Capital Football boss Heather Reid says angry Canberra soccer fans could boycott future A-League matches if the FFA goes ahead with an 11-team competition next year.
Reid said last night the A-League for Canberra bid team was entitled to wonder if it had been ''led up the garden path'' after FFA chief executive Ben Buckley said the federation might withhold the 12th licence for 2010-11.
In defending another delay in announcing a new expansion team, Buckley said Canberra had not satisfied the FFA's financial criteria and he criticised the crowd support for an A-League match at Canberra Stadium last Friday.
''We've always said and maintained that if the current bidding consortia can't meet the criteria that we set ... that we would go forward with 11 teams,'' Buckley said. ''Our preferred option is ultimately to have 12 teams, but as yet, whilst Canberra is very well advanced, they haven't met all the financial criteria that we've sought.''
Unimpressed with the 5139 crowd last Friday, Buckley said the Perth Glory and Central Coast Mariners match ''deserved more''.
''Having two clubs competing from regions other than Canberra [last Friday] is always going to be hard but I expected more. I think the game deserved more.''
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