South Melbourne look to make peace with Victory

WOW! Amazing at some of the comments on here. The main topic of discussion here is "Football" not ethnicity, not the colours of a football team and certainly not who founded the club. Football is a UNIVERSAL game and regardless of ones "race" or "colour" or "history" football in this country remains the highest growing and most played sport. Every club in the world is funded by a community and through that community the club grows into an integral part of that community eventually becoming part of the collective - the COLLECTIVE! The A-League has grown substantially throughout the years however it lacks real competition and it lacks depth. It also, from reading the comments above, attracts small minded idiots who still lack the intelligence to look beyond their discrimination. South Melbourne were the first club in Australian Football history to field players of various ethnicities and are the only sporting club to represent Australia "PROUDLY" in a world club tournament. To add to that supporters of all walks of life support the club from the UK to South America. Although they have Greek origins the club is the "peoples club" and the supporters of Sth Melbourne without fail, where the first to support the Australian national team way before any A-League concept and before Australia reached the world cup - where were you??? South Melbourne has and always will be "the people club" it does not shut it doors to anyone no matter what colour, race, or creed but most importantly it is a COMPETITIVE CLUB economically, physically through football and its junior development programme and through its dedicated and passionate support base. It can give the A-League the push it so desperately needs. Yes it has had it's ups and downs, name a club in any of our sporting codes that hasn't!! Don't even go there! There are ways to keep the good supporters in and the idiots well away. Melbourne is the capital of sports in Australia and all roads lead to Melbourne when it comes to excitement, passion, colour and competition. And to those who above mention the fact that South wear Blue and White: Liverpool wears red, has and always will, they are Catholic and they are an Irish Club who have supporters of all walks of life shall the EPL remove them because of that? Man United red, black and white, Catholic and Scottish/Irish heritage the most supported club in the world shall they be removed as well because of their heritage? Not only does the A-Leagur need clubs like South Melbourne, Melbourne Knights, Adelaide City, Marconi Fairfield and the likes, the A-League will benefit and the competition will be fierce and exciting similar to the English Premier League especially with the FFA Cup. It's small minded bias and idiots who have kept the game from growing in our great land nothing more. As Australians we are gutsy, competitive, fair, unrelenting and passionate, we are the greatest country on this planet even though we are young and still finding our way however, we've never backed down from a challenge and we always throw down where there is one so what have we got to loose by giving a club that's more than earns their respect a chance to show us what heave got? It's UN-AUSTRALIAN not too! Good Luck South Melbourne FC looking forward to seeing back where you belong, at the top!

I'd love to see South Melbourne let into the A-league. I still haven't decided whether I would leave Victory if SMFC got let in. I'm leaning towards sticking with Victory but jeeze it would be special to see SMFC back in the top tier. I think they bring more to the table in the short term but can understand why the FFA are keen on expansion into the unspoiled lands of Casey and Tazzie. South Melbourne have a 40 year lease on a 12,000 person stadium where they only need 500 people through the gates to break even. South Melbourne will provide an immediate windfall to the A-league, Casey & Tazzie will cost money untill they are well established (deep in AFL territory to boot).

The other thing also is that in 10 or 20 years time, people will struggle to remember the old NSL. As time goes by, it does allow South Melbourne and other ethnic clubs to re-establish and rebrand themselves.

Good comment Mark---the NPL is a very good fit for NSL ethnic clubs. Access to FFA cup competitions is very important and should be encouraged and perhaps in another 20 years time a fresh look as to where they're heading in Australian Football will be better defined---then perhaps they can be considered for promotion.

"At least the Melbourne Knights aren’t clamouring for admission to the A-League" Maybe not on their own, but they want skin in The Game. "Melbourne Knights have been approached by a Chinese consortium about a joint-venture A-League license. The Knights have agreed, in-principle, to commit $8.5m to the project. Knights vice-president Simun Samardzic confirmed that formal talks were taking place but refused to divulge the identity of the Chinese businessman." Details: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/football/melbourne-knights-approached-by-a-chinese-consortium-about-a-jointventure-aleague-license/news-story/30b0426186c7da51316a20d4b31ef06d

Agree. At some point jamesb existing clubs, if they meet criteria, will be preferred over newly minted ones. Especially if the number of A-League (and A2) needs to grow. How far into the future when maybe even an A3 is viable? Maybe never but not all clubs are going to spring up from a consortium... Perhaps not the 11th and 12th team, but South may be in the mix for 13-16th team.

At least the Melbourne Knights aren't clamouring for admission to the A-League. They've seemingly chosen to embrace their ethnic roots and accept that their future is as an NPL club, not in the top league in Australian football. I have no problem whatsoever with that.

Looking for football history, looking for success in football in this country ,look no further than South Melbourne FC. Here's their resume:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Melbourne_FC Here's a very apt quote about history. "“Letting go means to come to the realization that some people are a part of your history, but not a part of your destiny.” ― Steve Maraboli So where does South Melbourne fit into the picture, are they part of the football history of Australia, but not part of its destiny or are they both part of history and destiny, I suggest evidence points wholeheartedly to the latter given the above resume. The only reasons put forward to deny South Melbourne a spot in the A-League either through expansion or by way of P/R are based on race, not their football credentials on and off the park. I suggest that what is part of Australias football history ,but not its destiny is the ingrained racial prejudice some elements of Australia had and obviously still have towards the makeup of the NSL. The NSL failed for many reasons and race was just like the mole in "whack a Mole". its opponents saw the head(race) tried to give it a whack, but anybody in the know knew there was a whole lot of collapsing tunnels underneath, dug by various inept diggers.

At some point, those old ethnic NSL clubs need to come back to the fold either in the A League or " A League 2". Instead of getting rid of the likes of South Melbourne, Marconi etc, what the FFA should do is enable those clubs to become as mainstream as possible. Say in 10 or 20 years time, instead of been referred to as a Greek club, they could be transformed to an A League club with Greek origins, just like Brisbane Roar are with their Dutch origins If South Melbourne comes in, what happens to a club like Melbourne City who has struggled for identity?

"Hellas" is the nickname for the Greek national football team (Greece). If your are referring to Sth. Melbourne FC say so.

Are Melbourne Victory "W@gs United"? And the fear is the Greek portion of that will return to Hellas?

I'm looking forward to eventually having all the old NSL clubs (those that survived) back in the football pyramid with the chance of playing ALeague. A huge point of difference for Football in Australia vs the Crash & Carry Ball sports. Going to suburban clubs for the FFA Cup is a far more real football experience than going to centralised stadiums that have no attachment to clubs.

I agree Mark. It's all a sham. They're rubbing the FFA's nose in it. Same with the Melbourne Knights. Has part of the Croatian flag on their logo for crying out loud. They shouldn't even be allowed to compete in the FFA Cup.

There should be no room in the A-League for clubs whose primary point of identity/differentiation is ethnicity. As Mr Football likes to continue to remind us, South Melbourne can appoint a couple of non-Greek directors and put on a nice PR show about being an 'inclusive' club, but deep down they are the same old 'Hellas'. The FFA should do the decent thing and tell them straight up that their bid has no hope of success, rather than leading them down a path to nowhere to provide artificial competition for a couple of other preferred bids.

I'm from Brisbane and I feel disturbed for you after reading that tripe.

First 2 posts on this discussion are from people who don't watch ALeague & have no interest in the future success of ALeague. Battle is won when the haters can't stop talking about football.

I hope South get in to the HAL. The more rivalry the better the atmosphere will be. If SM are good enough on the own merit then I see no reason why they shouldn't get the same shot as any other club.

South Melbourne might have changed their name, but in their club colours, uniform and team emblem they make it patently clear that they are still a soccer club for Greeks. Are the A-League serious about shedding the ugly image of divisiveness and intolerance that plagued the National Soccer League. There's no place for a Greek team, with Greek colours, a Greek emblem, and an informally used Greek nickname -- in 2017. Just like there's no place for Melbourne Croatia in 2017. It would be no different to having a Bankstown Egypt, or Sunshine Sudan in the A-League. Promotes intolerance, exclusion, divisiveness. Move on A-League. Stop looking to the past. The Victory embrace ALL Victorians. City embrace ALL Victorians. Melbourne Croatia embrace only Croatians. South Melbourne Hellas embrace only Greeks. Get it?

Hellas will need to do a lot of schmoozing to get in, even if their bid is miles ahead of anyone else's. I wish them all the best, I hope they make it.