So Tinkler pulls the team from the A League and gives back the license - do you think this is a power play to see if he can get his buddy Clive's team back in the comp? I imagine that the people of Newcastle will not be too happy with this - especially given that he also owns their beloved Knights and the merging of the two teams was seen to be an efficient way to do things - share admin, ground, members etc.
With a new TV contract about to be bid on this throws the league into big trouble. It looks to me like the two big mining boys like to play by their own rules and not someone else's.
It isn't your money, it's his.
To be honest, I think the A-League is dreaming if it thinks that the market for a top tier domestic soccer league is as large as they would love us all to believe.
I think it's just Tinkler taking his normal business approach to dealing with the FFA, he has been asking questions about some things for a while now, licensing fees, the Culina situation etc and the FFA won't give him answers. It seems Nathan doesn't like being taken for a fool and is just kicking arses to get answers or if he doesn't he will pull out.
will be interesting to see the reaction after the speeches he made when he took over, so far looks pretty negative from the comments I've read and what I have heard on the radio.
As for the Knights, supposedly no issues there, the Knight also have a 20 mil bank guarantee from Tinkler so if all went bad they can call that in and would be fine. They also have different ownership structure so he couldn't do the same thing with the knights.
Newcastle Herald story below
www.newcastleherald.com.au/story/115116/ffa-reject-hsg-decision-to-hand-back-jets-licence/
I'm from Newcastle and support the Jets, but I also support a person that stands up for themselves.
Hopefully there's a legitimate reason for the stunt and the Jets will be back in a stronger A League comp. Looks like a legal battle if they really are to try hand back the license. If Tinkler is really trying to offload the Jets then it's not the way to impress the novocastrians who are the customers for his other ventures..
They could set up their own parallel comp and buy all of the other teams in the ultumate FY to Frank lowy. Like the Packer/ cricket superleage hijacking.
Tinkler signed a contract and not he has to deliver, soccer should not be run by two fat miners
