The A-League has cleared a major hurdle for the resumption of the season after Football Federation Australia belatedly received its full quarterly payment from Fox Sports.
Football industry sources have confirmed Fox has now paid the near $12 million instalment of its broadcast deal with FFA, which was due mid-last month.
It is a positive development for FFA amid tense negotiations with the pay-TV operator, although it does not come with a guarantee that Fox Sports will continue as the A-League's broadcaster for the final three seasons of the contract.
But the fact it has been settled is a sign that relations between the two parties are perhaps not as frosty as first feared, while also enabling the continuation of planning for the last few rounds and finals series of the A-League to be played.
FFA declined to comment, while the head of Fox Sports, Peter Campbell, did not return calls. But in a separate statement welcoming the federal government's new principles for the return of professional sport, FFA chief executive James Johnson - who has led the game's negotiations with Fox - said: "We will, in conjunction with our own guidelines, use the principles and ‘The AIS Framework for Rebooting Sport in a COVID-19 Environment’ to guide our ongoing plans for the return of the Hyundai A-League and community football."
The money from Fox will be forwarded on to clubs but further decisions will need to be made regarding how much they will receive and what players will be paid, with commercial revenues nosediving for both FFA and the clubs as a result of the COVID-19 shutdown.
Pay cuts are inevitable for players, while FFA and the clubs will also have to reach agreement with Professional Footballers Australia over a short-term extension of player contracts, which expire on May 31. Sources at FFA do not foresee that being an issue.
FFA has refused to set a public target date for the resumption of the A-League - nor has it revealed how it plans to stage games or if the 'hub' concept being contemplated by the AFL and NRL could be used - but it remains committed to playing on as soon as state and federal governments allow it. Club sources indicate, however, that even a return to training is not likely to come until July at the earliest.
Foxtel, the parent company of Fox Sports, is in significant financial turmoil following declines in advertising revenues and the suspension of sporting competitions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which has also accelerated the shift of audiences towards over-the-top streaming platforms. Foxtel made 70 staff redundant this week, the organisation's third major round of job cuts this year.
Fox has been the A-League's major broadcast partner since the competition's inception in 2005, but has been unhappy with the terms of the current deal, worth nearly $60 million a year, for some time - primarily because of the negative publicity surrounding the code in recent years during the the A-League clubs' fight for independence, as well as poor ratings on linear television.
Football stakeholders have feared that Fox could use the COVID-19 outbreak as an opportunity to tear up the contract and abandon the sport, but the company is yet to declare any intention to do so.
FFA had engaged the services of prominent barrister Bret Walker, SC, in anticipation of a legal showdown with Fox over the contract, which is worth $346 million over six years and was secured by former chief executive David Gallop.
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