Spurned investor Damon Hanlin has slammed the Australian Professional Leagues, saying he had been “encouraged” to be Central Coast Mariners’ “financial stabiliser” by the club’s outgoing chairman before being denied the chance to become the A-League outfit’s official owner.
The APL, which runs the A-League, on Monday stripped Mariners chairman Mike Charlesworth of the Central Coast licence, and will run and fund the club while it conducts a “sales process with interested parties”.
However, former Sydney Olympic chairman Hanlin said he was “a willing, ready and financially capable buyer” who was already funding the club as part of an agreement with Charlesworth.
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But APL chairman Stephen Conroy said Hanlin’s takeover proposal was considered by the APL.
Conroy said information was being sought surrounding a number of legal cases involving Hanlin.
The APL said on December 22 that, “despite outstanding requests”, it was advised that Hanlin had yet to provide any further information.
On December 27, according to the APL, it was informed by Charlesworth he had terminated the asset sale agreement with Hanlin.
“We understand that Mr Hanlin was aware of this termination,” Conroy said.
Charlesworth then informed the APL on December 29 of his intention to hand back his club licence.
However, Hanlin has blamed the APL for the Mariners debacle.
“What has occurred with the Central Coast Mariners represents one of the most opaque, damaging and disappointing governance failures I have witnessed in Australian sport,” Hanlin said.
“There was already a buyer. The only missing element was the APL’s own determination, which it failed to provide.
“From where I sit, this appears less like a governance necessity and more like a commercial grab.”
Conroy rejected Hanlin’s allegations.
“The APL takes the process of considering new owners very seriously and as such follows a rigorous process, and we don’t apologise for that,” Conroy said.
Hanlin said he had been funding the club since September last year, was “encouraged to act, as the financial stabiliser of the Central Coast Mariners”, and that in October “executed a binding contract of sale with the club’s owner, Mike Charlesworth, to acquire 100 per cent ownership of the club”.
“That contract was genuine, enforceable and active,” said Hanlin, who claimed to have injected more than $2m into the Mariners to fund player wages and staff entitlements, operational and match-day expenses, payments to creditors and the employment of “key” football and operational personnel.
That personnel included former Sydney Olympic coach Labinot Haliti, who was placed in charge of the club’s football department, which led to the departure of title-winning mentor Mark Jackson a week before the start of the 2025-26 A-League season.
As part of the proposed sale agreement, Hanlin said all remaining creditors would be paid in full at the completion of the sale.
“That outcome was achievable. It was planned. It was funded,” Hanlin said.
Hanlin said that from late last month, APL communication with him “actively ceased”
“There were no written updates, no correspondence from the league’s lawyers, and no indication of where the (sale) process stood,” he said.
“We were left funding the club’s survival with no clarity, no timeline and no engagement.”
Hanlin said the only “direct communication” he had from the APL regarding Charlesworth being stripped of the club’s licence was a telephone call from Conroy on Monday morning just hours before the decision was made public.
“There was no discussion, no engagement and no acknowledgment of the funding, investment or operational improvements that had been made,” he said.
“To remove a licence without consulting a contracted buyer who was actively funding and improving the club is extraordinary.
“I carried the club through months of uncertainty, paid wages, invested in people and players, and did everything expected of a responsible incoming owner.
“To then be erased from the process entirely, without consultation, is unacceptable.”