Ok, but why would they let Indonesian owners own the club anyway. Having lived in SE Asia for 10 years, different rules tend to apply in certain countries. Surely, if the product is valuable then there would be plenty of Australian-based owners available?
Yeah there are apparently new owners ready to take over. The group that owns the coffee club possibly but not confirmed. Unfortunately as with these things there is a lot of legal stuff going on in the background and not much communication from either the club or FFA.
The Indonesian company is the Bakrie Group who made a lot of promises when they took over the club in 2012 and it was always a risk and as it has turned out they presided over the most successful period in the clubs history and now appear to just want out.
Probably says more about the A-League ownership/franchise model than anything. With Tinkler-Jets; Sage-Glory, Palmer-GCU as the running list of owners causing dramas. I am confident the club and comp will endure and grow into the future. An article during the week in one of the finance sections actually put the soccer as second for the round ball codes in corporate sponsorship dollars behind AFL, surpassing the NRL. Probably due to the Socceroos.
Parts of the AFL model should be a guide as the way forward. Members with voting rights, electing a board to oversee, receiving assistance every year from the head body, largely from broadcast revenue. The AFL also owns all the trademarks, branding & names associated with the 18 AFL teams. The AFL also guarantees all the clubs debts which is the only reason many AFL clubs (including ours) haven’t been put into administration by the banks.