Gold Coast kicked out of A-League

Gold Coast United may have already played their last A-League game after their licence was terminated on Wednesday.

The Football Federation Australia hope to come to an agreement with the United players in the coming days that will allow the team to complete the final four games of the season, and will pay the players if they agree to do so.

But with their next game scheduled against the Phoenix in Wellington on Sunday, FFA chairman Frank Lowy admitted that the best-case scenario could be that the game has to be postponed.

Lowy insisted that FFA had not acted hastily in coming to the decision, the board having reached it after being given ‘rock-solid’ legal advice that doing so is within their powers.

A-League chief Lyall Gorman will head to the Gold Coast to brief the players and attempt to broker the agreement to see out the season.

But at best Gold Coast will play four more games before departing the competition a year after fellow expansion club North Queensland Fury bowed out because FFA refused to continue supporting them financially.

And while Lowy would not rule out having a club on the Gold Coast in future and said he remains hopeful of still fielding 10 teams in the 2012/13 season, it would seem more likely that any replacement club would be based elsewhere.

On Tuesday Lowy said in a speech at the Melbourne Heart business lunch that he hopes to install a second Sydney team in the city’s west, and the latest development could hasten the establishment of a club in the booming region.

FFA and the club’s billionaire owner Clive Palmer have been at loggerheads in recent weeks over a range of issues relating to how the game is run in Australia.

Gold Coast were issued with the termination notice for making ‘at least three clear breaches’ of their Club Participation Agreement in the past few days.

Central to this was their decision to include the slogan ‘Freedom of Speech’ on their jerseys against Melbourne Victory last Saturday after Palmer withdrew the Hyatt Regency Coolum sponsorship because he is now in legal dispute with hotel chain Hyatt over its management of his Coolum resort.

As well as the slogan on the jumpers, it was also seen around the ground on various billboards, despite the fact the club were expressly told in the hours leading up to the game not to don the strips or post the advertising signage.

Before the hastily-convened media announcement got underway, Palmer revealed the news on Twitter and stated his desire to fight the decision.

“Our licence is being rekoved (sic) by Frank Lowy and FFA cohorts … I will issue detailed response shortly,” Palmer said.

“We intend to fight this ludicrous decision by incompetent FFA in the courts. Frank Lowy is an institution who now belongs in an institution.”

In his statement, which he read to gathered media before answering questions along with FFA chief executive Ben Buckley, Lowy stated that he had no alternative other than to terminate the club’s licence.

“The material breach on Saturday night was followed by a statement from the club that it intended to continue using the slogan,” Lowy said.

“This behaviour came on top of public comments that displayed a total lack of respect for football and the millions of Australians who love the game.”