Football Federation Australia (FFA) has today terminated the license of the Newcastle Jets due to a number of breaches by owner Nathan Tinkler.
The FFA will look to create a new franchise based in Newcastle which it will take control over. Current players of the Jets will be offered contracts with the club.
The licence was terminated because the Hunter Sports Group has repeatedly been late to pay players and staff, including this month and an ‘ongoing failure to meet standard operational requirements‘ which includes Tinkler placing the Jets into voluntary administration.
Yesterday the former mining magnate was given 24 hours to raise $500,000 or risk having his license revoked which he has failed to do.
FFA CEO David Gallop said that the governing body has terminated the license to “protect the interests of the football community in Newcastle and the Hunter Valley”, and to save the reputation of the A-League.
This continues Newcastle’s troubled history in Australian football. In 1978, Newcastle KB United entered the competition as Newcastle’s first professional league club, but it went bankrupt. It was rebranded as the Adamstown Rosebuds, followed by the Newcastle Breakers after the Rosebuds folded.
Former owner Con Constantine created Newcastle United in the 2000-01 season of the old National Soccer League and renamed them to the Newcastle United Jets at the introduction of the A-League in 2005-06.
Gallop recognised the history of the region and has moved to give the players and fans a fresh start.
“Newcastle needs a club operating in a stable environment with certainty of resources in order to be successful and competitive in the A-League and to properly represent the community,” Gallop said.
“HSG has behaved in a deplorable way towards the players and staff of the club in failing to meet basic obligations to pay wages. Anyone who takes control of a sporting club has an obligation to respect the people and the traditions of that club. They have failed miserably to in this regard.”
It was Tinkler who ironically saved the club from bankruptcy back in 2010. The Hunter Sports Group took over the one-time A-League champions but Tinkler tried to hand his license back to the FFA in 2012 and more recently attempted to sell the club to Scottish outfit Dundee United.
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