Central Coast Mariners owner Mike Charlesworth has labelled Football Federation Australia’s decision to schedule his club's semi-final against Western Sydney Wanderers less than three days after a match in Japan as “absolutely ludicrous”.
Following their Asian Champions League commitments against Sanfrecce Hiroshima in Japan on Wednesday night, the Mariners won’t land in Sydney until Friday morning.
That gives them a little more than a day to overcome jet lag and to prepare for a match that may not only determine their championship aspirations but their hopes of qualifying for next season’s ACL.
A bewildered Charlesworth told Fairfax Media he was staggered the FFA couldn’t reschedule the match, which is understood to have to been kept on Saturday to satisfy the host broadcaster, Fox Sports.
“I don’t think this could happen anywhere else in the world," he said. "I know we’ve got a unique geographic situation, but I don’t think any other country would allow it. It’s absolutely ludicrous. I understand the FFA are clearly in a difficult situation but clearly a mistake has been made in the planning.
“It’s not just one flight from Hiroshima, it’s two, and it takes them a whole day to get home. It’s 15 or 16 hours of transit, and then to play a game within 24 hours, such an important game, is ridiculous.”
Charlesworth said the scheduling decision had compromised the integrity of the competition.
“What they’ve done devalues the A-League in many ways and that is such a shame,” he said. “We’ve got some momentum behind us, we’re all pushing for success and we’re all excited for the game, especially because there’s such a great rivalry that’s evolved between the Mariners and the Wanderers these days.
“I just think it’s so disappointing that we’ve been left in this situation. We’re clearly at a distinct disadvantage for the semi-final.”
Now the Mariners’ owner wants to pressure the FFA into making sure no club is ever subjected to such an impossibly quick turnaround.
“For next year, be it with the Mariners or whoever, this can never happen ever again,” Charlesworth said. “We can’t change what has happened with the scheduling of this game but we can make sure we plan for such situations in the future.”
Meanwhile, the Mariners are also fuming over a low ticket allocation for Saturday’s match.
Just 1200 tickets have been allocated to travelling Central Coast fans, Charlesworth claiming supporters “snapped them up in a matter of minutes”.
“For a semi-final, I think that is grossly unfair," he said. "The system is wrong. The FFA are in charge of the finals and they say they can’t allocate our supporters any more bays. The situation we’ve been left with now is that our supporters are having to buy tickets in the Wanderers supporters’ area.”
He believes a more suitable breakdown would be akin to that seen at cup fixtures in England, where clubs can request up to 15 per cent of the total capacity.
If that rule was applied at Parramatta Stadium, which has a capacity of 20,741 seats, the Mariners would be able to apply for 3111 tickets. That’s a figure Charlesworth believes they’d meet easily.
“I think we’d be looking at taking down 4000 or 5000 fans quite easily if we were allowed to,” he said. “We think that would be a much more equitable breakdown of tickets and would also contribute to a better atmosphere.”
Charlesworth said he felt Mariners’ fans would be discouraged from attending if they could not buy tickets in a Central Coast-specific bay.
“I’ve even heard from some fans that they’ve ended up right next to the Red and Black Bloc,” he said. “Clearly, that is not an ideal solution for our supporters.”
