Will history help or hinder South Melbourne’s A-League bid?
The FFA Cup will shine the spotlight on South Melbourne’s A-League bid, but will the club’s past help or hinder its aspirations?
Football
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BILL Papastergiadis met with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on a recent trip to Athens.
And South Melbourne’s A-League chairman was shocked as to what the first question Tsipras asked of him.
“How’s South Melbourne going?” the Prime Minister inquired with his Australian guest.
Taken aback by his interest — “everyone knows South Melbourne”, Tsipras said — Papastergiadis told him about the former National Soccer League powerhouse’s plans to once again become a force on the national stage, after which Tsipras replied: “Do you want me to write to the football federation?”
South Melbourne is a club steeped in Greek tradition.
It was formed in 1959 after three struggling clubs merged together — English-backed South Melbourne United and Greek-supported Yarra Park and Hellenic.
It went on to win four NSL championships, be named Oceania Club of the Century and help produce players such as Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou.
But when the demise of the NSL came in 2004, South — along with all bar Perth Glory and Adelaide United — was frozen out of the bold new A-League era.
It never stood a chance of entry into the “one team per city” model adopted by then Football Federation Australia chairman Frank Lowy and chief executive John O’Neill.
O’Neill notes in his autobiography It’s Only a Game that one-time board member John Singleton had been one of the main drivers of the new approach.
The advertising guru’s notion — which O’Neill agreed with — was that soccer had to move past ethnic-based clubs by creating professional teams that “everyone can feel a part of”.
So now, some 13 years on, the question is: Is the game ready to go back to the future?
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Of course there are criteria boxes such as funding, stadium suitability, governance and potential supporter base reach that South Melbourne also needs to tick, like everyone else.
But then, depending on which side of the fence you sit on with regards to the question of history, South’s push to be come Melbourne’s third A-League club is either helped or handicapped by its past.
“Everyone has a history and ours is a proud one,” Papastergiadis said.
“But what defines us is that we’ve continued to refine and develop our future rather than relying on our history.
“Investment and a broad-based A-League board — reflective of the multicultural society we live in — are pushing us forward.”
South plays out of the boutique 12,000-capacity Lakeside Stadium, a ground at which it holds a 40-year lease.
Recently it made a statement of intent by bringing to Australia Brazilian legend Roberto Carlos, who it has lined up to be its inaugural A-League coach.
Former Socceroo turned respected pundit Mark Bosnich was at a South-hosted event in May at which he was happy to spruik South’s cause despite having played for one of its chief rivals, legendary Croatian club Sydney United.
But despite his upbringing, Bosnich said this week the issue of South Melbourne’s Greek heritage “should not be a question at all” with regard to its potential A-League admission.
“Everyone is second or third generation Australians now,” Bosnich said.
“But I don’t think that history is something that should be hidden either. The bottom line is, those clubs were started by immigrants and they should be proud of their history.”
South has been the most vocal of the numerous A-League bids around the country — including in Victoria, where bids from Geelong and the south-eastern suburbs are its rivals.
But Papastergiadis insists that should not be seen as brashness, it’s simply because South is an existing club with employees who can publicly push the message and continue to connect with the community in a meaningful way.
Over the coming weeks the club has another platform to showcase its wares, the FFA Cup.
South made the Round of 32 two years ago, only to be bundled out by Palm Beach on the Gold Coast before it could really get traction.
But that was before the A-League bid days.
And already its storyline has been given some additional stardust by FFA and Fox Sports, with South awarded this year’s opening broadcast game — against Edgeworth Eagles at Lakeside on Wednesday night.
While keen to stress its Cup campaign will not define its A-League bid, Papastergiadis said there is no doubt a successful run can help.
“The FFA Cup, in my view, reflects the value of allowing broad-based participation in the game,” Papastergiadis said.
“If you build it they will come and we’ve certainly got the foundations for that.”
Bosnich, for one, doesn’t need any more convincing.
“They’re ready,” Bosnich said.
“The only thing that would stop them would be — which is the same with pretty much everything else going on with the game at the moment — fear to jump in to the deep end.
“And what I mean by that is, having been back here for eight years myself, I think that people have been conditioned in a certain way in our sport that they are risk averse.
“And I think that fear has infected a lot of Australian football.
“So back on South, it’s nothing to do with the club, it’s the fear of ‘if it’s going to work?’
“But you just don’t know if these things are going to work. No one knew 100 per cent if the Wanderers were going to work, but they did.
“Let them have their chance.”
FFA CUP — ROUND OF 32
SOUTH MELBOURNE v EDGEWORTH EAGLES
Wednesday, 8pm
Lakeside Stadium
Live on Fox Sports
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