Perth Glory enters receivership as owner hands back A-League licence

A-Leagues side Perth Glory has been put into voluntary receivership after its owner Tony Sage relinquished the club’s A-League licence.

Facing a raft of financial challenges, including not being able to pay players and staff on time this month, Sage’s 15-year tenure as Glory’s sole owner came to an end on Saturday when the club was placed into receivership.

The Australian Professional Leagues (APL) released a statement confirming that advisory firm KordaMentha had been appointed to manage the receivership process, expressing its optimism that a new owner can be found.

The club’s operations will continue as normal in the meantime.

Commenting on the sale process, KordaMentha Executive Director, Andrew Knight stated "an orderly sale process for the Perth Glory Football Club will commence immediately (and) while this process is being undertaken, the receivers and managers will continue to operate the club in a 'business as usual' manner as the teams continue their pre-season preparations."

Explaining of the reasons for relinquishing the licence, Sage, a mining company owner, explained how he had poured about $50 million into Glory during his tenure, which includes about $14 million of losses over the past three years.

He advised “I’ve run out of funds. Everything I’ve got at the moment is poured into my business. I can’t take it out of my business.

“I want the players to be paid on time, which they weren’t this month, which I greatly regret.

“It’s the first time in 18 years they haven’t been paid on time, but they’ve been paid now.”

Sage said the decision to hand the club’s licence back was made in consultation with the governing body, adding “I just want to make it clear, the licence wasn’t stripped off me

“It was a decision made with the APL to put it in a position to find a really good owner.”

Sage, who started as a part-owner the club in 2007 before taking full ownership in 2009, advised of the challenges faced during the Covid-19 pandemic when the team could not play home games in front of crowds for the greater part of two season.

He also advised of the disruption and losses caused subsequent upgrades for the FIFA Women’s World Cup at the 2019 Premier’s home ground at Perth’s HBF Park, which forced the team to play most of their home games at the far smaller Macedonia Park last season.

Sage was expecting the Western Australian Government to significantly compensate the Glory for losing the ability to play at HBF Park during the renovations, but the sum received was much less to the $3 million he was expecting.

The situation forced Sage to seek a loan from the APL to be able to pay players and staff last season.

A 9News and WAtoday report revealed that, for the past five months, players and staff wages of around $5 million have been paid by loans secured by the APL rather than by Sage.

APL Chief Executive, Danny Townsend said a sale of the Glory would guarantee its future, commenting "Perth Glory have faced incredibly difficult circumstances over the last five years and we are pleased to close off this period of uncertainty for players, staff, members and fans as they continue their preparations for next season.”

Sage has made a number of attempts to sell the club during his ownership.

Founded in 1995, Perth Glory is one of three A-League clubs to survive from the former National Soccer League.

It topped the regular season table in 2019, and also made the Grand Final that year.

The women's side has also made the Grand Final in 2014, 2017 and 2019.

Images: Perth Glory secure the A-League Premiers plate in 2019 (top, courtesy of Football Federation Australia), Macedonia Park where it played the majority of its howm games during the 2021/22 and 2022/23 seasons (middle) and its traditional home at Perth's HBF Park (below).