newcastlefootball.net - Jets and A-League

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JETS owner Con Constantine insisted yesterday that the future of the A-League club was secure despite him being unable to pay wages.

Constantine has approached Football Federation Australia for financial aid to help get through a "difficult period".

Players, coaches and office staff, including chief executive John Tsatsimas, were not paid on Friday and Constantine could not say last night when they would be.

"All that is owed to the players is about $50,000," Constantine said.

"At the end of the day the players will get paid, there is no two ways about it.

"We need support from FFA. We are not asking for a handout. All we are asking for is to give us enough money to get over the obstacles we are facing.

"Every dollar the FFA give us will be paid back in full."

Tsatsimas will address the players before training today.

"John will speak to the players tomorrow and tell them exactly what is going on," Constantine said yesterday.

"I sympathise with the players, don't get me wrong.

"I want them to feel free knowing the Jets will pay every dollar owed to them. I promise them that."

The Professional Footballers Association confirmed yesterday that it was monitoring the situation.

"We are informed that the situation is manageable and very short-term in nature," PFA chief executive Brendan Schwab said.

Wages are due again on Friday, two days before the Jets take on Brisbane Roar at EnergyAustralia Stadium.

"The game will be on," Constantine said.

A-League clubs receive an annual grant of $1.3 million, which is broken into quarterly instalments, and Constantine said an advance in the Jets' next payment would help alleviate the problem.

"That is all I ask," he said.

Constantine, whom BRW magazine estimated in 2009 to be worth more than $100 million, formed Newcastle United out of the ashes of the financially crippled Newcastle Breakers in 2000.

He is the only survivor of the original stakeholders in the A-League and by his count has lost more than $12 million on the club.

FFA was forced to take over North Queensland Fury in April.

They own Adelaide United and have given financial aid to every other club at some point.

"If they can help every other club in the country, surely to God they can help us," Constantine said.

But he assured fans he would not bail out.

"If you cut my wrists there would be soccer balls coming out like blood," Constantine said. "I love it and I want the people of Newcastle to know that.

"I will be there for them. I am not walking away.

FFA chief executive Lyall Gorman said he would work with the club "to help it find a way through its current issues".

Constantine has waged a bitter battle with landlords the Newcastle Knights over a better commercial deal at EnergyAustralia Stadium.

He settled payment of $330,000 in outstanding rent recently and in part blamed the situation at the stadium for the club's present cash-flow problems.

The Knights had won compensation from the state government for losses due to building work at the stadium and the Jets should get the same.

"We were told five months ago that the Knights and the state government were going to arbitration and we would be told what is going on," Constantine said.

"Guess what. We have heard nothing.

"We have been dealt with like second-rate cousins.

"If the Knights get a million dollars [compensation] for last year, we want the same."