Photos: John McGirr (top) and Ken Morton (bottom) went to Sydney on Wednesday to meet FFA officials
John McGirr and Ken Morton have returned from Sydney where they and executives of Stratcorp met FFA’s John O’Sullivan to discuss Tasmania’s A-League bid.
“We had a very positive response to our stage 1 document,” said McGirr today.
“There was a suggestion that we go away and get some more evidence around the budget numbers and come back to them with that evidence in a business case, which will be a bid document.
“We put a time frame in for that and spoke to Brad [Stratcorp executive] and he said he could do it within eight to twelve weeks.
“Within the eight to twelve weeks we would then have to cover our sponsors.
“The information we’ve got from the AFL bid is that to get the one-and-half million dollar sponsorship wouldn’t be a problem.
“The main problem would be getting investors, I would say.
“So, you do need, when you present your bid document, a bank guarantee from a group of investors, otherwise you’re not in the ball park.
“And that’s where we’re at now.”
When asked whether he was confident of getting those investors, McGirr replied: “How long is a piece of string?
“Personally, I’m reasonably confident.
“I shall get the feedback from the guys [Tasmania United A-League Taskforce members] tomorrow as to how confident they are and we’ll make a group decision as to what we will put out there in the media.”
5 comments:
I'm forever hopeful of the A League venture succeeding, but has anyone seen an affluent sheik at premier league matches, FFT headquarters, John McGirr's office or at the Morton Academy?
One facet of the Tasmania United HAL bidis discussion of prospective coaches. Is Ken Morton suitable as a coach for an A league team in Tasmania? By which criteria is he a suitable coach for an A League team here? He may be the best results based coach residing in Tasmania at an amateur level, but what value is this in a professional league which has progressed considerably from the old NSL?
Last year Arie Schans, development coach for KNVB, former professional coach in the J League and C League, head coach for Butan, Botswana and Mozambique national teams, and senior instructor for the KNVB all round the globe, expressed interest in working in Australia.
I've had discussions with the current and former CEO's of FFT about contacting him to sound him out as Director of Coaching for FFT. It seemed all to hard for them. They only had to pick up the phone or email the guy.
Ditto, if the Tasmania United gig became operational. I think his CV is superior to Ken's as head coach. He is also conversant with all the latest trends of football methodology and coaching strategies in Europe. KNVB is universally recognised as one of the world leaders in football methodology, along with Clarefontaine and Coverciano.
Another reason a state league is an integral part of an A League being successful, is to have an intermediary tier for HAL aspirants to use as a stepping stone for the A League as players. It would give young players something to aim for like cricket and hockey.
An A league team would probably need to have strong connections to a state league and the grass roots.
It may be prudent for Morton to be involved in some sort of coaching capacity in the Tasmania United set up in the short term, but I think the idea of him being head coach is flawed. A brief foray into the V league in Vietnam and an ephemeral coaching venture in Ethiopia, don't stack up as good credentials for head coach of a contemporary A league team in my book. We need a guy with European experience, or who has coached at a high level in Australia, who is conversant with current methodology.
I don't think Morton has put his hand up as coach, but the name of Afshin Ghotbi has been thrown around! (He has been in contact with TUFC before - as in actually, not like the Sheik where it was "his people".) Martyn Wells interviewed him on his radio show a few months back.
The TUFC feasibility study pointed out that the club would run a Youth Leauge team as of the first year (they were informed by FFA that it is optional until the third year) due to the need for some sort of development pathway from local clubs.
Morton coached Wollongong in the nsl and heidleberg i think. He is a great coach, just a personality transplant needed and he's away
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