Doha: Every Socceroos fan wants to see Graham Arnold’s men go as far as they can at the World Cup. But Richard Peil, the chairman of the Central Coast Mariners, has tens of thousands of extra reasons.
Each day they remain alive could mean another $45,000 for his club.
Danny Vukovic, Garang Kuol and Jason Cummings are making history – and money – for the Central Coast Mariners at the World Cup.Credit:Getty
The Mariners are one of the A-League’s smallest teams with the tiniest budget, but have always managed to punch above their weight. In Qatar, though, they have gone to historic new levels, with three of their players — Garang Kuol, Jason Cummings and Danny Vukovic — selected in Australia’s 26-man squad.
It is the single biggest contribution by any club to a Socceroos World Cup squad, and the first time an A-League side had sent three players to football’s showpiece event. Marco Tilio’s late inclusion for the injured Martin Boyle meant Melbourne City, the competition’s richest club, have belatedly matched them.
And that’s without going through the long list of other Mariners alumni with the team. Arnold once managed them, assistant coaches Tony Vidmar and Andrew Clark used to play for them, while skipper Maty Ryan, Mitchell Duke and Kye Rowles pulled on the navy and yellow before heading overseas, as did so many others before them.
It is a testament to the environment the Mariners have created over the years, and one that Peil — the founder of the Anytime Fitness chain of gyms, who became chairman earlier this year — plans to enhance with the proceeds they are set to receive from the sport’s global governing body.
Graham Arnold won the 2013 A-League grand final with the Central Coast Mariners, before moving on to Sydney FC and, later, the Socceroos.Credit:Getty
As part of their ‘club benefits programme’, FIFA has put aside approximately $312 million to be distributed to clubs around the world for the use of their players during the World Cup. Guidelines released last month say that each club will be paid $14,960 (US$10,000) each day one of their players is with their national team in Qatar, including the week-long lead-in.
Peil has done the back-of-a-napkin sums: Socceroos players began arriving in camp on November 14, and their last Group D clash is 17 days later. Multiply that by three players, and that’s $763,000 so far.
He’s not getting carried away just yet, since fellow A-League club chairmen have cautioned that FIFA has not officially confirmed the precise method for calculating the final amount, or from which day they will start counting. But whatever lands in Central Coast’s bank account will be received gratefully.
“Look, it’s going to be a decent chunk of money. For a small club with a small budget, it’s massive for us,” he said.
Central Coast Mariners chairman Richard Peil.
“But I can tell you one thing — with three players in the squad, I’ll be over the moon if they get the past the group stage. I will do backflips, somersaults and whatever else I can manage to do with a 55-year-old broken-down body.”
Peil has already figured out what to spend it on. The Mariners are planning a full refit of their gym at the club’s centre of excellence in Terrigal, including the addition of a dedicated recovery and rehab room, improvements to the players’ social lounge and an upgrade to the playing surface and drainage of their training fields.
Peil echoed recent comments from Arnold, after watching his Socceroos players get physically battered by France’s hulking superstars in their 4-1 opening defeat, that Australian footballers needed to be bigger, stronger and faster to compete at the highest level.
“We’re very big on athlete development — that’s my background, the gym industry,” he said.
“We’d love to eventually have a living premises for players like they do all over Europe.”
Richard Peil
“I’m a big believer that Australian footballers need to be better athletes, like they were 15-20 years ago. The people that we brought to the club this year, [former Socceroos] Andy Bernal, Luke Wilkshire, they’re all big on athlete development.
“Developing players is our focus, and always will be, and we’re going to continue to amplify that over the next three seasons. My ultimate, my utopia is to reproduce, what was at the AIS. If I can’t achieve that, then I’ll have to scale it down accordingly, but that’s what we would like to do.
“We’d love to eventually have a living premises for players like they do all over Europe, and have the kids living and breathing football 24/7. We’ve got a lot of work to do to get there.
“We want to win trophies — don’t get me wrong, we do. But we want to win trophies as a consequence of producing really good players. We’re never going to put money into marquee players or pay what some clubs pay for players. It’s not what we’re about.”
While some of the FIFA coin will have to make up part of a shortfall the Mariners have experienced after losing a couple of recent sponsors, there is also another six-figure sum they will receive for the sale of Kuol, 18, to English Premier League club Newcastle United when the January transfer window opens. Add it all up and a club that was a byword for disaster as recently as five years ago is now in a very healthy state.
Peil said he couldn’t reveal Kuol’s precise transfer fee for legal reasons, but he did say he could have sold the teenager — who will remain with the Mariners until their traditional New Year’s Eve match — for at least $1.4 million more. The club settled for a lower figure in exchange for better bonuses and sell-on fees that will grow exponentially if Kuol’s career unfolds as many imagine it could.
“That’s how much we all believe in him. We’ve just got to have a bit of luck,” Peil said.
“He’s got a good head on his shoulders, he’s got to have luck with his body. He’s got have the right people around him continually, which I’m sure he will have at Newcastle. Garang has all the opportunity to get to the very highest level. He’s got to learn to be a 90-minute footballer, but boy, doesn’t he change games when he comes on for that 30 minutes?”
Kuol and Cummings have already had a taste of World Cup action, and Peil said the credit for bringing both to the club should go to head coach Nick Montgomery and his assistant Sergio Raimundo. Peil was happy to claim some for himself when it comes to Vukovic, the veteran goalkeeper who he helped lure back for his second stint with the Mariners this season.
As for the Socceroos, and a seven-figure cash injection from FIFA?
“Football’s a crazy game – nothing’s impossible,” Peil said.
“And as much as people want to criticise Graham Arnold, I think he’s made some brave calls to give Australia the best chance. Obviously, I’m biased because he’s got three Mariners in there, but I think he’s done a good job.”
