Harper Sercombe
Melbourne Knights believe being part of the new National Second Tier competition isn’t in their best interests at the current time as the club’s former president lashed out on social media.
Football Australia last week announced the first eight teams of the new competition which is now set to start in 2025, with Avondale FC, South Melbourne and Preston Lions the three Victorian teams included.
The Knights, who won two Australian National Soccer League championships, was among the surprise omissions. Green Gully made it through to the final 26 teams but never disclosed if it had made a final bid.
The Knights released a statement following the announcement.
“Competing in a National Second Tier is an important long-term goal of the club and although our desire to return to the national stage is high, at this point in time, we do not believe it to be in the club’s best interest,” it said.
“During the RFP (request for proposal) phase, the club identified a number of key elements it found to be of concern, which was the main driver for the club electing not to formally complete the RFP.
“We will continue to engage with Football Australia over the coming months to work through these concerns, and we remain hopeful of a positive outcome not only for our club, but football in Australia, through our inclusion to the National Second Tier in 2025.
Earlier, former Knights president Pave Jusup took to X, formally known at Twitter, to have his say on the new competition.
He said he had warned Knights members to not expect the Knights to be a foundation club of the NST.
Jusup, who was president of the Knights for six years and spent 10 years on the club’s board, said he has been an advocate for a national second division for numerous years and had been in communication with the Association of Australian Football Clubs to advocate the need for it.
He said things had changed since the first serious meeting with Football Australia in August 2022 claiming FA went away from its own projection and began to take power away from the clubs.
“It became clear to me that FA felt that they knew best, that it was time for a competitive process even though the actual criteria around many things were never discussed, developed or agreed upon,” he said.
“Football Australia consistently missed meeting deadlines, had tardy documentation drawn up and continually edited, set arbitrary financial impositions without consultation and I generally found them to be unprofessional and unserious.
“All of these concerns were communicated by me directly to James Johnson (FA chief executive), Peter Filipoulos (FA head of marketing, communications and corporate affairs), Natalie Lutz (FA head of professional football & competitions) and other staff throughout. They just weren’t willing to do what was necessary to get the right model off the ground.”
A Football Australia spokesperson said FA consulted with and sought feedback from the soccer community prior to commencing the National Second Tier application process, which included engaging in a competitive and confidential tender RFP process.
“Football Australia provided an indicative timeline before commencing this process; with adjustments made to ensure sufficient time for development of club submissions, assessment of club submissions and execution of transaction documents,” they said.
“Football Australia has confirmed that an additional application process will open in early 2024 for the purpose of securing the remaining two to four foundation clubs prior to the commencement of the inaugural National Second Tier season in 2025.
“All future proposal submissions will be considered against the evaluation criteria previously applied to the National Second Tier application process, with more information to be provided in due course.”
