Western United remains on life support three weeks on from Football Australia’s decision to strip them of their A-Leagues licenses, following months of late payments to players and staff and stalled progress in their transition to new ownership.
Having appealed the decision, Western now awaits the response of FA’s First Instance Board, with a result expected by the end of the week. Beyond that the club still hold the right to challenge the decision further at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which would elongate yet another sorry chapter in the local game and further muddy the APL’s preparations for the upcoming A-Leagues seasons.
Bigger picture news on the sale of the club to American investors KAM Sports is still unforthcoming. Hailed in May as ‘white knight’ saviours, the group are yet to provide the APL with its necessary bona fides – The Guardian on Wednesday reported the group have provided no more than $1,500.
‘I suppose like all bad news the authorities wanted to kick this into the long grass for as long as possible in the hope the situation would go away. But generally we find out in life, that procrastination usually makes situations worse’, veteran football reported Michael Lynch told Box2Box.
‘In general terms it’s always looked like an idea that was struggling to establish itself. They’ll have to present compelling evidence that they’ll be able to carry on… there’s no good thing about this, nobody wants to see this happen to clubs.’
Should Western fold, their six seasons in the A-League Men’s will be remembered as a contrast between their on-field work, and off. Their football was largely vibrant, spearheaded early by Alessandro Diamanti; they won a Championship in 2022 under John Aloisi, and then committed to youth development, which had started to pay dividends. Their women’s side also hit the ground running, finishing 2nd, 3rd and 6th in their completed seasons to date.
But from the start, it’s been just as much about politics. They appeared rank outsiders among the six final bids during FA’s 2018 expansion process, but trumped the Dandenong-based ‘Team 11’ and former NSL powerhouse South Melbourne at the eleventh hour to acquire a third Victorian licence.
Then FFA chair Chris Nikou said ‘one of the key factors in our decision was the long-term growth opportunity for each club in each new geography’ and Tarneit certainly presented as such. Western would build a ‘game changing’, self-owned 15,000 seat stadium as part of a much broader community development. General historical consensus also reads that FA were seduced by the money.
‘I think most people felt that Football Australia ran with the money, just took whoever offered the most because the financial situation of football in this country then, as now, as ever, was rather shaky, and I think they thought ‘right, this lot have offered more money’ said Lynch.
‘Western did mount a compelling argument: a joint venture with local council, burgeoning population slated for growth, the idea of a club building its own stadium. It was all very compelling in one sense, but also almost completely blue sky.’
‘We all thought Team 11 was gonna get the nod. South Melbourne ran its case but the mail at the time, with David Gallop still running the league and the old board still in charge at the then-FFA, was that Team 11 was in pole position.’
The stadium can be considered symbolic of what Western have promised, and ultimately have and haven’t delivered, during their existence. Initially they were ‘shovel-ready’ during the 2018 bid process; hampered but undeterred by Covid-19, it was then to be ready to host games at the 2023 Women’s World Cup. As compromise began to creep into the vision, what ultimately materialised was the 5,000 capacity Ironbark Fields training facility… which was presented as a temporary solution, the stadium still on the way.
At least it was a home; before its opening in March 2024, Western held home games in Geelong, Ballarat, Footscray, Launceston, Hobart and, most incongruously, at Aami Park, which contradicted the very essence of a ‘western’ Melbourne team to differentiate from Victory and City. In 2021 they announced plans to move games to Lakeside Stadium, a move that lacked self-awareness and was ‘vigorously opposed’ by seething permanent tenants, South Melbourne.
‘I understand why they ended up wandering around, but the peripatetic nature of playing here, there and everywhere behind the fig leaf of saying ‘our name is western’ in the end wore a bit thin.
‘They were cursed by bad luck, Covid kicked in and put life in Victoria on hold for two years, so any efforts to build community relationships through playing games were put on hold. And they did quite a lot of things right on the field, didn’t they? But in general terms there just seemed to be a lot of promises, but not sufficient substance behind them.’
The stadium saga that can be surmised as overpromising and underdelivering has played out again – to this point – in KAM Melbourne’s flagged investment: from $100million on the way in May, to just $1500 materialising by the eve of September. Football Australia has seen this pattern from Western before.
‘Let’s hope this white knight investor gives sufficient guarantees to to satisfy the APL because whether you think they should have got the licence or not, whether they’re in the right position, at the end of the day surely nobody wants to see a professional football team, with coaching, playing, ancillary staff jobs, and eco-infrastructure around that disappear, do we?’