Milos Lujic of South Melbourne,playing at their Lakeside stadium in inner Melbourne.Credit:AAP
South people acknowledge that the club has a Greek heritage,but are adamant they have widened their supporter base and image to reflect present-day multicultural Australia.
Their bid leaders say they are supported by 47 clubs in the region,including big-name National Premier League rivals and FFA Cup semi-finalists Bentleigh Greens,and point to links with some of Victoria's best-known schools who are part of its school soccer coaching program.
"Our football pedigree is unrivalled in Australian football,"says South chairman Bill Papastergiadis.
"We had huge derby fixtures against our traditional National Soccer League rivals Heidelberg United and Bentleigh Greens in the National Premier League era. These two clubs together with 45 others and eight high-profile schools have pledged their support for South to be in an expanded A-league."
South Melbourne see their big strength as the fact that they are an actual club rather than a new entity striving to carve out an identity.
Perhaps their proudest moment was when they represented Australia and the Oceania region in the Club World Championship in 2000. South Melbourne are still the only Australian club to play a European club in a competitive fixture,when they faced Manchester United in Rio's Maracana Stadium in that tournament.
South Melbourne's 40-year lease on Lakeside Stadium presents not only a financially profitable infrastructure solution but a ready-to-play offering.
The venue currently hosts W-League fixtures and has served as the training location for touring teams such as Juventus,AS Roma,and national teams including China,Brazil,Japan and the Matildas.
"Our vision is to offer our fans a 365-day football experience. Lakeside Stadium resides within the Albert Park precinct boasting 2 million visitors a year and has easy links to public transport and the new $11 billion Metro Tunnel,"says Papastergiadis.
"Our fan-accessible social club and futsal centre are housed within the stadium. We are proud of our infrastructure and partnerships with key stakeholders such as the Victorian Institute of Sport whose facilities our players have access to.
"South's current and future target market is the football players,families and fans to the south southeast of Melbourne,steering clear from the Melbourne Victory and City heartland to the east,north and west of Melbourne.
"As much as South wants to be in the A-League,the A-League needs South."– Michael Lynch
The West is an attitude,not just a place. So says Steve Horvat,the former Socceroo central defender and a public face of the Western Melbourne bid team.
Feisty,tough,self-reliant,people who get things done against the odds. That,says the Western Melbourne team,is"an attitude people want to identify with no matter where they live in Australia".
The trump card for the Western Melbourne bid is their preparedness to build a stadium using $150 million of privately sourced money.
Critics have claimed that government cash will be used in other ways to support their bid – with attendant infrastructure around the region – but the fact that this group can publicly proclaim it will finance its own venue is a powerful argument for it to garner support from taxpayers who feel that too much public money is already spent on sporting amenities.
An artist's impression of the potential new stadium west of Melbourne.Credit:Western Melbourne Group
"Western Melbourne ... will build something that has never been done in Football at an A-League or W-League level. Our game will for the first time own its own stadium and facilities. It is at the very foundation of everything we aspire to be,"Horvat says.
"We will fund the entire construction with private investment so that government money can be used where it is needed most,for the community clubs that have girls and boys missing out on playing every year because of a lack of grounds and facilities. It is a priority and will ensure we continue to have a pathway for our future Matildas and Socceroos."
The stadium capacity will be between 15,000-18,000 depending on certain aspects of design and construction and the budget is $150 million.
The bid team has not identified the companies or individuals behind the financing save to say they are all sourced from Australia.
It also has local authorities backing in one of the fastest growing regions in Australia.
"Investors are all local funds. At this stage they need to remain confidential but FFA and Wyndham Council have been provided with the guaranteed funding of the project,"Horvat says.
"Every week,we read and see on our screens stories about poor playing surfaces,unfair scheduling due to other events and sports,active areas not treated with the support and respect,poor sightlines for football ... we could go on.
"Our vision is to not be another problem created by a government-owned stadium,but a solution for our sport."
Western Melbourne would have"total control of all of our stadium,our playing surface,our scheduling and our sightlines – we will be able to create a match-day experience unlike any other in this country. We have also guaranteed council that there will be ample grounds and areas for community use,"Horvat says,addressing some of the other criteria requiring community support.
"Everyone involved in making decisions for this bid has a history steeped in our game. It runs in our blood. We talk about it every day and we promise to make every decision for the good of the game."– Michael Lynch
Team 11,the A-League bid based on the fast-growing south-east corner of Melbourne,was the first would-be club to get into the public domain and push its vision of an opportunity for soccer to put a stake in virgin territory.
The south-east of Victoria – and its 1.7 million inhabitants – gives Team 11 the chance to tick plenty of the requisite boxes:diverse community,local authority support,and existing transport infrastructure in a growing region.
What it doesn't have – yet – is government commitment to fund a new stadium.
It would seem that FFA is waiting for the Victorian government to indicate that it will build an arena adjacent to Dandenong Station,while the government is waiting for FFA to confirm that Team 11 will be chosen before freeing up the purse strings.
An artist's impression of the potential new stadium in Dandenong.Credit:Team 11 bid
The group has attracted a number of well-known sporting investors,like Melbourne Cup-winning owner Gerry Ryan,who has backed soccer,rugby league and cycling in the past,and they lean heavily on the multicultural mix in the region to back its case.
"With 160 nationalities represented and more than 63 per cent of its residents born overseas,this is fertile ground for a football club to be based. Unashamedly the state government has been asked for assistance with the stadium,for this is a development that would have widespread economic and social benefits,"says Team 11 project officer Matt Windley.
"Stadium construction will create more than 1500 jobs and pump an additional $114 million into the south-east economy annually. Team 11 will run a community foundation at the venue,and other sports and events would be welcome.
"If we are accepted before Dandenong Stadium is built we would play at the 10,000-capacity Casey Fields for the first two seasons.
"Yes,it is primarily an AFL ground but it is currently the premier sporting facility in our region."
Team 11 believe that their bid will not cannibalise crowds at Melbourne City or Melbourne Victory because both play in the city at AAMI Park,which is too far away for most residents of the south-east to travel.
"Research tells us the reason why people in the far south-east are not engaging meaningfully with Melbourne Victory or Melbourne City is because distance to the city is too prohibitive,"says Windley.
"The bid highlights the opportunity for Football Federation Australia to leave a lasting legacy for the sport in what is one of the fastest growing corridors in the country."
Team 11 claims the backing of more than 55 local clubs that have worked hand in hand on the project along with Greater Dandenong,the City of Casey and Cardinia Shire for almost two years. Nine surrounding councils are also supporters.
"Through all these pillars – local councils,clubs and businesses – everything keeps coming back to community. It will be the south-east against the world,"Windley jokes.
– Michael Lynch
There will soon be an airport there,a university,a hospital,an estimated million more citizens and potentially,a new A-League team. The joint Macarthur-South West Sydney bid rides the coat tails of one of the biggest waves of population growth in Australia in the heaving stretch from Liverpool to Campbelltown.
After beginning as two separate bids from within the same catchment area,Macarthur and South West Sydney joined forces to boost their chances of gaining entrance into the A-League.
Macarthur are led by the Campbelltown Council,local National Premier League side Macarthur Rams and financed by property developer Lang Walker. South West Sydney are led by Southern Districts football director Gino Marra,former Sydney United chief Sam Krslovic and heavily financed by a local consortium of wealthy business owners.
Convenience and mutual objectives brought the two parties together and their allegiance is one that isn't short on a dollar.
Already they've shown signs of flexing their financial muscle in their application process,vowing to redevelop Campbelltown Stadium to a soccer purpose,all-seated arena over a multi-staged renovation process.
The venue is set to be their permanent home ground while they've flagged having a home training base in greater Liverpool,building a centre of excellence and club house further north from their home stadium.
That capital is underpinning their recruitment already,and it's understood the bid is already in negotiations to sign Mile Jedinak as their inaugural marquee with the former Socceroos captain close with several of the bid members and eager to return home before hanging up his boots.
They are already in discussions with prospective coaches and have preliminary kit designs in place,favoured to be black and white.
The bid has plenty of strength behind it and valid reasons for its acceptance into the A-League,however it's not without its challenges either.
While it's based in Lucy Turnbull's plan for a third CBD in the city,it's definitely a pitch for the future. There are concerns over a lack of population density in the short term and there isn't the largest pool of registered players and young footballers in the Macarthur region.
It means their immediate base will draw heavily from suburbs further north,causing some tension with their could-be rivals. Their encroachment in the region,in particularly the Liverpool region,has put Western Sydney Wanderers on red alert over the prospect of having another side close to their base in Parramatta.
Macarthur-South West Sydney believe there is enough diversity and population to sustain two teams,particular when the south west corridor experiences its forecasted population growth.
Privately,the Wanderers have lobbied against their entrance while Sydney FC actively support a team in the planned third CBD of the city.– Dominic Bossi
Southern Expansion are hoping to tap into the next booming heartland.
With more registered players than anywhere else in the country,the bid is pitched to sit on top the largest catchment of young players they claim is untapped.
The bid is based across three main regions in southern Sydney and the south coast,aiming to call Kogarah,Sutherland and Wollongong home in some sense.
It's most likely their permanent base will be in the Sutherland Shire and they will play a majority of games out of Shark Park in the short to medium term before building their own purpose-built stadium.
The bid itself is one of the more public. It was first spearheaded by the late Les Murray as well as media personality and former Socceroo captain Craig Foster,and by Hong Kong-listed property development group JiaYuan,via their Australian subsidiary,Boyuan.
Public face:Craig Foster (right).Credit:Robert Peet
Former NSW premier Morris Iemma is their chairman and former PCYC chief Chris Gardiner is their chief executive.
Its bid proposal will waive registration fees for all youth players,and has outlined plans to build a centre of excellence with an initial training base in Menai.
Foster will be the technical director of the bid and has travelled extensively in Europe to help form the basis of their program from some of the biggest clubs in the world.
Southern Expansion has forged strong links with Indigenous soccer,partnering with the John Moriarty Football program,and will go one step further in tying the club's image with the Dharawal nation whose borders it shares with its own catchment area.
There's a proposal in place to use the Dharawal name and images in the club's logo while there's a chance Southern Expansion will also play in black and white as an homage to the nearby Balgownie Rangers – believed to be Australia's oldest continuous football club.
Southern Expansion started this year's expansion process immediately as one of the leaders of the pack,having already been up and running as a bid for 12 months.
However,their application has been marred with public spats and a political turf war with Sydney FC. The Sky Blues boast one third of their members from the area Southern Expansion hopes to enter and have junior development partnerships with associations,clubs and schools south of the airport.
Sydney are concerned a new team in the region would cannibalise their market and are disdainful of Southern Expansion,having lobbied heavily publicly and privately against the bid's inclusion in the A-League.
NPL club Wollongong Wolves have also publicly voiced their opposition to Southern Expansion.
Already,the bid's existence has caused a wedge in Australian soccer politics that could lead FFA to be hesitant to anoint a franchise that would make one of the A-League's biggest clubs their strongest enemy.
Whether that would be a small price to place a wealthy club aiming to become a refinery for the biggest player pool in the country will be known on December 12.- Dominic Bossi