Sydney Olympic may be forced out of NSW Premier League competition
SOCCER
22 NOV 10 @ 03:08PM BY BIANCA MARTINS
Sydney Olympic is upset with Football NSW over changes to the 2011 fixture.
BELMORE’S Sydney Olympic FC will be forced out of the NSW Premier League competition if it doesn’t raise up to $300,000 by February 2011.
After being told by Football NSW two months ago that it had until September 2011 to raise adequate funds - in line with plans for a summer competition - Sydney Olympic now has a drastically shortened fundraising timeline.
On Friday, the decision to grant Sydney Olympic until September 2011 to raise funds was reversed after Football NSW announced it would not reschedule the competition from winter to summer.
This about-face followed discussions with Football Federation Australia (FFA).
During a meeting of member federation CEOs last week, it was decided that no competition would run simultaneously with the A-League.
Furious Sydney Olympic Club president George Giannaros said he created a business plan after being told by Football NSW he could start his Premier League competition in September 2011.
“Then they tell me they have to reverse their decision because they made a mistake - the FFA failed to sanction it,” he said.
“It is costing us up to $300,000. We had plans to raise that money by September but how are we going to come up with it by February?
“They should have got approval from the FFA before giving us the green light. Instead, they just cut us off at the legs.
“We need to pull our finger out of our rear ends and work extremely hard because if not, the doors of the club will close. I hope the community will get behind us because we’ve been put in a very difficult position.”
Mr Giannaros said he pushed to have the Premier League competition during summer so that it didn’t double up with the junior competition in winter.
“If that happened we would have our juniors coming to watch the seniors play. At the moment they don’t do that because they play Saturdays and are too tired to come back on Sunday to watch the seniors.”
FFA advised Football NSW it would undertake a national competitions review, which is expected to be released at the end of March 2011.
A Football NSW spokesman said it would be “contrary” to its mutual obligations under the FFA membership charter for the organisation to operate independently of the Premier League competition “when a national conversation on a uniform competition structure at state level was about to commence”.
The first round of the NSW Premier League will start on the weekend of March 26, 2011 with a conclusion date of no later than the weekend of September 24, 2011.
express.whereilive.com.au/sport/story/sydney-olympic-may-be-forced-out-of-nsw-premier-league-competition/
