Gold Coast United Chairman Danny Maher: “We are chomping at the bit to get back into the A-League”

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Danny Maher is the current Chairman of Gold Coast United FC and is leading the charge to bring a Gold Coast team back into the A-League.

In a wide-ranging chat with Soccerscene, Maher speaks openly about his involvement in the game, provides an update on Gold Coast’s bid for the A-League, the current on and off the field progress of Gold Coast United and his future ambitions for football in the city.

First of all, I’ll ask about your role in Gold Coast United – how did your involvement come about and what is your background in the game?

Danny Maher: There was a group of business people who got together to return A-League to the Gold Coast basically, but with a strong focus on reforming the elite pathways at the Gold Coast. We wanted to start by ensuring there was at least two top NPL clubs on the Gold Coast and provide some local interest in the game.

So, we reformed Gold Coast United, entering it into the National Premier Leagues (NPL). I am the Chairman of the club and I was obviously heading that reformation process. I’m also chairing the A-League bid for the city.

I’ve got kids that play the game, I played representative football and was one of those people who left the game as a teenager. I was president of Magic United prior to this, which has basically now turned into the Gold Coast Knights (the other NPL club in the city).

I’m very much using my background of being a tech entrepreneur and investor, looking at it as a long-term play, with a group of business people that are very interested in football.

Is there an update on Gold Coast’s A-League bid, are there any details you can reveal?

Danny Maher: I can. The A-League bid is separate from Gold Coast United and it’s an all of city bid supported by both NPL entities and the city itself. I chair an investment firm and that’s the lead entity for the bid. It’s backed majorly by a group of US business people including Jordan Gardner and Brett Johnson. They lead a US consortium that own football clubs around the world and would like to add the Gold Coast in to their portfolio of clubs.

If a Gold Coast bid were to be accepted in the A-League again, how would the team excel this time around?

Danny Maher: First of all, we need to determine the brand it would fall under and whether we would return to the Gold Coast United moniker. That will be up to the city, all the football clubs and participants, but ultimately the decision will be made by the owners and the APL.

One of the previous myths about the A-League and the Gold Coast is that United went under, but it actually didn’t. The license was removed by the FFA when Clive Palmer was butting heads with Frank Lowy, but the club didn’t fold.

We’ve got a situation at the Gold Coast where we have two excellent NPL clubs, the fastest growing population in Australia, the largest population without an A-League team, an empty $200 million stadium and an international football group that is backing the bid.

The AFL and NRL both have a professional team here and they are investing heavily in those sports in this area, but we are not asking for a dollar. We are just asking for permission to invest.

Would the consortium look to enter a national second division, or would it only consider an A-League expansion spot?

Danny Maher: The consortium for the A-League bid isn’t interested in joining a National Second Division at the moment, but the NPL clubs individually will look at that. For example, Gold Coast United, the NPL entity, may be interested in the second division and we are currently part of that group investigating the viability of a second division.

How is the Gold Coast United NPL club currently progressing on and off the pitch?

Danny Maher: It’s a really happy place. It’s the highest rated academy in Queensland, I believe. It’s the only academy in this region that has females and our senior women were the league champions last year. The men are going well, we don’t spend the amount of money some of the other clubs do as we are pursuing a long-term strategy with a youth policy. We’ve got a great facility that council has provided us down at Tallebudgera. It’s a really peaceful, scenic setting with six football fields and three of them operated by Gold Coast United. We have a really low turnover of players and its quite difficult to get in the academy.

We have good levels of sponsorship so we don’t use any junior fees to fund senior programs, so that’s great, and we focus strongly on the junior setup having to be self-sustaining.

One last one Danny, where do you want to see Gold Coast football with the NPL entities and the A-League bid moving forward in the next 5-10 years?

Danny Maher: We definitely would like to see sustainable NPL clubs that have good local competition and we want to see the football ecosystem connected. So, for example, clubs working together and not being sensitive about talented players moving to the correct pathway for them. We want to see committees, from the Gold Coast Knights and ourselves, collaborating together for the greater good of the game and leaving the competition to the fans, players and coaches.

Then ultimately, the A-League is an all of city entity so it doesn’t belong to any one club. It belongs to the city and all football fans in the region. We want to see the A-League team connected to all the NPL clubs and the NPL clubs connected to other clubs below them in their geography (which we are very close to reaching).

We are chomping at the bit to get back into the A-League for the city; we don’t talk about it a lot in public because we don’t need anything, everything is in place.

 

 

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Ernie Merrick: ‘There are many clubs that would be fantastic additions to the A-League’

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Ernie Merrick will be forever recognised as a key figure through the A-League’s golden early years. Appointed Melbourne Victory’s foundation manager in 2004 he led the club to not just silverware, but legitimacy and respect in a serious sport city.

A Scottish migrant and PE teacher by trade, Merrick was the youngest of the NSL’s managerial crop when he started with Preston in 1987 in the era of Thomson, Arok & Matic; when he finished with Newcastle in 2020 he was the elder statesman in the A-League age of Postecoglou, Popovic and Arnold.

For the places the game took him and all he achieved – including time as national team manager of Hong Kong – Victory supporters can comfort themselves in the fact that for whatever they feel towards Merrick and his iconic group of players, that feeling is mutual.

‘Yes, definitely,’ Merrick told Soccerscene Unfiltered when asked if managing Victory was the highlight of his career.

‘I think success is [fans] having identification with players, especially. We had Victorian boys playing for Victory.

‘That second year I was determined to have a complete pre-season. Archie Thompson bought me a birthday cake with 200 candles and said “Ernie, we’ve had 200 training sessions. We should celebrate this” – so he was looking forward to a big year, and we won the Grand Final 6-0.’

Nearing 20 years on, Victory and the A-League in general haven’t managed to drive forward as would have been hoped. Unsurprisingly that comes as painful to Merrick, as does the change in landscape regarding his other great passion and contribution in player development. 

‘I’m disappointed, as would most people be, that it’s struggled so badly. To me, there’s something missing,’ said Merrick of the current state of the A-League.

‘Those players we produced at the AIS and VIS went on to be the golden generation. Unless the league is fixed, there’s going to be ongoing problems with the financial status of things.

‘You just cannot earn enough money from selling a youngster, who you might get a million for, who then becomes worth several million in a few years if he does well. Maybe there’s a bit too much of selling players early.’

As someone who gave enduring service across Australia’s two domestic leagues, his voice holds weight in the consideration as to whether it’s time to now blend the, in today’s hyper-corporate landscape.

‘South Melbourne and Preston are two clubs that are perfect for the A-League, I think, down the track. They’ve set up, they’ve endured, they’ve been resilient, they’re playing good football and they’ve got a home base with a home crowd, which is far better than starting a club up from scratch.

‘All those players coming through those squads and the number of supporters they’ve got would be a huge addition. In Sydney too, there’s Marconi – there are so many good clubs around that I think would make a great addition to the A-League.’ 

Merrick also spent thirteen years as head coach at the Victorian Institute of Sport. He feels modern player development is an equation we still haven’t got right, post the closure of the AIS’ football program in 2017.

While many argue the move to club-based academy structures has seen Australia fall more in line with global practice while still producing players of quality, Merrick still feels there is merit in a national high performance program, in addition to club academies.

He was in the process of setting up state academies through the Member Federations during his time as Football Australia’s chief football officer from 2022-25. While the Victoria project was short-lived, academies in Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia continue to run, but it appears the broader expansion of the concept has been abandoned.

‘I think both systems should work [together] equally well. When I started with the FA program clubs thought they would lose players to us, but I didn’t take any of their players. We offered the opportunity of a high-performance program to other youngsters.

‘We could develop players completely; we weren’t restricted to playing 4-3-3 to combine with the way the first team were playing. We provided more of a rounded education, and good players can play in any system.

‘We managed to affect the coaches involved so they were up to date with the latest information on methods of coaching, etc.’

Catch the full chat with Ernie Merrick on Soccerscene Unfiltered: from being two-footed by a 15-year old Kevin Muscat to his enthusiasm for the future of the Socceroos, his memories of Wellington and Newcastle, and plenty more…

Brisbane Roar partners with PlanPay for 2026/27

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Image Credit: Brisbane Roar

TWELVE months ago, as the 2025/26 A-League Men’s season kicked off, Brisbane Roar’s active supporter group surged back to life.

‘The Den’ – as they’re known – had been a famous feature of the Roar’s Championship-winning glory years. Now heavily re-populated by a younger wave of supporters, their enthusiasm through early-season results against Macarthur, Melbourne City and Newcastle made them, momentarily, the talk of the A-League.

The Roar’s administration understand what a crucial role their supporters play in the health of the club – be they the new generation at the front of The Den, or the loyalists who have ridden the ups and downs of their 21 A-League seasons.

So, they have partnered with Australian-founded company PlanPay, to soften the financial barriers and increase fiscal flexibility for those wanting to cheer on the Roar’s men’s and women’s sides, helping to get them in the stands as early as possible.

‘Membership is the most important thing we offer, but given the current cost of living crisis, it’s also the hardest ask at the moment,’ Roar’s Head of Public Relations and Communications, Joseph Esposito, told Soccerscene.

‘When you’re targeting families of four, or youngsters, a full membership can be a big hit in one go. It’s important to be realistic, so having an option like PlanPay lets members spread that cost over time with no interest and no credit check.’

‘It also means we can get people to commit to membership earlier, to come on board and be part of something. It works on both ends, allowing us to offer an earlier price point for potential members – and most importantly, we’re not asking them to spend beyond their means.’

One of PlanPay’s key advantages is its ability to align payment schedules with how Australians actually earn their income.

According to Australian Bureau of Statistics payroll data from March 2024, approximately 86% of Australian employees are paid weekly or fortnightly, with 33% receiving weekly wages and 53% paid fortnightly. In comparison, just 12% are paid monthly.

Despite this, many traditional membership payment options are structured around upfront or monthly payments, which don’t necessarily align with household cash flow.

By offering weekly, fortnightly or monthly instalments, PlanPay allows Roar supporters to choose a payment schedule that suits their payday and household budget, making football memberships more manageable without relying on credit, interest or debt.

The partnership is also timely in a local sense; the ABS has also found sports participation costs in Brisbane rose 9.6% in the year to June 2025. Furthermore, as of March 2026, 41% of Australians had used a BNPL service in the past six months (Finder).

‘From our end, it’s essentially a bit like a modern layby. You choose your membership, pay a small deposit, and then pay the rest in instalments on the schedule that suits the individual,’ said Esposito.

‘Once the first payment is made your membership is fully active. We have previously had monthly payments to ease the pinch, but opening it up to have fortnightly or weekly options, more often makes it a whole lot easier to have people in.’

PlanPay was founded in Sydney in 2022 as a digitised lay-by for travel, and has since moved into ticketing, sports, and live events alongside expansion into the US and UK.

The company is now based in Charlotte, North Carolina, while maintaining its engineering, customer support and onboarding presence in Australia. PlanPay continues to partner with merchants globally to bring another way to pay, to more fans, Brian Learst, Chairman of PlanPay said:

‘We are thrilled to help Brisbane Roar FC lower the total cost of attending their matches by providing fans with debt-free, interest-free flexible payment plans.’

‘PlanPay allows fans to purchase the best seats early and customise their payment size and timing.’

Both the Roar’s men’s and women’s side present as fascinating prospects this season.

Newly-appointed women’s manager Johnathan Clemente is the youngest manager in A-Leagues history, with his charges looking to better last season’s impressive semi-final finish.

Meanwhile, the men’s outfit kicked off their second season under Michael Valkanis on Friday at Suncorp Stadium with an impressive win over Perth Glory, and will again rely on the energy and passion of those in the stands to drive their success both on and off the field.

‘Our fans are not just the present, but the future. In that regard, it’s not about getting them to spend beyond their means; it’s about allowing them to get in earlier, and in an easier way,’ continued Esposito.

‘Lots of younger fans are students, or they’re early in their working lives. Being realistic about it, paying a full season membership can sometimes be a real barrier, especially if they’re living out of home, paying rent for the first time.

‘Having PlanPay allows them to have the option that isn’t acquiring interest or debt, makes it easier for them to budget, and most importantly allows them to do what they do, without spending beyond their means.’

Make Membership More Accessible for Your Fans — Talk to PlanPay

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