Buckley stands by league expansion
February 21, 2012 17:08:32 UK
Football Federation Australia chief executive Ben Buckley has stood by the decision of establishing an A-League club on Glitter Strip, after Gold Coast United's long-term future ran into jeopardy last week.
In the last few days, Buckley came under a serious verbal attack from Gold Coast United owner Clive Palmer, whose club will now have to face the consequences.
But in spite of the fact that North Queensland Fury got liquidated last year and GCU's future remains uncertain, Buckley believes that their decision to expand the league was the correct one.
In Monday's interview, Buckley said: "I don't accept that (expansion's been) a disaster. I think we're seven years into a long, rich, proud history, which will be told the story of the evolution of the A-League, the true evolution, will be told in 10-20 years' time.
"We're going to have hiccups on the way – we've had some – they've been very public. I take absolute responsibility for the decisions and the outcomes. No-one shirks away from that. We have great ambitions for (a club in) west Sydney."
GCU have been accused of not paying enough attention to their local fans, but Buckley said that they still have a strong fan base in the region.
"I think at the end of the day it's about depth of the engagement with the local community. We have seen some wonderful signs, early days, there were some very, very positive crowds when they had a free venue day, the tickets went off the system extraordinarily quickly," Buckley added.
Gold Coast United are 5.00 to defeat Central Coast Mariners on Wednesday, who themselves are 1.66 to get the win. A draw between the two sides can be backed at 3.75.
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