Name Tony Pignata | ||
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Tony Pignata (born 30 November 1964) is an Australian football administrator and current Chief Executive of Sydney FC in the Australian A-League. His previous positions include Chief Executive of Football Federation Victoria and inaugural Chief Executive of Wellington Phoenix FC in the A-League from 2007 to 2010. Prior to working in sport, Pignata worked in the banking industry, and he spent a brief time in telecommunications.
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Pignata's leadership of Wellington Phoenix helped to bring much-needed credibility to football in New Zealand. Amongst other things, he was responsible for bringing out LA Galaxy with David Beckham resulting in a then record Football crowd of 31,853. In 2009/10, he was CEO when Wellington Phoenix made the A-League Finals Series (playoffs) going within one game of making the 2009/10 Grand Final.
In May 2012, he was appointed Chief Executive of Sydney FC at a time when the club desperately needed stability in its management.
He was instrumental in bringing Italian football star Alessandro del Piero to the club for two seasons which helped increased membership, merchandise sales, sponsorship and TV viewership for Sydney FC and the A-League overall. In 2014, the club announced that its finances had turned around from a deficit of $7.2m to almost break-even under Pignata's leadership.
In the 2016/17 A-League season, Sydney FC were crowned Premiers after 20 wins, 6 draws and 1 loss culminating in 66 points for the regular season. They went on to win the A-League Grand Final in the equivalent of the play-off series against Melbourne Victory on 7 May 2017.
Sydney FC has also been named Club of the Year by the Football Media Association for three consecutive years from 2014/15 to 2016/17.
Pignata is a popular figure with media and fans, and was named by the Australian Financial Review in 2017 as one of Australia's top 21 CEOs. He is active on Twitter. He announced his resignation from Sydney FC three days after the 2017 A-League grand final win.
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Education
Pignata's secondary education was at Salesian College in Chadstone. He graduated from Monash University (Caulfield) in 1987with a bachelor's degree in banking and finance.