When the A-League Men season starts without Western United, the players left in the lurch by the club’s untimely demise will still be picking up the pieces.
And former captain Ben Garuccio says a similar situation should never happen again.
After months of financial issues and missed payments to staff and players, United were stripped of their A-Leagues licence in August, then issued a wind-up order by the ATO in September.
“Especially myself, being the captain, I was one of the ones that didn’t want to jump ship. I wanted to stay there, and I wanted to hope that everything was going to be fine,” Garuccio told AAP.
“And for a big part of the time we did think that it was going to be fine.
“The day that they wrapped it up and said Western Melbourne Group were to be wound up and liquidators appointed, that’s when it became very real for us. That was probably one of the worst days of my career.
“We’d just finished a training session and basically we made it up there just in time for that news and all the office staff were up there as well.
“It was a very chilling atmosphere in the room, very quiet, and you’re looking around the people’s faces and people are coming to the realisation that the club maybe might not exist anymore, which was very, very challenging, very daunting.”
Garuccio is proud of the players, who kept training through the issues, with support from Professional Footballers Australia and club staff who volunteered their time.
Players were finally able to leave on September 6 when the club, which is appealing its various sanctions, was put into hibernation for the upcoming season.
The left-back has since joined Sydney FC, on a two-year contract, where he’ll be joined by United teammate Abel Walatee and hopes to win silverware.
Angus Thurgate (Western Sydney), Rhys Bozinovski (Perth Glory), Matthew Grimaldi (Melbourne Victory), Ramy Najjarine (Wellington Phoenix), Charbel Shamoon (Perth), Jordan Lauton (Brisbane), Besian Kutleshi (Melbourne City) and Jake Najdovski (Adelaide) headline those with A-League gigs.
Others have joined NPL clubs, while some still don’t have contracts – and some staff, like coach John Aloisi, are still contracted to United.
Garuccio has only been in full team training for these two weeks, meaning his involvement against Adelaide United in Friday’s season opener will be limited at best.
He expects other Western players to have similar slow starts as they settle in at new clubs.
“Look at how many of them actually walk into starting 11s this weekend – that will be the tell-tale sign,” Garuccio said.
“It was probably the worst timing it could have actually been.
“The timing has made it really difficult to go in there and knock the door down and hopefully command a starting 11 spot straight away.”
Throughout the saga, United players supported each other through a group chat – and they will keep doing so despite being scattered around the country.
“I said when everything happened: ‘we don’t delete this group chat’,” Garuccio said.
“We keep it here, at least for this season, and everyone put their little bits and pieces in, or put their five cents in whenever something happens.”
Garuccio hopes the league can move forward from the United saga and enjoy a strong season ahead of next year’s World Cup, while never allowing a similar situation to unfold elsewhere.
“We need to learn from this mistake,” he said.
“When you see a club maybe going down a path that could be detrimental, the powers that be need to recognise it probably earlier next time around and ensure that this doesn’t happen again.
“Because the ones who ultimately suffered the most were the players, the coaches and the staff at the football club.
“They’ve gone from having a place to work to then not getting paid to then working until the very last day and still not getting paid and then being out of a job the next day.
“So for myself, I’m very fortunate that I’ve landed at Sydney FC. But for some of these other people that haven’t managed to secure other jobs, it’s very real what happened and it’s really sad.
