"Got a bazooka": FA criticised over disastrous triple bombshell

In the week of the A-League M Grand Final, Football Australia announced it will cut twenty per cent of its workforce, following significant financial issues.

Football Australia will lodge a loss of greater than the record $8.5 million deficit from last year, and that some roles will be combined or new ones created in hopes of restructuring the organisation.

The announcement comes only five days before Football Australia’s marquee event, the men’s A-League Grand Final, where Auckland FC and Sydney FC will do battle over in Auckland. Moreover, the Socceroos are just weeks away from contesting the 2026 World Cup.

Additionally, it was announced Western United will not be readmitted to the A-League next season, while Heidelberg United FC were ruled ineligible for the direct AFC Champions League Two despite satisfying the mandatory criteria set out by Football Australia.

The three damaging distractions prompted SEN’s Adam Peacock to question why Football Australia had timed these announcements for the week of the grand final.

“What about the last 24 hours for Australian football, which we know and love dearly,” Peacock said on SEN 1170 Arvos.

“Name me another sport which would have a grand final week where this happens on the Tuesday before the game on the Saturday.

“The governing body announces mass redundancies coming, and forecasting a major, major loss in the realm of seven to eight figures.

“They kick out, or deny entry, through the AFC passage for a second tier club, Heidelberg, which has never happened.

“Heidelberg, to get into an AFC competition by virtue of the fact that they finished runners up in the Australia Cup but after months and months of negotiation and Heidelberg jumping through all these hoops to say, ‘oh no, we'll play here, we'll do this, we'll value add to our club to make sure that we meet all the regulations’, you can't play in it.

“(It’s a) complete waste of time. Heidelberg out of Melbourne said they're gonna appeal, as they should, and Western United, a club that was in the A-League 12 months ago, which departed the A-League and given a stay of execution for 12 months, was told ‘you're definitely not gonna be in now’.

“Why on Earth would you have those three negatives come out in the week of your marquee mens game in the domestic realm?

“All of those things eke out, or come out, or get released in the wake of your marquee game.

“They haven't just shot themselves in the foot, they've got a bazooka and blown it off.

“Why would you do that? I don't get it!

“I've done them in seeding order because all the noise today is obviously about the massive loss coming out of Football Australia.

“So I don't know what the hell's going on there, because this is the second massive loss forecast, and unfortunately, 1/5 of their working force who started the working week looking forward to working, I'm suggesting, end the week with the possibility of wondering what on earth they do now.

“I can't help but feel that all of these decisions, all of these happenings, are born out of matters or decisions that were made long, long ago, and when you get down to it, you boil it all down, it comes down to the fact that, are you looking after the core product which is football at its heart?

“Was Western United the right football decision to bring in at the very start? Very debatable.

“Is leading a football club like Heidelberg down the path the right thing for their football? Are they spending resources away from their football, and their coaching, on trying to get into this?

“Very aspirational, but could it have been handled a lot better? (I’d) say so.

“The spend and the loss of money in an organisation which can't really afford to lose money, what's that down to?

“They're the questions that probably need to come out at the AGM but at the moment, again, I get back to it and keep on going back to it with Australian football.

“If you take your eye off it and clamour for control and make decisions that are divergent from the absolute aim of developing footballers, and if you develop footballers, you develop coaches and vice versa, and the football gets better and everything else takes care of itself off the back of that.

“If you're clamouring for control and having these little political battles left, right and centre, and you take the eye off the ball there, no bloody wonder we keep on having weeks like this, where in the lead up to the grand final, you're not talking about the grand final.

“I should make mention as well, the person now in charge of Football Australia, Martin Kugeler, who I know personally, none of this mess is his doing.

“It's up to him to clean it up and knowing the guy, I've got full faith that he will be able to clean up.

“He's a man based on integrity and common sense, and those two together is probably exactly what Football Australia needs right now in the game of football.

“So all the best, Martin. Wish you well.”