in Australia has to compete with the attachment to rugby and Australian rules, but it has been making headway in recent years, in part because of the success of the national team.