Talking Footy

Gold Coast United owner Clive Palmer will go head-to-head with the FFA over Jason Culina's legal tussle
Tom Smithies
The Daily Telegraph
January 03, 201212:00AM


Powerful: Clive Palmer could walk away from the A-League. Picture: Mark Cranitch. Source: The Courier-Mail


SOCCER chiefs will be set on a collision course with maverick billionaire Clive Palmer if they lose their legal tussle with Jason Culina over the fact he was never insured to play in the A-League.

Culina was not insured by Palmer's Gold Coast United from the time he returned to play in the A-League in 2009, and a clause in the club's A-League licence means the iron ore magnate will be liable for the potentially $2 million-plus bill if the player's grievance action against Football Federation Australia is upheld.

Sources have confirmed that every owner has to indemnify FFA against any losses it incurs from their actions and the governing body's finances will be hard hit by a successful verdict for Culina.

But any attempt to extract the money from Palmer will be fraught with danger, as rumours continue to swirl that he is contemplating walking away from the A-League at the end of the season.

All of Gold Coast's players remain on one-year contracts and it is believed none have yet been offered terms for next season.

There are concerns that should FFA pursue Palmer, who has been at loggerheads with the governing body almost since Gold Coast joined the A-League in 2009, it will just provoke him to hand the club's licence back.

The merits of Culina's action have divided many in the game, with officials at various clubs believing it will not succeed on the basis that there is a common understanding in the game that marquee insurance is an issue between the individuals and their clubs. Other sources have questioned how Culina can claim a grievance given that his club, Newcastle Jets, continue to pay both his wages and medical bills as he bids to return to action for next season.

The Jets have no involvement in the insurance saga because they signed Culina knowing he had an injury, and was therefore uninsurable.

Though the club tried to have his contract set aside, relations between them and the player have recovered sufficiently for him to be continuing his rehab at the club's expense.

Because of the Christmas and New Year break, no date has yet been set for the hearing of Culina's claim against FFA, which will be heard by an independent arbiter under the A-League's code of conduct.

FFA plans to defend the Culina case on the basis it is the regulator of a competition and the players' employment relationships are between themselves and their clubs.

The crux of the case is likely to hinge on the degree to which the arbiter accepts the players' union argument, on Culina's behalf, that a clause in the terms covering all players stipulates FFA must ensure everyone who plays in the A-League is covered by insurance.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6235031282

Another club to join the Titans on the Gold Coast struggling and set to fold.

Raiderdave wrote:

Another club to join the Titans on the Gold Coast struggling and set to fold.

ah no
1 Billion plus smackers ..... the Skilled park deal due for renewal soon... the Qld Govt to be forced to allow the Titans to play there for next to nothing
Titans to be around for a very ... very .. long time

Beaussie wrote:

Raiderdave wrote:

Another club to join the Titans on the Gold Coast struggling and set to fold.

ah no
1 Billion plus smackers ..... the Skilled park deal due for renewal soon... the Qld Govt to be forced to allow the Titans to play there for next to nothing
Titans to be around for a very ... very .. long time

Gee you wanna hope in the meantime that membership numbers for the Titans improve. Just 3,060 members to date. Will they last without folding before the stadium deal is negotiated? Who will fold first, the Soccer team or the League team? Hmm, PNG looks more and more attractive I would have thought Searle and co.

Topper wrote:

The burp machine has to hope that Queensland doesn't have a change of government because if they do if the Titans think they'll get onto the ground for "next to nothing" he's completely off his tree.

cooee wrote:

Topper wrote:

The burp machine has to hope that Queensland doesn't have a change of government because if they do if the Titans think they'll get onto the ground for "next to nothing" he's completely off his tree.

What makes you say this?

Raiderdave wrote:

Beaussie wrote:

Raiderdave wrote:

ah no
1 Billion plus smackers ..... the Skilled park deal due for renewal soon... the Qld Govt to be forced to allow the Titans to play there for next to nothing
Titans to be around for a very ... very .. long time

Gee you wanna hope in the meantime that membership numbers for the Titans improve. Just 3,060 members to date. Will they last without folding before the stadium deal is negotiated? Who will fold first, the Soccer team or the League team? Hmm, PNG looks more and more attractive I would have thought Searle and co.

phhtttt.... not a prob
the Titans ... engrained & on the coast for the long haul

locals are just waiting for some on field success again
I wager it will be the boys in baby blue n gold who achieve this a long time before the Thuns do

& when that happens

by by Thuns

Beaussie wrote:

Raiderdave wrote:

Beaussie wrote:

Gee you wanna hope in the meantime that membership numbers for the Titans improve. Just 3,060 members to date. Will they last without folding before the stadium deal is negotiated? Who will fold first, the Soccer team or the League team? Hmm, PNG looks more and more attractive I would have thought Searle and co.

phhtttt.... not a prob
the Titans ... engrained & on the coast for the long haul

locals are just waiting for some on field success again
I wager it will be the boys in baby blue n gold who achieve this a long time before the Thuns do

& when that happens

by by Thuns

Hmm, haven't we seen this before what... 3 times with RL teams on the Gold Coast. Each and every time the team folded. Signs not looking good for the Titans I gotta say.

3,060 members for 2012

cooee wrote:

Topper wrote:

The burp machine has to hope that Queensland doesn't have a change of government because if they do if the Titans think they'll get onto the ground for "next to nothing" he's completely off his tree.

What makes you say this?

Topper wrote:

cooee wrote:

Topper wrote:

The burp machine has to hope that Queensland doesn't have a change of government because if they do if the Titans think they'll get onto the ground for "next to nothing" he's completely off his tree.

What makes you say this?

What conservative government would give anything for next to nothing?

Raiderdave wrote:

Beaussie wrote:

Raiderdave wrote:

phhtttt.... not a prob
the Titans ... engrained & on the coast for the long haul

locals are just waiting for some on field success again
I wager it will be the boys in baby blue n gold who achieve this a long time before the Thuns do

& when that happens

by by Thuns

Hmm, haven't we seen this before what... 3 times with RL teams on the Gold Coast. Each and every time the team folded. Signs not looking good for the Titans I gotta say.

3,060 members for 2012

still 60 more then GWS

yep ... those midgits are gunna be huge aren't they dippy... diddy ..err ... dild. ..oh the viccky kicky pratt who said they'd swamp everything
behind every NRL club ATM
when are they going to get a wriggle on beaussie ...... when indeed ?

Xman wrote:

Raiderdave wrote:

Beaussie wrote:

Hmm, haven't we seen this before what... 3 times with RL teams on the Gold Coast. Each and every time the team folded. Signs not looking good for the Titans I gotta say.

3,060 members for 2012

still 60 more then GWS

yep ... those midgits are gunna be huge aren't they dippy... diddy ..err ... dild. ..oh the viccky kicky pratt who said they'd swamp everything
behind every NRL club ATM
when are they going to get a wriggle on beaussie ...... when indeed ?

Another classic display of the inferiority of RL

YOU are proud of the fact that the Titans, an established team in RL heartland, has slightly more members than an AFL expansion team in a foreign heartland which has yet to play a game.

It's hilarious!!!!

Raiderdave wrote:

Xman wrote:

Raiderdave wrote:

still 60 more then GWS

yep ... those midgits are gunna be huge aren't they dippy... diddy ..err ... dild. ..oh the viccky kicky pratt who said they'd swamp everything
behind every NRL club ATM
when are they going to get a wriggle on beaussie ...... when indeed ?

Another classic display of the inferiority of RL

YOU are proud of the fact that the Titans, an established team in RL heartland, has slightly more members than an AFL expansion team in a foreign heartland which has yet to play a game.

It's hilarious!!!!

oh but Xman .... they're gunna be HUGE
the NRL isn't gunna know what hit them

their games V the swans are gunna be the biggest in australian sport
they're gunna do this
they're gunna do that

am I proud of the quiet , unasuming ... humble titans being slightly in front ...of this tsunami ... this hurricane .. this pack of loud mouthed up themselves arrogant f.ucksticks

yep