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Gold Coast coach Bleiberg unhappy about fixture change

Gold Coast United coach Miron Bleiberg is unhappy about the fixture change for Round 1 of the upcoming A-League season.

The new franchise was mooted to play their first ever competitive match for premiership points against soon-to-be rivals Queensland Roar at their home ground Skilled Park but Football Federation Australia will potentially move the match to the Roar's Suncorp Stadium.

The major factor for this being that Suncorp has a capacity of 52,500 whilst Skilled Park holds just 28,000 and massive numbers are expected for the history-making clash which would also produce a windfall for the cash-strapped Roar.

"I haven't seen the draw, but if the change is true it is very unfair," Bleiberg said.

"It is well documented that 18 months ago (Roar CEO) Lawrence Oudendyk and (Roar coach) Frank Farina expressed the view that it was too early to have another club in Queensland.

"Now we have the hypocrisy that they need us for survival.

"This is not fair on Clive Palmer (Gold Coast owner). He came to our sport to help us. He shouldn't be taken advantage of because our club is better off financially than others.

"It is also not fair on the people of the Gold Coast. They expect to have the first game and they deserve to have it.

"This not a personal thing. I am happy to play the Roar anywhere, any time - here, Brisbane or the moon.

"But we all work under strict budgets and at the end of the day Clive will look at the figures and how much we earn this year will affect the budget for next year.

"This would be a capacity game for us. Why should we suffer because of the mismanagement of the Roar?"

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Andrew Slevison
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Andrew Slevison

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