One step forward, two steps back. It’s the story of Australian football. Another brilliant chapter was written yesterday with the unveiling of the FFA’s plan to rid the game of the scourge of ethnicity.
Let’s start with the best bit – the timing. Today marks the inaugural FFA Cup draw, which will give those lucky clubs below the A-League that have qualified their first hit of genuine relevance in god knows how long.
It should be a time of great excitement for all levels of the game – an opportunity to re-tell forgotten stories, re-visit old rivalries and celebrate the history that has been stowed away, out of sight, for far too long.
But with the release of FFA’s “National Club Identity Policy” – which came without warning yesterday, like a bolt from the blue – the focus is instead on the long-held conspiracy that the governing body is hell-bent on driving ethnicity from the game, by whatever means necessary.
Those conspiracy theorists looked like fortune tellers yesterday. From now on, any new club that is registered with FFA cannot have their name or logo refer to any “ethnic, national, political, racial or religious connotations either in isolation or combination.”
That is an incredibly broad set of criteria. Fortunately, the policy will not be applied retrospectively to existing clubs.
Of course, that didn’t stop the NSL bitters and their cronies from spitting venom all over the Twittersphere when the news broke. Nothing ever does. On this occasion, though, they had plenty of back-up, and the moral high ground.
It’s not as if there are new ethnic clubs popping up across the country, splitting the football community at the grassroots and pushing confused newcomers to rugby league and Australian rules.
Indeed, a quick glance at the fine print will reveal that should the likes of Croatian-backed Melbourne Knights or Italian club Marconi ever wish to tweak their branding at any point in the future, they might find it tough to get their designs past the head honchos at FFA.
It’s frightening to think that if this policy was in place when migrants swarmed Australia over the course of the last century, we’d probably be conditioned to toothless, meaningless club names like ‘West Melbourne Energy’, ‘Fairfield Integrity’ and ‘FC Top Blokes of Adelaide’.
As always, this is not new territory. But as always, the game is marching right over it again anyway. In 1996, the NSL launched its controversial “National Merchandising Plan”, which demanded all clubs “remove all symbols of European nationalism from club logos, playing strips, club flags, stadium names and letterheads.”
It made Soccer Australia chairman David Hill a spectacularly unpopular man, courtesy of his misguided belief that a fresh lick of paint could turn these so-called ethnic institutions into broad-based powerhouses that would finally unlock the game’s potential.
You can draw the parallels yourselves – but needless to say, the concept of ethnicity and European nationalism in Australian football is too complex to be treated in such an ignorant, ham-fisted way.
A lot depends on how strictly the National Club Identity Policy will be interpreted. Clause 4 states: “A Club must not use, advertise or promote (or permit any other person or entity to use, advertise or promote) any ethnic, racial, religious or political identifiers in connection or association with the Club.”
What is pizza, yiros and cevapi if not an obvious ethnic identifier? Can a club now no longer use delicious food as a lure for crowds? If not, NPL-level football will soon resemble Bunnings charity barbeques, where only certain condiments may be used, and only if approved by FFA in writing 48 hours beforehand.
If you think that’s being facetious or paranoid, you’re probably right. But this is, clearly, about more than food. It’s about power. Why now? Why on the eve of the FFA Cup?
The mind boggles. None of these clubs are threatening the progression of the A-League and it remains a point of contention that their insignia ever truly drove “non-ethnics” away from football.
This can only be interpreted in one way – as an assault on the former clubs of the NSL. A not-so-subtle reminder that, while the relics of the NSL might enjoy a brief flirtation in the national limelight over the coming months, they no longer hold the whip hand, and never again will.
In reality, all FFA has done is ensure that the ‘CRO-AT-ZIA’ and ‘HELLAS’ chants at FFA Cup games are only going to be louder. Rattle the cage, and the wogs will rattle right back.
Rather than driving a wedge between old and new, the FFA should be extending an olive branch, celebrating the differences and bridging the gap through the wonder and romance of football. Instead, they’ve simply stirred the pot.
Beatris Quiroz
Guest
Excellent website you have here but I was wanting to know if you knew of any message boards that cover the same topics talked about in this article? I'd really love to be a part of community where I can get comments from other experienced individuals that share the same interest. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Many thanks!
stu
Guest
I view my comments in general terms, this I think is appropriate for this forum. you naturally think differently, do you feel ethnic tension and indeed violence has not been an issue in the local game??
Scrubbit
Guest
The Darwin H2Os The Brisbane Colours FC The Sydney Natural Resources FC The Melbourne People. The Perth Stuffs The Adelaide Things The NZ Animals
Bondy
Guest
Interesting read (http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/06/29/comment-world-cup-2014-exposes-soccer-haters-what-they-really-are ) ..
MelbCro
Guest
So you are throwing around accusation that you can't actually back up.
SydCro
Guest
An interesting article and this issue always comes up at some point in Australian football and its so redundant it beggars belief. Just to give you my experiences as somehow who followed Sydney United (Croatia) in the NSL and who now follows the Wanderers. As someone who was born in Australia with a Croatian background you always had a tug of war between feelings for both Australia and for Croatia. Make no mistake I will be AUSTRALIAN first, but you cant escape the fact you parents background is Croatian. Why would I want to escape that anyway. Its fantastic for me having this heritage. Ask yourself a question, If your Australian parents went and lived overseas and you were born in a foreign country would you feel Australian or would you feel the nationality of the country you were born in or a bit of both. My parents came to Australia in the late 60's and settled in the western suburbs of Sydney. They were looking for a better life and were looking to escape Communism, they wanted to be able to express themselves, to practice their religion freely, even to be able to say they were Croatian which they were. You have to understand from a Croatians point of view that we never viewed Yugoslavia as part of our identity. We wanted no part of that, especially since every part of that system was heavily skewed against us economically, culturally, historically etc etc. Why am I telling you this, because its important to understand the context of what we are discussing at least from the Croatian side of things. At the time we didn't even have a country so being able to proudly identify your background as Croatian was hugely important for me. Even as a kid growing up I had people telling me I wasn't an Aussie or that my parents are Yugoslav and not Croatian or to be reminded that Croatia doesn't exist. Imagine that...........we didn't exist, and now you get the sense of why Croatians are so proud and why being able to retain our Croatian identity was important. The football clubs were established out of the love of the game and as a way for the community to get together. Imagine you come to a new country, you know little or no English, you don't know anyone. Of course you are going to gravitate towards people of your own nationality, to share experiences, to speak your mother tongue, to socialise, to play sport. These clubs are hugely important and still play an active role in the community. A lot of these clubs were built up from absolutely nothing, through perseverance and hard work and through money saved from the community. Naturally these clubs will be filled with people from their own nationalities but a common misconception that keeps entering this debate is that these clubs weren't inclusive or that you were somehow excluded from participating. What a load of bollocks. If you wanted to join a club and participate of course you could, no one was excluded. They just happened to be run by the migrant communities, but everyone was welcome. I know every time I went to Marconi or Apia I wasn't made to feel unwelcome but somehow that myth keeps on getting perpetuated. Naturally everyone who follows a club has to find some connection or they just wont follow. For me having a Croatian background it was natural and easy for me to follow Sydney United, for Italians they followed Apia or Marconi, for Greeks it was Olympic or Sth Melbourne. For people outside of these nationalities it was obviously more difficult to connect "to your" team. Who would you support if you weren't Croatian, Italian, Greek or any other nationality represented in the NSL. A big part of the problem was that there was a huge number of people who played and loved football and yet they had no team they could connect with. There were no big clubs that were catering to this "missing black hole" of football supporters. The truth is there were no Australian or "Anglo" clubs that were contributing or looking to fill the void, well at least not at the top tier anyway. Most of these people would have got their football fix from watching English football, playing in their local leagues or by following the Socceroos. As a football supporter towards the end of the NSL I was becoming more and more disillusioned with how the sport was being run. The crowds were disappearing, there was little or no media about football anywhere, Australian football on tv was virtually non existent, clubs such as Sydney United needed to embrace change and Soccer Australia was taking a heavy handed approach to these clubs for something they were clearly not ready for. It really was an awful time to be a football supporter. As much as I wanted Sydney United and these other clubs to remain in the NSL I knew in the long run this would be impossible. If football in this country wanted to progress clubs needed to broaden their appeal to other supporters, they needed to connect to people outside of their own communities if they wanted to survive. At the same time Soccer Australia tried to "ethnically cleanse" football in this country. What do you expect the reaction to be, of course there is going to be a backlash. These clubs were the ones supporting football in the country, providing training, developing players for the national team. They are still proud of their heritage and where they came from. Whether its an existing club or a new club to be formed they all have their own ideas of what is important to them, whether its the clubs colours or its symbols. Clubs will feel that this is something that should be decided by the club and that the FFA shouldn't get involved. That will always be up for debate but I personally think this is a non issue that the FFA should not have raised in the first place. There are other more important issues to worry about, why the paranoia. Before everyone labels me an NSL bitter, I certainly am not. As a football supporter I love where football is headed in this country and it was only until the Wanderers came into the league that I was able to reconnect back to football. I certainly had no affiliation or desire to follow Sydney FC when the A-league was formed in 2005, so in essence, I also became part of that black hole of supporters that had no team to support at the top tier. These days I get the best of both worlds, I get to go to the football supporting a fantastic club in the Wanderers but I also get to support it with my Italian, Greek, Chinese, African mates as well as my Cro ones. I personally have no desire to see clubs represented at the highest level who don't appeal to a broad section of the community, whether they are run by migrant communities really should be irrelevant. If they don't have a sound business model and don't appeal to a broader community then they are just limiting themselves to a small section of the footballing public and will not survive in the top tier regardless. Lastly if you told me 20-25 years ago where would football would be today I would not have believed it. This is everything I ever wanted football to be in this country and more. Just be grateful for what we have because you have no idea how good you have got it.
stu
Guest
sorry, i don't know there names. if you have the time you can readily go through some history in Sydney and Melbourne.
theBird
Guest
Channel 7 much?
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
"If my club chooses to revise its emblem in future" What ... you mean ... like one of those plastic A-League franchises?
theBird
Guest
No. Its not that hard. Spearwood was a yug club. Well known. Its suprising how some people claim to know more than they do. Kind of reminds me of the "need dawners".
Kasey
Guest
There's the chief problem with the NSL model right there. You needed a working knowledge of Balkan Politics and European Geography to avoid pissing off a bunch of obviously volatile folks through a simple mistake in terminology.
Kasey
Guest
There was not choice in Adelaide until Adelaide United were born in 2003. I'm not Italian or Greek so had no connection to City or Westies.and I sure as heck wouldn't lower myself to supporting a team from a city that isn't mine. Why would I want to cheer for 'Melbourne anything or Sydney anything? I'm from Adelaide.
Socrates
Guest
Didn't realise that John Howard was left wing. After all, it was his government that discredited multiculturalism in Australia. Saying that we should all act like Australians.
Socrates
Guest
Name the non Croatian Australia juniors that have come through Melbourne Croatia that have played NSL- Australia. I dare you.
RipEnke
Guest
Saint George is not only the patron Saint of England, he wasn't even English!
MelbCro
Guest
What a strange question to ask given that the policy is not about everyday club operation. I think you are being quite mischievous there Fuss. The policy is at the end of day about dictating to clubs about their identity and intellectual property. If my club chooses to revise its emblem in future, under the FFA's policy a new submission would not be able to feature the Croatian coat of arms. How is that fair? How is that respecting my club, its history and its supporters? Regardless of that, how can we as a club morally standby and let newly created ethnic clubs face such restrictions? As an individual I have always spoken out against these types of measures and I will continue to do so.
Brian Orange
Roar Guru
The FFA rules only apply to new clubs, not existing clubs. How many non-Croatian players and members do Melbourne Croatia have? What about the Croatians who do not live in Melbourne? We have plenty of Croatians in the A-League, players, coaches, referees, administrators, so its not stopping people of Croatian descent from contributing to the standard of Australian football or the ongoing history of football in Australia. We just like to think of them as Australians.
j binnie
Guest
Glenn - Just a minor correction to your observations,actually it was Hollandia who were playing at Darra in 1964,this was before the club purchased their land at Richlands. Oxley played at a council ground in Oxley.I think I would be correct in saying that after Hollandia left Darra ,a club named Darra took over the ground. Actually by the time I arrived Ipswich football was in amalgamation mode and Bundamba Rangers&,Redbank Dinmore with others had actually combined into Coalstars who played at a ground opposite the racecourse.Bundamba Rangers had played at another ground,still in use today, but down behind the rececourse.Cheers jb
Glenn Innes
Guest
JB - Thank you very much for your reply.When you went to Ebbw Vale you would have been playing Snt Helens at Bundamba Bundamba Rangers and Darra would have been Oxley. Indirectly the point of the post was to emphasise that firstly,at least in South Queensland,Football has a history that dates back well before World War two and that at least in Brisbane ethnic based clubs were happy to sign anyone if they thought they could play the game. Also ethnic based teams are not unique to football . the Brothers clubs in Rugby League were for Irish Catholics indeed in the old days you had to have attended a Catholic School to play for a Brothers club....of course all that is long gone but pre sixties the Brothers clubs were ethnic clubs.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Fair enough, MelbCro. As you are a long term, committed supporter of Melbourne Knights it would be great if someone with your background can explain to me - as an outsider - how your club Melbourne Knights, which is one of the most famous & proud ethnic-aligned football clubs in Australia, will be affected by FFA's policy that was released this week? What significant changes will occur at Somers Street henceforth, compared to how the club operated for the past 10 years?