Embattled Clive Palmer's Gold Coast United team has been cut from the A-League in perhaps the final episode of a dispute between the billionaire mining magnate and Football Federation Australia.
On Thursday, the FFA said the Gold Coast club - already stripped of its A-League license on Feb. 29 - had been removed from the 2012-13 national competition due to a lack of ''public and corporate support.''
Less than 24 hours after announcing a new club for next season in western Sydney, the FFA said Gold Coast United ''falls below the minimum requirements for a professional club.''
The last-place Gold Coast played its final four games under league administration after Palmer lost his license following a vocal campaign against the FFA management. In one interview, he described his team as insignificant, the A-League competition as a joke and rated rugby league a better sport.
The A-League will continue with 10 teams for next season, with the western Sydney team replacing Gold Coast.
Palmer threatened legal action against the FFA and later set up Football of Australia, a lobby group which has begun an inquiry into the sport in the country.
On Thursday, FFA did not mention Palmer by name but said Gold Coast had not provided a ''viable business plan and adequate capital investment'' over the past six weeks since the team's license was terminated.
''FFA is bitterly disappointed that Gold Coast United Pty Ltd. failed to develop a market for football on the Gold Coast over the past three seasons,'' FFA chief executive Ben Buckley said in a statement.
''Today's decision to exit can be directly attributed to ... lack of community engagement and its inability to build a football culture around the club.''
A consortium which had been trying to salvage a club on the Queensland state tourist strip has been critical of FFA for stringing them along and giving them hope of a spot in next season's league. That bid was scuppered on Wednesday when Prime Minister Julia Gillard joined Buckley to outline the government's $8 million funding package for the new western Sydney club.
''From next season western Sydney, the heartland of Australian football, will be represented in the A-League,'' Buckley said. ''Yes, it has taken time to get a club into western Sydney but now the time is right and I believe that the model is right.''
A-League expansion efforts have been troubled in recent seasons, with clubs in North Queensland, Gold Coast and New Zealand all folding and another western Sydney club failing to get off the ground. Other clubs have experienced financial difficulties that required ownership changes.
