Soccer: Phoenix chief executive confident in club's future

Fans cheer on the Wellington Phoenix during their run into the A-League playoffs this season. Photo / Getty Images

The chief executive of the Wellington Phoenix Football Club is "100 percent comfortable and confident" there is a future for the club, despite the financial strife of owner Terry Serepisos.

Mr Serepisos's Century City Football - which owns the Phoenix A-League club - as well as another four of Mr Serepisos's companies, dodged liquidation this morning after the Inland Revenue Department dropped legal action over $3.5 million in owed tax and penalties.

The five companies were saved by the eleventh hour arrival of a cheque for just under $4 million, put in his lawyer's trust fund early yesterday, at the Wellington High Court.

Wellington Phoenix chief executive Nathan Greenham told Newstalk ZB this morning he did not know where the $4 million had come from, but was confident it would come through.

"I've taken the stance that I will give Terry every opportunity to get things sort, so genuinely haven't done any contingency work or a plan B, but I constantly liase with Football [Federation] Australia," Mr Greenham said.

"[Football Federation Australia are] taking the same stance as I have personally. They're giving Terry every single opportunity to get things sorted, they think he is fantastic for the A-League, they think he has been a great owner and a huge part of the success around the Phoenix over the last four seasons.

"They've granted him every piece of latitude they can, but I guess it may or may not come to a stage some time in the near future where it needs to be resolved one way or another."

Mr Greenham said the club costs between around $400,000 and $450,000 a month to run, which he admitted was more than Mr Serepisos could afford at the moment.

"Currently at the moment and clearly over the last three months he can't afford to run the Phoenix and that is why we are in this current predicament," Mr Greenham said.

The club currently has only 12 players signed for next season, having lost many of the standout players from the last season. Manager Ricki Herbert's two assistant coaches have moved on, as have other staff, leaving only a head of marketing, operations manager, events manager and a kitman (who is also undertaking media duties) with the club.

"Are we in trouble? Trouble is probably a little too harsh a word. But is it particularly challenging for us at the moment? Yeah, it is. Is there a future for the Phoenix? I am 100 per cent comfortable and confident there is a future for the Wellington Phoenix.

"The only thing that has been under a cloud is the financial stability of Terry Serepisos. But absolutely the club has a future - there's no doubt about it."

"To cut a long story short the FFA are looking to inject in the realms of $1.2 million to $1.5 million additional into the clubs' coffers every year. All of a sudden it becomes a business model that is workable. That's what we are aiming for and that is what is going to come to fruition next season.

"One of things that we've been talking about for a while now is that we're given a model to run as a football club and as a football franchise that just isn't sustainable, whether it's Terry Serepisos or Con Constantine (former Newcastle Jets owner) from overseas, all the other owners are saying the same thing, 'look Football Australia ... we're all bleeding money and it needs to be changed'."

- HERALD ONLINE