HARRY Kewell has not signed a contract to come to Melbourne Victory, according to his manager, Bernie Mandic.

Responding to on-air claims by Eddie McGuire that the Kewell to Victory deal had been completed, Mandic said no A-League club had presented any official contract and insisted that Victory was not necessarily the Australian club of Kewell’s choice.



"We all have our Christmas wish list and I think a few people have got Harry on that,'' Mandic said on SEN.



"You’ve always got an ideal scenario that you work for as a club, but we, as his management company, have an ideal scenario that we work for the player and at the moment we haven’t signed anything with anybody.



"We still haven’t seen a contract for any Australian club because the deal is rather unique in what Harry has proposed.



"Basically he doesn’t want any financial up front if he’s going to come back to Australia, that’s the basis of the deal.



"So even though it’s very simple, on the face of it, to structure something like that, there’s actually no template available in any sports code.

"This is a deal, on the one hand which has no financial guarantee, but also needs to have an upside if Harry’s contribution is to put additional bums on seats and make the sport more popular and add additional revenue to the club.



"So really it’s a success fee that we're talking about, whether he joins an A-League club in any city, without being unfair to any city and saying we'd prefer one to another, Harry prefers to come back to Australia at some point in time and has made that known.



"And he is prepared, if the circumstances are right, to do it this year. If not, maybe next year or the year after.''



It was reported last week that Kewell would be paid a minimum-wage playing contract for his services, but would then receive 80 per cent of any additional revenue the club made as a result of his arrival.



Falling under this category would be the likes of ticket sales, membership and sponsorship.



Mandic took that speculation a step further when he revealed Kewell would not even be paid a basic wage and said A-League clubs had embraced the proposal.



"Some clubs have called us, others haven’t bothered,'' he said.



"The clubs that have called have been impressed with the integrity that Harry has shown in all of this, I don’t think anybody expected it and people were almost sheepish in their approach saying 'is it true?’. Well yes, it’s true, he’s prepared to come back on the basis that there is no financial guarantees.



"If the club doesn’t do any better than it’s doing now then Harry gets nothing.



"There is no base payment. Nothing at all. There is no set figure. It’s an infinite piece of string.''



But while popular conjecture suggests Kewell is bound for either Melbourne or Sydney, Mandic said there was no reason why Kewell would not head to A-League premiers Brisbane next season.



"If the best stadium deal is in Brisbane, then why wouldn’t he go to Brisbane? Stadium deals make or break this deal," he said.



"What would be wrong with Suncorp (Stadium)?



"They’ve got a sensational team, a team that plays probably the best brand of football in the country, they’ve got a great coach who’s earned his stripes in Europe. They’ve got a stadium which is waiting to be filled.''

Originally published as No deal yet for Harry, says manager