Financial concerns sees Australian Professional Leagues make staff redundant

The Australian Professional Leagues is reported to be “consolidating” its operations in the wake of financial concerns with up to half of its staff complement of 80 set to be made redundant.

The APL, the governing body for the A-League Men, A-League Women, A-League Youth and E-League, is reported to be undergoing an “organisational restructure” in the wake of declining income - brought to a head by poor crowds at last weekend’s Unite Round in Sydney.

As part of the changes, the APL's digital and content arm 'KeepUp', which is understood to have cost the organisation $40 million, is to be scrapped.

The APL, which runs independently of Football Australia, released a statement advising “in the three years since unbundling, APL has implemented a strategy that has seen a period of rapid growth across our business.

"With the original three-year strategy coming to an end, a planned full strategic and commercial review has taken place over the last several months.

"The review has identified significant opportunities to create efficiencies through consolidation and this necessitates an organisational restructure that is now underway."

The statement added that the APL’s "priorities remain the same" as they look to "deliver commercial growth and sustainability" across Australia and New Zealand.

The APL statement went on to refer of a need to “create efficiencies through consolidation” as poor crowds continue to be a problem for the men’s and women’s competitions.

Last weekend’s ‘Unite Round’ - in which all 12 A-League men’s and women’s matches were played in Sydney - attracted a cumulative attendance of less than 48,000 people.

Despite the popularity of the Matildas after their stunning run to the World Cup semi-finals, only one of six A-League women’s matches last weekend attracted more than 2,000 people. The total attendance for those games was just over 11,000.

As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, the job cuts are an acknowledgement that the APL's previous strategy was not working and that a new vision is needed, potentially leading to further collaboration with Football Australia.

There have serious been questions raised about its broadcast deal with Network 10/Paramount +, with sagging ratings have failed to meet required targets needed for the total sum of broadcast deal to be paid to the APL.

With both Perth Glory and the Newcastle Jets up for sale, the APL has also been forced to the Western Australia club, while the Jets have required the financial assistance of other club owners to remain afloat.

The men's competition is due to expand to 14 teams next season, but only a new Auckland franchise run by US billionaire Bill Foley confirmed at this stage, while there have been no firm details released about a potential Canberra team.

Images: Perth Glory take on Wellington Phoenix (top) and Melbourne City clash with Western Sydney Wanderers (below) during last weekend's A-Leagues Unite Round at Sydney's CommBank Stadium. Credit: Damian Briggs.