https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/over-and-out-mariners-boss-charlesworth-hands-back-a-league-license

well this makes sense good luck going forward 

I get the criticism for the Mariners fans and it is warranted and times but you still have to appreciate what he did for the club. He kept the thing going.
Probably for the best for all parties that there’s a mutual parting.

In modern football ownership that's not really enough.  The past few wooden spoons that the Mariners have had didn't just happen due to bad luck.  All areas of the club have to be significantly invested both on & off the field for their to be any success.  Wish him all the best & look forward to what direction they take the club in.   

I hope someone buys them, as they were originally a blueprint for a pro club on a shoestring budget in the Aus football milieu.

They had great success under Arnie.

Last night CCM played quality football for sustained periods and they finally got a deserved win.

I still need someone to verify this whole "CCM run on a shoestring compared to the rest of the league" thing. Do they really? There are 7 out of the 11 current clubs that use marquee spots - CCM are one of these. There are four clubs below CCM, not using above-cap money. Have they really been operating on this contextual shoestring we always hear about? I can't see evidence of it. In comparison the Jerks for eg don't use marquee spots and have what I am understanding the smallest office staff setup in the league. 

Why is he handing the license back to FFA, surely it should be to the iAL shouldn’t it?

No.  The FFA still own the league and will do until the negotiations are finalised.  Even then club licensing will be an FFA responsibility but they may authorise the iAL operating body to do it on their behalf for the league.

'milieu' FTW.

iAL doesn’t exist. 

I think this is the end of Mariners. 

More likely to be Canberra because of the funding the ACT government will provide.

Hi isn't. SBS sub-editors at work again.

Central Coast Mariners Chairman Mike Charlesworth has today announced that he will seek a new investor to purchase the club and allow him to step away from the Mariners.

Having been involved with the Mariners for over a decade, Charlesworth said now is the time for him to move on and bring in a fresh face to take the Mariners forward.

“After 10 years of involvement with the Mariners , I feel the time is right for me to now step aside and to look for a new investor to take on the ownership of the Club,” Charlesworth said.

“With a host of young talented players having broken into our first team and with a new independently run A-League around the corner it’s an exciting time for the club to grow and to now move forward under new ownership.”

The club will now begin to work through a due diligence process with interested parties with the aim of finding the most suitable investor to take the club forward for the long term.

Charlesworth is a joke, took a champion team straight to the bottom, and treated the club as a business, and when he didn't get what he wanted from the council, took his bat and ball and went home.
I would have been happier for the club to fold back in 2014 (on a winning note), then have him drag us through the last 6 years just to drop us with the team starting to show promise.
And the FFA can eat a fat one as well, they've stepped up investing in team's like WSW, MH and Newcastle, can't do it in the mariners hard times though. Let em sink, and the league is dead.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/yours-for-4-million-mariners-could-be-relocated-as-owner-puts-club-up-for-sale-20200804-p55ia8.html

Yours for $4 million: Mariners could be relocated as owner puts club up for sale

The Central Coast Mariners may have played their last game in the A-League, with a relocation potentially on the cards after club owner Mike Charlesworth declared he was putting them up for sale.

The Mariners beat Melbourne Victory in a 3-2 thriller on Monday night in their final game of the season but are now facing an uncertain future, with co-chairman Charlesworth going public with his intent to offload his majority shareholding.

Chief executive Shaun Mielekamp remains "optimistic" a buyer could be found that would keep the Mariners on the Central Coast but said Charlesworth was seeking the best return on his investment that he could find - and conceded that could mean they are moved elsewhere.

Sources close to the situation indicate that Charlesworth is seeking a licence fee of around $4 million. If Charlesworth does not find a buyer he intends to hand back the licence to Football Federation Australia.

Any relocation of the club would have to first be approved by FFA.

I hope they stay in the Coast, cant imagine how the fans would feel if the team got relocated to another area of Sydney or somewhere else in Australia.

Relocation is a crock of shit. Either keep them in Gosford or let them die and start a new team. 

FFA won't approve it.

They would rather expand to areas such as Auckland/canberra than relocate to them.

You'll never get to 14/16 teams if you kill off existing teams.

In b4 South Melbourne

I really hope they stay on the Coast.
It was an eternity ago but it season 3 Central Coast demonstrated they could achieve really good crowds and provide a vibrant atmosphere. 13k average from memory and sell out finals.

They have the infrastructure of the COE and have helped guide some seriously good footballers into bigger and better things.

My worry is that Manly will be circling. They desperately need a summer tenant to get federal and state funding for Brookvale. Not that they care for football but they want that upgrade at all costs.

Even if they're in a better financial position they still would never get considered. 

$4m certainly sets a low benchmark for anyone looking at buying the Jets and Glory 

With AL likely going to have a smaller budget in the future, wouldn’t he have been able to make the club more viable in the future? I hope the club can remain on the Central Coast, however I’d imagine South Melbourne, Canberra, and perhaps northern sydney will be knocking to move the club :/

Like micaleff said. 

thats BS, it's almost been 2 years since they got their hard fought independence and yet you believe their contract is so complex that they still havent been able to finalise the divorce, really? if you believe that then santa has got a big surprise waiting for you in december as well.

real issue is owners finally got what they wanted then realized it wasn't sunshine, rainbows and pots of gold. Now we have at least 3 of them looking to sell, foxtel riches cut in half and totally gone in 12 months time and instead of the FFA holding back the AL as many on here keep saying, its actually the FFA is holding the league together while the owners have disappeared under their rocks again.

also impacts the value of the new licenses I wold suggest, why pay $15M when you can get one for $4M?

I hope CCM stick around and aren't relocated. If anything, we need to add more teams.

$4m also seems like a steal considering the license fees for WU and Macarthur.

if they relocate, i won't have much sympathy for them. However, this ^. we need more teams not less. we need Canberra and CCM, not solely Canberra.  

MacArthur is it?  They'd be spitting chips.

Macarthur was due to pay about $1.5m on top of the money that would be returned to them through the distribution.  If the FFA drops the distribution what will Macarthur pay?  It was under discussion and I haven't heard what the final decision was.  They hadn't paid the instalment that covers their first playing season the last I knew.