Out of the frying pan, in to the fire?

Out of the still warm ashes of the A-League’s latest failed venture rose a new play toy: “Sydney’s New Club”. There was quite a lot of reason for optimism, Western Sydney had long been one of Australia’s most fertile football areas; but Clive Palmer’s antics in the Gold Coast had cast a long shadow over this potential.

Struggling to find an investor, though keen to push on with a ten team league, the FFA and Ben Buckley decided they would do the unthinkable: buy a horse in their own race. With the help of a $4 million grant from the Gillard government, the newly formed Western Sydney Wanderers were built and funded on FFA ownership.

And now, two years, ninety two points and a premiership later both Julia Gillard and Ben Buckley have lost their jobs; but the Wanderers keep rising, and rising and rising.

So it is no surprise that the FFA have been working hard over the last year to secure new ownership for the side, likely to make a significant profit while cleaning their hands of claimed favouritism from (jaded?) A-League supporters.

The sale of the Western Sydney team will be, to some extent, beneficial for the league in whole, with all clubs to receive a share of the returns. In the meantime, Wanderers fans will be happy that their club is likely to achieve stable financial support, while removing their notoriously direct affiliation with the FFA.

The team, a veritable phenomenon in the Australian sporting landscape throughout the last two years, has attracted much interest; such as the publicly revealed rejection of Gould’s Penrith Panthers bid. Finally, it has been all but officially revealed that a consortium of four separate investors are looking to get a slice of the pie. But for fans, is this a case of out of the frying pan, into the fire?

The consortium is chaired by primary investor, Paul Lederer, owner of Primo Smallgoods. Good friends with FFA chief Frank Lowy, he has long had some sort of interest in the league, previously sponsoring the Central Coast Mariners before terminating this partnership last year.

He now considers himself quite the Wanderers fan, but before bandwagon slurs are thrown at him, consider just how luxurious and expensive Lederer’s bandwagon might just be. Last year, Business Review Weekly rated his net worth at $630 million.

Ostensibly, there’s a lot to like about Lederer. In 1957, his Hungarian uncle, Andrew, started the family’s first smallgoods business out of a deli on Parramatta Road. In the 1980s, this expanded into a second business in Primo, run by Paul. When Andrew died in the early 2000s, Paul took over (the now lucrative) family business, and sought private equity.

This came in the form of a $740 million investment from Hong Kong, which skyrocketed the business into the nation’s largest manufacturer of ham, bacon and salami; now turning over $1.4 billion per year.

An inspirational story about migrants making good, and sausages. No?

The shady underbelly to this story is as inevitable as an A-League investor’s close friendship with Frank Lowy.

Primo Smallgoods has been the centre of recent controversy, revealing that they use specialised labour hire companies who employ Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese and Korean backpackers. These people are reportedly severely underpaid, forced to work unreasonable hours and harassed. Backpackers, on temporary 417 visas, reportedly comprise 70% of Primo’s abattoir workforce in Scone.

As Joseph Chow of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office told the 7:30 Report, “we are very concerned about their safety. We are very concerned about their fairness to be treated.”

At the same time, Primo Smallgoods and Paul Lederer are “crying poor” in enterprise bargaining with the Australasian Meat Industry Employees’ Union, and in particular, the very same abattoir in Scone.

Grant Courtney, branch secretary of the Union, notes that Primo ‘‘pays the lowest wages in meat processing around the country’’ and even less to the aforementioned third party Asian labourers.

Lederer can’t afford to give his workers any sort of pay rise (who have gone on strike about the issue multiple times), but he can afford to splash cash on his best mate’s football team?

When public complaints about this seeming contradiction were made public by Courtney, Lederer replied with an open letter in the local Scone newspaper:

‘‘The union demands are totally unreasonable and will only destroy more jobs in the industry,’’

The union replied with their own open letter, ‘‘this company can hardly cry poor turning over $1.2 billion a year with its chief executive one of the richest men in the meat industry’’.

This week it was announced that the Fair Work Ombudsman was taking legal action over claims that Primo were paying their labourers less than half the minimum wage rate, while advising them not to pay tax.

And while it’s notable that a private corporation like Primo is distinctly separate to its owner, many questions must be asked about whether the sort of person who allegedly hires and abuses Asian labour, while disregarding locals, is the sort of person you want leading your “working class” football team?

David Lowy’s proverbial tentacles reach even deeper than his close relationship with Lederer; the most recent consortium investor being David Slade, a family friend and former business partner at Westfield.

This friendship was outed in the most “one percent” of ways – Slade revealing in an interview that one of his most prized possessions was a “Dubey & Schaldenbrand” watch he received as a gift from Lowy.

Slade’s passion for football is not quite as apparent as his passion for expensive watches however, and it appears his only connection to the Wanderers is his connection to Lowy. Previously investing in franchises such as Westfield and Topshop-Topman, Slade has now received “mate rates” in his investment in the Wanderers franchise.

However, is this enough for Wanderers fans to be concerned about the operation of their club? Likely not.

Lyall Gorman, current executive chairman of the Western Sydney side, was too a good friend of Lowy, yet has done more than a decent job in the last two seasons; as exemplified by their success on and off the field.

Investors such as Lederer come with a strong financial backing which clubs such as the Mariners can only dream of. While his alleged malpractice at Primo is disgusting and worrying, if he does little more than handle the monetary function of the Wanderers, how easily will fans be able to separate the two? This question becomes even more complex if Lederer takes a more hands on approach with the team, and leads them to success.

The remaining two investors in the Wanderers make for less soul-searching contemplation.

Chinese-Filipino businessman, Jefferson Cheng, has had a long interest in Asian football, particularly in the Phillipines national team, the “Azkals”. Cheng recently negotiated for the “Teen Azkals” to participate in football tournaments in Australia, winning the “Kanga Cup” in Canberra.

Cheng is also part of the management board of Jim Fraser’s “International Goalkeepers Academy” – already a corporate sponsor of the Wanderers. His investment in Filipino football has been observable in this role, bringing over Filipino players into the academy such as the current “Azkal U19” goalkeeper, Enzo Cheng.

Roles swapped remarkably in the last month, with Jefferson Cheng being appointed coach of the Phillipines U21 side. His first move was to bring over Jim Fraser as goalkeeper coach.

Do not be surprised if the Wanderers take a look at some “Azkals” in the next season, although Wanderers fans would like to think that such an influence over proceedings would be left to coach Popovic, and not the owners.

Jim Fraser himself said on the issue, “If Jeff [Cheng] is to buy into the club, it is a good path for Filipinos and it’s also a good situation where I’m sure the coaches like myself would be coming to the Philippines from the clubs,

“It is a good thing for Philippine football if that happens.”

The final investor, Peter Duncan, is founder of Pirtek, major sponsors of Parramatta Stadium (now “Pirtek Stadium”). While a hugely successful businessperson, Duncan has also been known for his work with St. Vincents Hospital, where he was a former patient.

He has set up the Peter Duncan Neurosciences Research Unit at St Vincent’s while also partnering with the Wanderers for the “Wander Goals” scheme, where Pirtek donates $1000 to the hospital for every home goal the Wanderers score.

The link between the Wanderers and Pirtek is pretty clear, and some will wonder whether Duncan’s part-ownership of the club is somewhat aimed at preventing them from moving to another stadium, as has been oft proposed.

The sale of the Wanderers has been long awaited, and in all honesty, is likely to mean good things for the team. It is nearly impossible to escape the influence of Lowy, and one can only place faith in the fact that he has learnt from previous mistakes and installed not only competent businessmen, but people who know how to traverse the football environment.

Adhering to the values and concepts made clear in fan forums before the clubs official inception, and throughout its meteoric journey, has been key to the success of the Wanderers. New owners will be taking significant risks if they, forgive the pun, wander too far away from these guidelines.

Whether or not it is a sad indictment on the A-League franchise system, or on football fans ourselves – If investors can provide sustainable financial means to achieve the best for the Wanderers, the people of Western Sydney will likely be satisfied.

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– Football Website of the Year
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We also have individuals who have been nominated:

– Young Football Writer of the Year (U25): Chris Göuw and Daniel Palmer (author of this piece)
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Your votes would be much appreciated! http://ffdu.com.au/events/2014-ffdu-fan-awards/

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