The FFA engaged investment bank UBS to handle the sale last year, citing an aspirational price tag of $15 million.
In August, the FFA publicly slapped down a Penrith Panthers bid to acquire the club and rumours of at least two major overseas football clubs being interested buyers did not materialise in the form of formal bids.
The New Year has kicked off with a frenzy of newspaper speculation that an Australian-led consortium is set to finalise a deal to buy the club.
But the Wanderers say the media has jumped the gun.
“Despite recent media speculation there is absolutely nothing to report,” Wanderers executive chairman Lyall Gorman told Western Sydney Business Access (WSBA).
Primo Smallgoods founder and Western Sydney Wanderers director Paul Lederer reportedly heads the consortium which also includes the founder of high-profile local engineering company Pirtek and a mystery Chinese businessman.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the eventual sale price may be in the range of $11m to $15m but WSBA understands the ultimate figure may be close to half the sale price originally sought by the FFA.
Leaked details of the sales process have meanwhile resulted in business headaches outside of football for Lederer.
The Newcastle Herald reports that Australasian Meat Industry Employees’ Union is angry that Lederer is considering buying into the Wanderers while ‘‘crying poor’’ in enterprise bargaining negotiations for his company’s Scone abattoir.
It says Lederer’s family holds a substantial minority stake in Primo after selling the rest of the company to a private equity firm in 2011 for a reported price of more than $900million.
