Football Australia posts record $8.5 million loss … but CEO says Socceroos, Matildas won't be impacted
Football Australia says grassroots and national team programs will not be affected by the posting of a record $8.5 million loss - but interim chief executive Heather Garriock has hinted that the federation could be set to shed some jobs.
FA's annual general meeting was held on Friday, with Anter Isaac – the only candidate up for election – retaining not only his place on the board but his position as chair.
But Isaac said he was 'not satisfied' with FA's financial results, which come despite record revenues of $124 million, and following the sudden departure of James Johnson as chief executive after a five-and-a-half year stint in the job.
Isaac attributed the loss to heavier investments in national youth teams and associated travel costs, FA's unpopular new digital registration platform PlayFootball v2.0, and an 'expected credit loss' of $4.1 million, the vast majority of which is money owed by the Australian Professional Leagues, the operators of the A-Leagues, from what sources say is a bigger debt to the federation of over $11 million – although FA would not go into detail about that credit loss figure or what is behind it.
That money is not expected to be recovered – but is not a write-off, Isaac insisted – although there are disagreements between the two bodies about money that is apparently owed the other way.
'I can tell you that our relationship with the APL ... is the one of complete cooperation, collaboration,' he said.
'We are working hand-in-hand with them to not only on strategic initiatives that will help the game prosper at the professional level and grassroots, but also dealing with some historical matters that we're very close to resolving. It's a very positive relationship at the moment, the best that I can remember in a long time.
'We have zero concerns about the commercial relationships we have with APL. Our relationship with APL is probably characterised in two ways. There's the commercial relationship and then there's the strategic relationship. On both counts, it's very strong. It's positive and improving all the time.'
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