South Melbourne FC has recently been the talk of football in Australia since the conclusion of the A-League season. Surprisingly they weren’t even in it.

With interest having been recently expressed to acquire 100% of the Melbourne Heart licence and links to bailing out the cash-strapped Central Coast Mariners, it is clear South Melbourne FC want to be a part of the competition.

This isn’t the first time South Melbourne FC had expressed interest in joining our A-League either, for in 2007-2008 they sent a formal letter of interest and a lodged application to become the second Melbourne licence as part of the Southern Cross consortium.

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It would be later announced that Melbourne Heart FC would become Melbourne’s second football club.

Recently one of our Roar experts posed this question ‘Is the A-League ready for South Melbourne?’

The topic while contentious, received quite an overwhelming response. Arguments raged both for and against while the main sticking point was the fact they are an ‘ethnic club.’

The A-League had intentionally moved away from clubs such as South Melbourne in an effort to prevent a repeat of ethnic tensions and crowd violence between clubs that occurred in the National Soccer League.

I waged in on the debate and had to do a bit of research myself as I had never experienced the former National Soccer League days.

I was torn as to whether or not their inclusion to our League would be beneficial or detrimental.



I ultimately left it to those more experienced to argue it out.

Firstly, who is South Melbourne FC (Hellas)?

In late 1959, South Melbourne was formed with the amalgamation of Hellenic and Yarra Park Ajas (Ajax). However the key problem for the new South Melbourne club was they had no football ground. This led to them linking with South Melbourne United, which played at Middle Park.

The new club would be named South Melbourne Hellas (Latin term – the land of the Greeks) thanks to its large Greek Australian supporter base – the club name associated for the majority of its 50 years.

They are the most successful Australian domestic football club having won four Championships, five Premierships and participated in a total of seven grand finals.

They were also voted the Australian Club of the decade for the 1990s.

South Melbourne were blessed with the fact that so many of their talented and enthralling players were able to represent Australia at the highest level.

Some of which had and are now associated with the A-League: Ange Postecoglou, Eugene Galekovic, Damien Mori, Simon Colosimo, Kevin Muscat, Michael Valkanis, Danny Allsopp and Memhet Durakovic just to name a few.



South Melbourne United was the oldest of the three clubs to amalgamate, having history date back to the early 1900s.

They were not viewed as an ethnic club and although being the oldest, they had never achieved tremendous success with their most successful season being in 1958: second in Victorian Division 1.

This union between Hellenic, Yarra Park and South Melbourne United yielded not only Middle Park and a number of classy players, but it also gave the new club a strong junior section, as South Melbourne United had been fielding juniors since the mid 1950s and had won the 1957 Under-15 championships.

Ultimately this union would lead South Melbourne Hellas to go on and create Australian football history.

Our latest inclusion into the A-League from Western Sydney, were named the Wanderers to pay homage to the ‘Wanderers,’ the first registered association football club in Australia, who played in the area of Western Sydney in 1880.

With former National Soccer League clubs such as Marconi Stallions, Parramatta Power, Blacktown City, APIA Leichardt, Sydney United and Western Suburbs all residing or having affiliation to Western Sydney, the Wanderers were created to give Western Sydney the football club it had been waiting for.

Breaking down the cultural differences and ethnic backgrounds has been witnessed through the expansion of the Wanderers and quite regularly people make reference to the diversity of supporters that reside in Western Sydney and their support of the Wanderers.

Ultimately the Western Sydney region has been united and Football Federation Australia deserve a pat on the back: despite the main reasons the club originally set up (demise of Gold Coast United).



Football Federation Australia was very cautious in selecting who was to be part of the new A-League. They decided upon a ‘one city – one team’ principle in order to protect the initial development of the foundation clubs.

Towards the end of the National Soccer League, reigning Victorian club Melbourne Knights made a bid to change their name to Melbourne United.

The club was required to drop their Croatian ethnic identity as the FFA did not want a repeat of the old NSL days where racial and ethnic tensions resided and their disputes turned to violence.

The club proposed to play a portion of games at Olympic Park Stadium and possibly at South Melbourne’s home ground Lakeside Stadium. The bid failed and the Knights kept their name and now play in the Victorian Premier League.

FFA had made it clear their stance on expansion and unless former NSL teams wanted in, they would have to bow down in order to achieve the possibility of expansion.

Melbourne Knights had the right idea, for the proposed Melbourne United could have been a tremendous success like the Western Sydney Wanderers.

It is clear that South Melbourne FC have a strong case for possible expansion into the A-League. With such history how could you deny them? Are they still an ethnic club and if inclusion were to occur would we ultimately see a repeat of the old NSL days?

With the FFA having made their intentions clear, perhaps a chance to do the Wanderers all over again but in South Melbourne may provide an opportunity for the racial and ethnic backgrounds to become ‘United’ and see the successes of the Wanderers become reminiscent once again?



Without the need for South Melbourne to take over Heart or seek expansion, maybe South Melbourne United FC would be an easier and more successful alternative.

Over to you, FFA.