By Vince Rugari
The Sydney businessman behind the takeover of Xanthi FC wants the Tony Popovic-led Greek club to become a production line for Aussie players aspiring to scale the heights of European football.
Entrepreneur Bill Papas, who is also the chairman of NPL NSW side Sydney Olympic, took over Xanthi in August and has wasted little time in flooding the club's ranks with top-line coaches and players from the A-League.
Xanthi FC owner Bill Papas watches on as Tony Popovic puts pen to paper with the Greek club.
Former Socceroos Josh Brillante and Matt Jurman, ex-Adelaide United goalkeeper Paul Izzo and Wellington Phoenix utility Callan Elliot have all moved to Greece to join Popovic in what shapes as a novel experiment for Australian football.
Flanked by former Western Sydney Wanderers youth guru Arthur Diles and goalkeeping great Zeljko Kalac, Popovic has been given a clean slate and significant budget by Papas, who intends for Xanthi to become a "nursery" for Aussie exports seeking to crack the big time.
The premise is simple: Papas believes Australians are underrated and undervalued by foreign clubs and often judged by their passport rather than their true ability. By installing an Australian coaching panel with in-depth knowledge of their capabilities, those players know they will be backed in a way they might not be elsewhere in Europe.
And with an Australian owner in Papas calling the shots from the boardroom, the coaches know they will be given the time and resources necessary to see the project through to completion.
Three Xanthi FC players surround Middlesbrough's Massimo Maccarone during a UEFA Cup match in 2005.Credit: Getty
Xanthi has only been relegated to the Greek second division due to a points deduction penalty for ownership irregularities, and is traditionally a first-division club which, at its peak, competed regularly in the UEFA Europa League.
Papas believes this influx of Aussie talent and expertise can springboard them straight back into the Greek Super League, contending for titles and European spots, and bring in extra revenue through transfer fees if those players can attract interest elsewhere.
"I think we are very much underrated in terms of our the coaching stocks ... we underrate ourselves, we underrate our own players," said Papas, whose two companies – managed services firm Forum Group and environmental consultancy Iugis – have sponsorship and business ties to European powerhouses Liverpool and Schalke 04.
"We have a great youth talent pool here in Australia that is wasted, and it doesn't know where to go. We want to prove [that] very quickly through recruiting some A-League players and progressing some youngsters overseas, and certainly now we have the means and the vehicle in Xanthi to be able to demonstrate that."
Popovic, who has long harboured dreams of cracking Europe as a coach, was the obvious pilot for the Xanthi experiment and has brought his sons, Gabriel and Kristian, to the club as well.
The idea is reminiscent of the Australian Football Consortium, which was involved in long-running but ultimately failed talks to buy English club Charlton Athletic with the aim of it becoming "Australia's First English Premier League Club".
Papas said that idea was one of many football opportunities to have come across his desk – including in the A-League, where he and fellow Sydney Olympic board member Damon Hanlin once considered buying out the Newcastle Jets.
Papas was ultimately driven overseas by "frustration" at the broken development pathways in Australia, which he has seen first-hand at NPL level, and said it was "much easier" to buy a Greek club and roughly the same price.
"You're talking about an entirely different game," he said. "You're in Europe, you're playing for higher stakes. You're talking about being able to be in control of your own destiny.
"I think the A-League needs to first get its house in order before people feel comfortable about diving in and investing ... there's too many unknown factors around what we can do and what we can't do in terms of driving revenue and player development."
Papas sees Xanthi as a fallen giant, ripe for restoration. Positioned in a primarily agricultural region in Greece's north-east, the city is home to only 70,000 but has a proud football tradition despite being geographically detached from the Super League's power base in the south. Papas was further enticed by the club's suite of top-class facilities – including a stadium that was built in 2004, and a training centre with an attached hotel – which serve as a strong base to build from.
Papas intends to create a formal link between Xanthi and Sydney Olympic, the former National Soccer League heavyweights, which would mean a direct pipeline of young Australian players into Europe.
"Obviously, we're a lot smaller than the City [Football] Group. But the principle is the same," he said.
As for Olympic, Papas has no intention of scaling back his financial support and is hell-bent on ensuring they are part of a mooted A-League second division – so long as a sustainable model is able to be put together.
Asked if there were enough NPL clubs with enough resources to make a second tier work, Papas said: "I don't believe so. I don't think most clubs in the NPL realise just what goes into being able to be part of an A-League or a top-tier national competition, and become sustainable.
"It's easy enough to have a desire to be there, but are you going to be building something that's sustainable long-term? We're certainly, in these early stages, lacking in knowledge on that front.
"Can we get there? I think we can ... [but] that remains to be seen. Just looking at our fellow clubs in the NPL in NSW, I think there's only a few that would stack up. As long as the the federation puts the right structure in place to be able to support it commercially and sustainably, then I'll be all for it."
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