A-League hopeful South Melbourne says it has claims to being Victoria’s new south east team

The FFA is poised to make a decision on its new A-League clubs and the race for a Victorian bid is heating up, with South Melbourne declaring a turf war on rival expansion hopeful Team 11.

South Melbourne bid chairman Bill Papastergiadis with bid team members Luisa Chen and Gabrielle Giuliano.

Former NSL club South Melbourne has declared a turf war on A-League expansion rivals Team 11, claiming they “own” Melbourne’s southeast ahead of an FFA decision on December 12.

The southeast Victorian bid — operating under the working title Team 11 — has created a geographic divide from existing clubs Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City, with plans to play out of a proposed stadium in Dandenong’s CBD with a training base at Cranbourne’s Casey Fields.

Western Melbourne, which is insisting it will build its own stadium in Tarneit, is the other Victorian club vying for one of the two expansion spots, with the Macarthur South-west bid from NSW favoured to jag the other spot.

HEADSTART? SOUTH’S STADIUM SWEETENER

KEEP IT CLEAN: FFA WARNING TO A-LEAGUE HOPEFULS

The FFA board hopes to announce two clubs at next Wednesday’s (December 12) board meeting, the first in the post-Lowy era with new chair Chris Nikou at the helm.

Team 11 has drawn an invisible line divide at Springvale Road, leaving it with a catchment area of 1.7 million inclusive of the Latrobe Valley, which housed former NSL club Morwell Falcons.

South Melbourne‘s Mathew Foschini in his club’s NPL clash with Hume City earlier this year.

Most of South Melbourne’s schools and club partnerships are from the inner south east, including Mentone Grammar, St Catherine’s (Toorak), Alphington Grammar, Oakleigh Grammar and Albert Park College.

But South Melbourne believes some of that territory is theirs, with a portion of its members and supporters emanating from the south east.

South Melbourne’s bid chairman Bill Papastergiadis said their roots stretched further, and planned to take an NPL game to the south east next March.

“We believe with our history we have as much of a claim (to the south east) because our traditional supporters come from that part of Melbourne. In late March, we will play a game in that corridor at one of the NPL clubs,’’ he said.

South Melbourne bid chairman Bill Papastergiadis with bid team members Luisa Chen and Gabrielle Giuliano.

“We’re actually on the ground and doing it now. We’re saying to Victory and City, we’ll work with you, because they have less than 10 per cent of their members in the south and south east. So South Melbourne is not a threat, if anything we’re going to help grow the game and supporters because we’ve got our own territory to work with which doesn’t infringe on theirs.

“We’ve grown into that part of Melbourne through all of the work we’ve done with these clubs that we signed up over six months ago and working with the demographics of the territory that is a changing multicultural mix and our relationships with the different community groups.

“South Melbourne was formed in the south and organically it grew into the south east, which we’ve analysed. Over 60 per cent of our members (including juniors, schools, corporate and social club) reside in the south east.”