Granville Football Association: X-League competition launched

The round ball game in the Granville region has a rich and unmatched history, being home to the oldest football association in Australia. Now, a new league has been launched for the next generation.

The round ball game in the Granville region has a rich and unmatched history, being home to the oldest football association in Australia.

However, the lustre and shine of the proud competition had diminished in recent years leading to the premier senior’s competition only fielding six teams which were forced to play the same opponents four times across the season.

At a table at Mentmore & Morley cafe in May, Rydalmere FC’s first grade coach Joe Bacha met with Granville and Districts Soccer Football Association general manager Scott Sadler and set about plans for a new exciting league with the “X-factor”.

The X-League will launch March next year.

With a “steering committee” involving about a dozen people, including Danny Rizk of the Holroyd Rangers and Zac Farrah of Granville Waratah, a Friday night competition known as the X-League was born.

The 22-round competition, featuring two divisions of 12 teams, will include promotion and relegation, $5000 prize money on offer and the ‘Match of the Round’ held at Melita Stadium, Auburn to be streamed online with commentary.

Bacha, who initiated the first conversation to change the league structure, said he was inspired to make football more accessible for communities of ethnic Australians who couldn’t afford to participate in the sport.

“What originally led me to look at a restructure is the amount of people that are available in the Granville District Football Association that aren’t playing football because they can’t afford football,” he said.

“They can’t afford the $500 or so registration fee, they can’t afford a couple of hundred dollars for football boots, they can’t afford to be kitted out.

“The pure motive for me in doing all of this, really, is there’s one winner and that’s football”.

The Rydalmere coach said by treating the X-League as a “business” he believes the brand will lead to financial investment, which in turn will allow the association to invest directly into the region’s Afghan, African and other ethnic football-loving communities.

General manager Sadler said “unfortunate things” had happened to the association in recent times, but it was time to “focus on our own backyard”.

“We know we are the originals of football, we know that,” he said. “We’ve done a lot of great stuff and we’ve seen a lot of unfortunate things happen … we’ve just got to get back onto our feet now and try and drive that forward to build membership numbers.”

Sadler said the association hoped to encourage teams from outside the Granville area to take part, with a 20-person squad all that’s required.

The X-League has plans to expand to team numbers and add a women’s competition in future years.

The competition will launch in March.