Ex-NSL clubs should be able to join A-League

Jack, the reason Sydney Olympic moved to Cronulla was because demographics were shifting, and a large Greek population were thriving in the region between Ramsgate and Sutherland.

Greg, Sydney City folded in 1986 and have never been seen again. I'm not sure what a club that hasn't existed for 24 years are getting away with. The Hakoah club plays in the NSW State League. It has nothing to do with Sydney FC, save for the fact that many of the players go to SFC games. But then, so do players from Sydney Olympic, Marconi, Sutherland, Manly, Bonnyrigg and Bankstown, to name but a few that I know of personally. Which of the clubs that you grew up with would you like to see in the A-League? It's a genuine question; I have a soft spot for the NSL and its contribution to the game, but I really feel that the way the vast majority of those clubs were run was unsustainable.

We now have a new national competition, as the old one had a lot of negativity about it and needed hard rebranding to quiet the media and to stop racial tensions. I see nothing wrong with a HAL club having affiliations with a number of NSL clubs of mutual benefit, but for the good of the game i have to disagree about letting NSL clubs into the HAL. Its serving the media food on a platter. as far as an 'FFA cup', i think this would be a great thing, for development and after season comp, to let our boys kick the ball more than they do now. top two clubs in HAL go to asia, 6th - 3rd place play in a ffa cup with the top two respective NSL clubs pitted against each other, gives more reason for a top 6 in the HAL and includes the NSL in some way other than being feeder clubs. the only thing is, can any of the NSL clubs afford the traveling?

Adelaide United only ever played the last season of the NSL, filling the void left by Adelaide City. they don't really have any NSL heritage per se. Newcastle were founded in 2000, again, not exactly a club with a deep NSL heritage.

I am an MV fan, and I didn't follow any particular team in the NSL, but agree with the author that former NSL teams should be allowed to join the A-League provided they meet the financial criteria that any of the other franchises haas had to meet.

NSL is history

why does the 'ethnic tag' need to be shed off?

I'm not surprised you don't understand midfielder, alot of what he is saying sounds like a load of crap to me

i posted about this a while back, i think the best way to shed the ethnic tag and to demonstrate this to the FFA is to merge neighbouring NSL clubs into a kind of super club.You will that way have a core support base to build off, alot of juniors, and the club will be based on a region and not ethnicity, mainly because the core supporters will be a mix of different nationalities. You also have numerous training venues and stadiums to choose from

Das To answer your question I will use the example of Croatia a NSL team formed around the late 1950… Granville Magpies an association team who were very strong and in the middle to late 50’s often drew a bigger crowd than the Parrmatta Ells the local RL team. Six of Granville’s first 11 and three of their reserves were Croatian and many Croatians lived in an around Granville, Fairfield area. It was a good coming together of local district association team controlled by the ANGLO’s mixing and playing with the new immigrants. The coach I think was also Croatian and certainly many of the coaches in the Granville association were Croatian. Just as an aside I known this in this detail because of one my fathers friends was associated with Granville. He and my Dad served on the same ship in WWII. By sheer fluke about five years ago on the same floor as were I work I ran into his son roughly the same age as me and we work maybe 60 feet apart…. What’s that about 7 degrees of separation… anyway between us and what we can recall of what our Dads talked about is what I am writing so history from the knees of Dads as it were. The Croatians’ loved playing for Granville … but one day they got told to leave Granville and go and play for a new team called Croatia playing in the Eastern & Southern Suburbans of Sydney. Some retired never to play again some left in tears… The upshot a super league war with the new clubs raiding the association teams and forming a new competition and in the late 50’s getting control of whatever Soccer Australia was called then. But a strong association / district team with a number of senior positions held by Croatians lost forever and never recovered they had no money but often drew larger crowds than the Parrmatta Ells… Das [this bit my personal knowledge because I was there] jump forward to around the late 60’s early 70’s a new and proud almost arrogant new arrival comes along … Marconi joins the league huge club lovely field and ovals… Marconi stripped of all the past issues proudly boasted we are going to be like the RL and develop a district team.. Marconi goes along to Southern Districts [the local association] and starts to develop a relationship even starts to offer training to their coaches… Marconi even have the balls to run junior RL teams just like the league clubs run junior soccer teams… Marconi are going gang busters into the local media and even voted to change their name to a local district name and were starting to have contest of what to call themselves… say like the Mariners of today … the community club … a shining light to guide the other clubs… Marconi and Southern Districts Associations were made promises if they did certain things a catchment area would be left for them… Football just took off in South Western Sydney and in no small way thanks to this early work done by the Marconi / Southern Districts …. Now poor old Croatia are not travelling to well and in need of a home because the Croatian community is much more in WS than in ES or SS…. So in spite of all the guarantees made, and in spite of all the good work undertaken by the new comer Marconi, Croatia were allowed to set up where on a clear day you could see from Marconi stadium to the Croatia stadium and almost throw a stone I think as the crows fly about one K… Never was a club so back stabbed, their efforts handed over to another team as many of the people in the Liverpool who had supported Marconi were Croatian. Croatia again called upon Croatians to support Croatia. The then management were so pissed off they left and a new management took over and the relationship with Southern Districts fell apart .. well was no where near as close ever again. Das this was a total disregard with what had been agreed… it suited those in control of the then E clubs as Marconi at that point in time with the management team they had scared the pants off every other club… Das its hard so hard to explain the set up that Marconi had… a 12 K stadium… a large number of training fields … a hugely successful club with heaps of poker machines … contacts back to Italy … contacts with all local media, all regional associations, and a developing relationship with Southern Districts Associations and on the verge of changing their name to a district brand… all lost.. Both times very strong district clubs lost forever one never to recover the other to fall to the level of the others under new management.. As an aside you can imagine the mistrust between the two clubs for the next few decades..

Greg My first NSL team was Blacktown Demons.... they got Ian Rush out all sorts of things... they could not stay in the NSL for financial reasons... my second club the Northern Spirit ... lost forever .... my third club and in Hal 1 the Mariners a re born NS... I miss the Demons not being in the top league and often go and watch along with on a good night maybe 500 to 1, 000 people ... still love the battles with the other WS teams... but I have moved on ... I understand the management of the sport I love was so poor I am paying penalties for it with the loss of my beloved Demons... and to be honest many of the other NSL teams I grew to hate or put up with... What will hurt even more is if the Rovers as expected move to Blacktown ... inside I am screaming it should be the Demons they have been here for over 50 years have worked with the Blacktown association and helped NSW Football ... as an aside NSW Football have had for years their major fields and offices in the Blacktown area... But I accept very sadly the management of the day caused this ... not the FFA ... if you want to blame anyone go back to Tony Lab and the cough cough ROFL Sir [FFS] Sir Aurthur George [the biggest joke of them all] the management of the NSL caused this not the FFA ... the FFA want to start an FA cup style competition so they want the E NSL clubs back ... but with conditions as I see it the E clubs don't want to accept... Grey I have mates who have a passion for Olympic.... they fall into two general types, those like me who have moved on... and those still looking for a return to the cough cough glory days... I hope one day mate you can not let your passion for Olympic go ... but allow yourself the joy of following another team... If by chance the Demons ever do get back in I will be torn between the Mariners & Demons but until that day comes I can still go and see the Demons and say that kid looks OK I hope to see him at the Mariners one day...

Doesnt matter what these clubs do the ffa will always stear well clear of them, i mean sydney olympic once upon a time moved to cronulla and called themselves the olympic sharks for a while, if thats not trying to open your doors what is? south melbourne in the later stages of the nsl had a former western bulldogs ceo as its ceo + the southern cross A league bid which was overlooked, its never gonna happen and for that the division will always exist.

I follow the North Sydney Bears in the NRL before they got relegated, i still support them and i am also a member, but i also now support Souths in the NRL and i am a member. I think there should be second HAL division created using state premier league clubs from around the states as the basis for this and maybe add teams from Canberra and Tassie. But to everyone that says they will not support the HAL needs to realise that soccer in this country will never get the support they want it to have unless they support the HAL - as such if more people support the HAL the game will grow and the league will expand further and these old team might come back - just like the bears in 2013 (maybe). Soccer is truly blessed in having so many quality clubs taht they could call on to form a second division and make the HAL more like the European leagues with relegation and promotion - this should keep everyone happy.

So, let's bring back the ethnic clubs. Guess what? They cannot afford to enter the A-League. They NEVER had fully professional setups, they were always semi-pro. South tried it for a season after they were in the World Club Champs and it almost sent them to the wall. Marconi was about as professional setup in Sydney as you could hope to get and they went pear shaped also. They do not have the capacity, not enough new migrants to replenish the stocks.

Nice post midfielder but I seriously doubt you have the emotional passion for a certain club like myself and others do, to sacrifice yourself as you ask they do... Come on mate, think of the club you love and asking them to do what you want the NSL clubs to do, which they have been force to do... you wouldn’t feel hard done by? On top of that people are missing the point myself and other are asking for and that a form of concession in letting 1 or 3 club’s into the grand stage of Australian football that we grew up with, why should people who grew up with these clubs be robbed to nothing while Sydney City get away with it? Why not let one Italian, Croatian and Greek team that represents the fans that followed the NSL for so many years and made the game survive, be part of the big show? Instead were left to read some pritty blood boiling posts by people who clearly couldn’t give a rat's ass about us and what grew on us football club wise. We love football as much as anyone yet are denied because of heritage? Like Tim said, it’s not fair that Sydney Olympic and South Melbourne for example are not allowed a look in with the amount of things they are doing off the field and Olympic in particular did many thing to accommodate the Anglo race which now has all the riches football wise while we NSL folk won’t get a look in because of our heritage, yeah real fair... NOT >:(

Misha keep supporting your mono ethnic club in the state league (they are still operating so no one has taken them away)...no problem. Dont expect me (or many thousands of others) to as we now have clubs which dont carry such ethnic baggage. Preston Macedonia, Sth Melb Hellas, Melbourne Croatia etc etc never represented me (nor the wider community) and l had no reason to support them...until you begin to understand that there is no further discussion.

SOFC is doing big things but because they are what SOFC they cannot be let in? That is how the ffa is treating everyone, the heart has failed, the gold coast is about to pull out, fury and adelaide is being propted by the ffa and clubs liks SOFC cannot be let in? Are we serious?

Greg How is it different .... The foundations clubs IMO are the associations..... The NSL stood apart from its associations .... a very different model from the successful NRL & AFL domestic competitions... in fact the relationship between the NSL clubs and the associations was IMO far worse than any relationship between NSL & FFA... Right now each A-League team is developing their academy ... While I will agree the NSL state teams do gather talent that the A-League teams can look at in one place ... so can a well run association team..... in fact Gladesville Hotrnsby run a team in the second level state league called Spirit... As I understand it and I am happy to be corrected but the old NSL team that has supplied the most players to the A-League is Blacktown Demons and I think the number is 14 players... now the Blacktown Demons who are in the finals and won two seasons back... Blacktown Demons is not an Ethnic club but its history and its stadium at Seven Hills ( Gabbie Stadium) is just as important as any of the old NSL ethnic clubs... IMO FFA would love Blacktown Demons back into the fold so to Manly.... but struggle becuase they cannot be invited in without inviting the ethnic clubs... As I keep saying the issue is actually in the hands of the NSL clubs ... nay the ethnic NSL clubs to be blunt... they need to show they are willing to accept responsibility even if that means being kicked out of their fans behaviour ... this is the real issue FFA are shit scared off..... You may guess from my post I actually go to some state league matches and if anything leaving the main competition has if anything made some of these clubs more ethnic .... As I see it and posted elsewhere on this issue .... clubs need to be willing to fall on their sword for the greater benefit of football if things go wrong.... My example is as was posted in the other thread on this issue... the Melbourne Storm were stripped of two grand finals and 3 premierships over the salary cap… it would have been quite easy for the MS to win at court … you see the salary cap is actually illegal many experts believe but so far remains unchallenged by the NRL/AFL & A-League… The salary cap works because it is unchallenged … But MS could easily have challenged the salary cap won had the salary cap withdrawn.. or even if they threaten to do so they could have reduced their penalties … TBH I cannot see any of the Sydney & Melbourne and some of the fringe clubs like White Eagles accepting this as MS did as their past history says they won’t.. The issue is not so much about history but about moving forward …. to move forward the E NSL clubs must accept their past actions … if they do that they will realise they need to make concessions other teams don’t …. but to continue to deny what the past was is to keep them were they are… if in any doubt Google the Crawford Report… and remember in the 80′s the head of the Soccer Australia was charged by ASIC and was never allowed to hold a position as a company director in Australia… so Soccer Australia changed it’s structure so he could stay in charge… The issues identified by the Crawford & Stewart reports cannot be swept under the carpet for the sake of we should be allowed back in because we raided the associations and then trained their best ... but we point to the good things we did and say based on the good only let us back in...