A-League clubs fired at Football Federation Australia (FFA) for releasing expansion plans to two more clubs, according to reports from AAP on Thursday.
On Thursday morning, the FFA announced that two new incoming clubs of A-League would be revealed in October.
According to FFA’s plan, they have called on expressions of interest (EOI) from potential bidders, who have to provide information about their strategy for a new club and to prove their financial bona fides.
By the end of August, the governing body will select a short list of potential bidders and request from them a fully-fledged proposal.
The two new clubs, which are expected to be from Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane, will be announced by 31 October and can compete in A-League in the 2019-20 season.
However, the FFA’s announcement faced a backlash from A-League clubs, who claimed they were not consulted about the plans.
Chairman of the Australian Professional Football Clubs Association (APFCA) Greg Griffin, wrote to FFA chief executive David Gallop to criticize FFA’s agenda.
“(This) process has been undertaken without any formal consultation of both the (clubs) and the PFA,” wrote Griffin, as quoted by AAP.
On the other hand, Griffith stated that this process was contrary to the agreement made by A-League stakeholders last month to wait for acceptance from FIFA and AFC.
