Tony Dorotic, President of Dandenong City soccer club spoke with the Sports Sunday program on 3XY about the hot topic this year affecting all clubs, being the cancellation of the season, and the affect it had on his club.
He welcomed the decision to cancel the season, which was made by the FV and was favourable for Dandenong City, given the position of being second last on the ladder.
The club had a difficult start, due to the stop start nature of the season, a coaching change half way through, they had just started finding their feet with some solid results. However, another break in the season would have been difficult to maintain that consistency.
They asked Tony about the proposed restructure of the NPL and NPL 2 competition and he indicated that a meeting with all club presidents was held and they rejected this proposal due to additional games making for a very long season and the financial burden where costs would exceed incoming revenue.
Covid-19 affected the club this year as well as last year with a significant financial impact. Many games being played with no spectators, no revenue from bar, kiosk and gate plus sponsors having no return for their financial contributions. 2022 season will be challenging to bring in sponsors to fund and support the club and this was Tony’s main concern.
Unofficially, the club are planning on keeping the current coaching staff and hope they can make a better start to the 2022 season to ensure they are in a better position if there are ‘lockdown’ restrictions once again.
Tony finalised by saying that it would be great to kick off a season in November and play a summer competition and get crowds back out there supporting their clubs.
