Perth Glory director of football Stan Lazaridis has confirmed the A-League club's tax-related issue with the ATO has been resolved.
Perth Glory director of football Stan Lazaridis has confirmed the A-League club's tax-related issue with the ATO has been resolved.
In a candid interview on 6PR last week, Mr Lazaridis said he understood the final amount owed by the club was in the vicinity of “$600,000 to $700,000” instead of the original publicly quoted figure of $946,879.
“That’s all good, that’s all kind of been resolved and come to an understanding,” Mr Lazaridis said.
“There was a huge misunderstanding with that – and it wasn’t even that amount in the end anyway, it was much less than that.
“That’s been now resolved with the club.
“Obviously there was a little miscommunication when Ross (Pelligra) had come in {regarding} where the addresses were, where the bills were going etc.
“But in the end, we’ve got to grips with it. We know what it is, and as far as I know, I think it’s already been dealt with, it’s already done.
“So that has been tackled with and handled. What we do now is we move on from that. It was another sucker punch that we had which really came {from} left field for us and we were in total shock.
“It just seems to be happen to Perth Glory at the moment.”
Mr Lazaridis said club officials, including Mr Pelligra, were baffled by the news.
“We were not getting those bills, we just were not getting them,” Mr Lazaridis said.
“And they were basically going to another address somewhere in Melbourne. So when it came in one big hit, we were baffled.
“And until we understood it all and worked it out… the ATO were fine with Rosario {Ross Pelligra} the Pelligra Group and everything like that.”
In December, it was revealed the ATO had launched a winding up application on the grounds insolvency against the club in the Federal Court’s Victorian registry.
Mr Pelligra, who has a range of property and sporting team interests both in Australia and abroad, bought Perth Glory in February last year, following the club spending a lengthy period in receivership.
The state government confirmed during its mid-year budget review that it would provide $1.3 million in financial assistance over 2024-25 and 2027-28 to the club, in order to deliver a series of initiatives – including hosting six regional pre-season matches across the state, women’s team programming and a new school soccer program.
