Sydney FC chief executive Danny Townsend says Southern Expansion do not have a place in the A-League and labelled comments by Southern chairman Morris Iemma as “disrespectful.”
Sydney FC have committed to playing A-League matches at Jubilee Oval, Kogarah for the next three seasons while Allianz Stadium undergoes renovations and hosted their 2018 member’s day at the ground on Saturday for about 2,000 fans.
Iemma criticised Sydney FC’s relationship with the St George district in particular in an interview with The World Game website earlier this month, saying “the people of St George don't see themselves as part of Sydney FC at all. There is no relationship there.”
Sydney FC claim more than 30 per cent of its membership base comes from Sydney’s south. Southern have applied for one of two professional licences to be granted by Football Federation Australia for the 2019-20 A-League and W-League seasons and plan to represent St George, Sutherland Shire and the Illawarra.
But Townsend told the Leader the Sky Blues would fight to retain the St George district and Sutherland Shire as their territory.
“[The comments were] less of an issue for our club, more disrespecting the football community in that area,” he said.
“A lot of members that I spoke to said they were disappointed to be represented that way. A lot of football fans in the community down there do align themselves with Sydney FC and have a connection to the club and voiced their disapproval to me.
“That would be our view [that Southern don’t have a place in the A-League]. We know we can’t squat on an entire country. When Western Sydney came in the club at the time saw it as a bit of a threat but with the geographical divide of Sydney a standalone team for Sydney’s west proved the right move.
“But trying to wedge teams into an already plateaued population base will cannibalise the sport. We are in favour of growing the game in areas not already serviced.
“The research we’ve conducted suggests if you bring a team into those two areas, our ability to grow our fan base and footprint would be made more difficult. We’re all for growing the fan base of the A-League but equally continuing to allow existing clubs to grow as well. Cutting off existing clubs for new clubs is not a solution.”
Townsend said the club believed the relocation to Kogarah and Leichhardt Oval for three seasons would be successful from a football club view point and popular with the club’s fans.
“The members I’ve spoken to are really excited about coming to Jubilee. The atmosphere inside Jubilee is going to be fantastic,” he said.
“We’ve spent a lot of time and energy in that part of Sydney to develop a fan base and we want to continue and increase it even more in time to grow the game in that area. And we have people who have been behind us since our inception. To suggest otherwise is not really fair.
“We see this as an opportunity. Our hire agreement at Allianz [Stadium] has no flexibility to take games out into our heartland. This forced change due to the redevelopment has given us the chance to do that.
“I’m confident the three years away will bring us an even closer affiliation with the football community across Sydney and bring them back to Allianz with us.”