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Brisbane. The sixth edition of Australia’s A-League begins this week with a new club, a shift west for star import Robbie Fowler and continuing concerns over the competition’s financial viability and dwindling attendance.

Melbourne Heart is the new club in the expanded 11-team league. Brazilian striker Alex Terra and former Netherlands youth international Rutger Worm will lead the Heart against the Central Coast Mariners in Thursday’s season opener.

“After 10 months of being here and working together with all the people to build the club, it’s time to kick off,” said Heart coach John van’t Schip, a Canadian-born former Dutch international.

Fowler, the ex-Liverpool and England striker, will have to wait an extra day to see his first action for the Perth Glory in Western Australia, when the Glory takes on Fowler’s old team — North Queensland Fury — on Friday in a home match for the Perth side.

Fowler will hope there are no acrimonious feelings on the field from his June decision to take legal action against his former club for damages over the termination of his playing contract.

He was one of seven Fury players whose contracts were terminated when North Queensland restructured earlier in the year due to financial difficulties and its operations were taken over by Football Federation Australia. Fowler then signed a new deal with the Glory.

The players’ union took action against North Queensland on behalf of the seven players and reached settlements for all but Fowler. The amount sought by Fowler has not been disclosed.

“To Robbie’s credit, he could have gone and played in just about any country around the world and forgotten about the Fury situation,” union chief executive Brendan Schwab said.

“But he is committed to developing the Australian game and ensuring contract security for Australian players.”

North Queensland was not the only team hit by financial worries last year. Gold Coast United and Brisbane Roar also had concerns over attendance and costs, with Gold Coast owner Clive Palmer rumored to be pulling the financial plug on his team late last season.

In April, the A-League’s head of operations, Archie Fraser, resigned after only a year in charge. That news came as the rumors of Palmer’s pullout continued and as the FFA took over control of North Queensland.

Palmer had earlier caused concern for the league when he restricted attendance at his team’s match against the Fury in a move to cut costs.

Palmer, a billionaire mining magnate, capped the crowd at the match to 5,000 by only opening one of four sides of the team’s 27,400-seat stadium. By limiting the crowd, the team was not required to pay a state government transport levy, and saved money on stadium staff.

The crowd restriction, however, lasted only one match after the league and Palmer held talks to end the impasse.

Overall, average attendance was down by more than 2,000 in 2009-10 from 12,180 to 9,796. Although the addition of two new teams last year — North Queensland and Gold Coast — led to an increase in regular-season attendance from 1,023,147 to 1,322,475.


Associated Press