The future of A-League Central Coast "could be in jeopardy if a restructure of its ownership fails," according to Ray Gatt of THE AUSTRALIAN. Football Federation Australia has confirmed that discussions "are under way" for one of the club's investors to take a controlling interest in the club. The investor would take on the Mariners considerable debts, although fears emerged that the move "might have come too late." English businessman Michael Charlesworth is "understood to have been negotiating for several weeks" with FFA and the Mariners' major stakeholder and Chair Peter Turnbull to "take the reins of the club," which has had "mounting financial problems for the past three or four seasons" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 3/19).
NOT GETTING PAID: In Melbourne, Sebastian Hassett reported players and staff of the Mariners have had their wages "delayed for the second time this season." Those on the club's payroll were due to be paid last Thursday but when the players arrived back on Friday from their midweek game against Kashiwa Reysol in Tokyo, "their fortnightly salary still hadn't gone through." The players have been told that their wages "should be processed on Tuesday and that wages will be on time for the rest of the season." A-League CEO Damien De Bohun said he had ''no concerns'' over the club's long-term future and did not believe "it would prove too disruptive to its campaign" (THE AGE, 3/19).
