Deep breath. ‘Anything else?’ 

“Yes, we’re bottom of the league, can’t buy a win, and our humorously named central midfielder has been sent off, and suspended for the worst dive I’ve ever seen.”

Even deeper breath.  ‘Anything else?’ 

“Just a little thing. I’ve had to get a new person in to help manage this, because it’s beyond me.”

 Enter Michelle Roberts from stage left. 

A very dull play? A knock-on effect of the global financial crisis? The first act in the end of an unhappy marriage? Maybe a little of all three. This is actually the situation at North Queensland Fury who’s dazzling ascendance in to the world’s consciousness has now become a bit of a drizzle downwards. Good results on the pitch could hide it, but as things stands it’s looking like the mismanagement of the club stretched from boardroom to dug out and there’s a genuine concern that this could descend in to farce. 

It’s not all doom and gloom though. To quote Socceroo and Fury defender Shane Stefanutto

“This isn’t like in Turkey or Greece where you have to worry about getting paid; we’re getting our money and don’t have any real worries.” That’s right, the pay cheques are still getting issued, so there’s no problem. Well, that’s one way to look at things but when a club is losing money, those pay cheques could disappear quite quickly, in much the same way that my ATM card keeps giving out money until my account is empty. Or as Fury owner Don Matheson puts it: ”Our cash flow will carry us to a certain point where we will have to make a business decision.” Ominous. 

The problem came when investor Mitch Burke decided to leave the club (having suffered losses in his employment agency business), taking his money with him, shortly after inaugural CEO Dean Hassall was sacked or possibly resigned, conflicting reports that only agree on that he’s no longer with the club following a restructure. After an short interim period where Matheson stepped up, Michelle Roberts, who’s done a similar job at Adelaide Utd and Wellington Phoenix in helping them become viable businesses and sports franchises, has now stepped in. This leaves Don Matheson as the sole owner of the club but crucially also the only backer. 

In a deft piece of rubric that should have raised more alarms bells that it did Matheson said 

“The key message is the club’s in a very strong financial position. The financial position of the club hasn’t changed – I’ve just got to put in more money.”

Which sounds like he’s coming out fighting, except he’s not got a limitless supply of wealth. The Fury are already in the slightly comical position of being sponsored by their local rival’s – Gold Coast Utd – owner Clive Palmer, who’s Queensland Nickel company are the Fury’s principal sponsor. It’s not clear whether Matheson, who’s a golf-course developer by day, can reasonably sustain a franchise alone. 

The concern is that with Matheson now sole owner, and having put in the hard work he’ll be deeply reluctant to give up control, even if a new investor is found, limiting the potential partners available. “I think I have done a reasonably good job with it, I have a good relationship with the FFA and a impeccable relationship with the players,” he said. And that may well be true but you can’t just ignore the fact that the club’s been running at a loss since its inception, has repeatedly failed to get enough people in to the stadium to even break even and have had to re-write their business plan less than half-way through the season.

North Queensland Fury, it seems, are currently, and have been, a badly run business. And whilst the FFA are happy enough to let them continue for now, and have approved all the new measures, checks and balances to turn the franchise in to a profitable concern, they were also happy with the previous business model, the one just failed, and with the current model of Matheson propping up the club, making their stamp of approval less than convincing. As much as he may be very proud of what he has achieved and done, you have to wonder whether a complete change at the top is needed. 

There’s still speculation that Fury will be switching their home games to the smaller Tony Ireland Stadium, and will be looking to pay less for the Dairy Farmers  Stadium if they do stay there next year, the worrying implication being that a crowd of just 3,500 is more realistic than a crowd of 8,500, these figures representing the break even points for each alternative. A smaller, stadium with less impressive facilities, less atmosphere, less prestige… it’s unlikely to get the fans flooding in. But, for now there is a calm following the storm. 

Everyone got worried but Matheson whipped out his bank statement and assured everyone that he could cope with it. That is not, in my opinion, good enough, and I hope for the people of Townsville that constructive steps are taken to ensure that another crisis like this is avoided. This isn’t a team playing well enough to just ride over it and the lack of fans in the crowds are not going to be overcome by heartfelt pleas. A well-run club, a well run team, the fans will come. 

“Michelle Philips will work creating the new process in the administration, new KPI (key performance indicators) for the staff, and as a club get back on track within the next couple of weeks,” said Matheson, before jumping on a plane and heading off for a whistle-stop investor seeking tour of Asia and Europe. 

As a business, the Fury need to operate profitably regardless of their performance on the field or attendances. As a football team, they need the strong financial backing to compete. It’s not fair to blame playing staff or money staff for this situation, but any long term success will certainly rely on a bit more acumen from dug out to boardroom. And let’s hope it’s not spreading!