13 Dec Team 11 ambassador Bolton “saddened” and “angered” by FFA decision

Sadness and anger are the main emotions that sit with Clint Bolton following Football Federation Australia’s A-League expansion call.

The former Sydney FC and Melbourne Heart goalkeeper was involved in the Team 11 expansion bid which was unsuccessful today when the FFA opted to grant licenses to Western Melbourne Group and Macarthur South West Sydney.

Bolton did not hold back when reacting to the decision which he describes as underwhelming and tinged with a potential conflict of interest.

“No doubt there’s plenty of good in all of these bids that’ve come along,” Bolton said on SEN Afternoons.

“There’s value in each and every one of them.

“It came through earlier this morning that both teams would come in one at a time and my first reaction, at best, just totally underwhelmed by the whole thing.

“More accurately, I’m saddened and angered by what’s happened and that’s with this bias in mind.

“We, Team 11, were very confident in our bid that we put forward.

“I’m saddened because there’s a lot of work that’s gone in to the south east of Victoria.

“We fully believe that it would be very tribal, along the lines of Western Sydney Wanderers.

“There was an agenda to go beyond football, to have a real socio-economic impact in that region.

“I’ve had a lot to do with the people involved and I bought into the people driving it because I believed in their attitude and belief that this could have real change in the region.

“I lean now towards the more angry side and as this process started, the FFA, the tag line was we’re going down the path of expansion and process would be put in place where there’s a bid for the license.

“So there’s a certain amount of money involved in actually acquiring the license, but that will not be taken into account when we hand out the license, it’s going to be based on the football impact, the region, the broadcaster numbers as such.

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“Instantly, when I heard there was a third-party employed to undertake this process in Deloitte who are working on commission, I instantly thought there’s going to be a massive conflict of interest along the way.

“I’m not by any means going to say that this has unfolded, but it was reported this morning that late on in the process that a couple of these expansion bids were asked to up their license bids.

“Automatically, I’m thinking it’s come down to money at the end of the day and if that’s the case, that is just so wrong it’s ridiculous in my mind and it angers me.

“I’d love to see the traditional journalists out there start to dissect this process and have a good look at it.

“It’s just opened up this pool of questions that need to be answered in my mind.”