When then A-League expansion club North Queensland Fury unveiled their in augural playing strip in 2009, EVERYONE winced.
A retina-scraping mix of lime, forest green and white made the Townsville-based club an instant eyesore.
Despite the god-awful threads, the future was bright for the men for the deep north.
They – along with Gold Coast – were to be at the vanguard of the A-League’s growth; two bright, vibrant sides offering top-class football to two areas of strategic importance to Football Federation Australia.
A little under two years later, the Fury are dead.
The FFA decided to switch off the life support yesterday after the club they owned haemorrhaged $2.5 million last year and was expected to lose $2 million the next.
Like any death in any family, the Fury’s demise triggered rage and grief among the nation’s football fraternity, especially given the North Queensland advisory board claimed it had raised the $1.5 million needed by the FFA for 2011-12.
A mystery $500,000 major sponsorship was to be announced in the near future, according to Fury loyalists.
People are calling for independent inquiries. Players, coaches and staff are out of jobs. The Fury’s modest but passionate fan base don’t have a club to call their own.
A lot of the debate centres around what the Fury board claimed to have raised. What they claimed was capital, the FFA said was sponsorship. There’s a fair old gulf between the two.
The FFA said the capital – defined as “material wealth in the form of money or property” or “money that can be used to produce further wealth” raised by an extensive ‘Retain the Fury’ (nice name, by the way) campaign totalled just $275,000.
Sponsorship and pledges didn’t count. Fair enough. Businesses supporting sporting clubs go bust all the time. People forget to pay what they promise.
However, the FFA also said it had pumped $9 million into the club since taking over. Hmmmm. No balance sheets, no itemised account. Just a bland statement, at the end of a typically bland press release.
I got it at my real job but forgot to e-mail it home. My bad.
People will cane the FFA for this decision – more so given the Fury claim they would have been able to stand on their own two feet by 2013.
One school of thought is that the FFA shouldn’t be hammered for cutting the Fury down now – they should be for deciding to go to Townsville in the first place.
We’re not exactly talking about football heartland – think the Adelaide Rams of Super League infamy or the now-defunct Singapore Slingers of the NBL.
Bids from stronger football regions such as Canberra and Wollongong were knocked back so the FFA could increase its footprint in Queensland. Fair call, it’s their competition. And the Fury were making promising strides in terms of support - til yesterday.
Maybe the FFA should be caned for allowing the Fury to go ahead under its original – and the FFA’s preferred – model: one private, all-powerful owner.
That man, Don Matheson, pulled the pin after one season when the Fury lost close to $6 million. Fair call, it was his money.
However, where did that leave the club? At death’s door, of course. The FFA were not interested in pumping money into another club after taking care of Adelaide for so long and still – STILL – owning part of the Brisbane Roar.
Yesterday, the FFA acknowledged their poor planning and poor judgment by killing off the Fury. That’s why they should be vilified.
… and for approving those disgusting jerseys.
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