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They’re shouting it from the rooftops now – four-time national champions South Melbourne want in the A-League. Make no mistake, this is a huge moment in Australian football.
After reports of attempted takeovers of the Central Coast Mariners and Melbourne Heart, the NSL mainstays last night laid their cards on the table.
An offer “in excess of $3.5 million” was recently made to take 100 percent control of the Heart’s license after “several discussions between Heart and SMFC directors,” said a press release.
The club also declared it had major sponsors lined up and that “Emerson (Brazilian Legend)” is keen to coach.
Now, they didn’t specify which Emerson that was.
Presumably they refer to the one that played for Juventus and Real Madrid and was capped 73 times for the national team – Emerson Ferreira da Rosa.
But that namedrop is South Melbourne’s way of reminding you that despite being stowed away in Australian football’s attic for years, they’re still around. And they’re still relevant.
Whether Football Federation Australia will acknowledge them as such by way of an A-League license is now the crucial question.
It’s a fork in the road. If SMFC are not accepted now, you can just about rule out any future possibility of an ‘ethnic club’ joining the A-League, ever.
The sense is if it’s going to happen, it has to be sooner rather than later. And now ‘Hellas’ has stormed to the front of the queue, just waiting for someone to slip up so they can be there.
Eventually it will come down to the key question – is Australian football open to the addition of an ‘ethnic club’ to the A-League?
This has been the elephant in the room for years.
There is no doubt the A-League has blossomed largely because it represented a clean break from the NSL and pitched football to everyone in the country in a different and radical way.
But there is also no doubting that South Melbourne is a fantastic club with a rich history, standing links with the wider football world and, potentially, a little bit of pull.
Yes, it was founded by Greeks, and many of the supporters are Greek. The club’s culture is heavily influenced by Greece and its symbols.
But it is not exclusively Greek.
There are scores of South Melbourne devotees that don’t have a vowel and the letter ‘s’ at the end of their surnames.
I don’t know any personally – I’m an Adelaide boy. I do know hundreds of ex-Adelaide City fans who weren’t of Italian decent, though.
Still, this is one of the key objections – that bringing a Greek club into an the current A-League (save for the Dutch up in Brisbane) would muddy the idea of a new dawn for football.
Given football’s rolling problems with supporter behaviour – and more specifically, the heavy-handed and disproportionate media coverage of it – this is where it gets risky.
Imagine if the usual prejudicial media outlets could spin a bit of ethnic violence into another beat-up about a troublesome crowd. It would be relentless and damaging.
That makes South Melbourne a huge gamble, particularly at a time when there are more eyes fixed on the A-League than ever before.
But this risk is potentially outweighed by the rewards. South Melbourne could very well turn out to be a strong, sustainable club.
If the club is capable of earning its own keep, how can the game ignore them?
The A-League must grow. Ten teams isn’t enough, as everyone knows. More will be needed eventually and since we’ve already scorched earth on the Gold Coast, in Townsville and a little bit in Canberra, beggars cannot really afford to be choosers.
The question is if FFA will ever be prepared to accommodate a club like South Melbourne. Can they be part of the A-League masterplan? Over to you, Frank.
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