Soccer News Archive Update

There have been 111 new issues of Soccer News added to the Soccer News Archive. They have been sourced and compiled by taking photos of the collection housed at the MCC Library which was put together by Roy Hay. This takes the total of editions contained in the archive to 486.

The newly added issues are as follows:

1948 - July 10

1949 - May 7, May 21, May 28, June 4, June 11, June 18, June 25, July 2, July 16

1950 - April 22, May 13, June 17, July 1, July 8, July 15, July 22, September 16, September 23

1951 - April 7, April 14, July 7, August 4, September 8

1952 - June 7, June 9, June 21, July 26, August 16, September 6, September 20

1953 - April 4, April 11, May 2, May 9, May 23, June 27, July 4, July 11, July 18, August 22, August 29, September 2, September 5, September 19

1954 - April 3, April 10, April 17, May 1, May 22, May 26, June 5, June 12, June 19, July 24, August 7, August 14, August 28, September 4

1955 - May 7, May 28, June 25, July 23, August 20

1956 - March 31, April 7, April 14, April 21, May 5, May 19, May 26, June 2, June 9, June 16, June 23, June 30, July 7, July 21, August 4, August 11, August 18, Annual Review

1957 - July 13, July 27, August 10, August 17, August 31

1958 - April 5, April 12, May 10, May 17, June 7, June 21, July 5, July 12

1959 - April 4, April 11, May 9, June 13, July 25, August 8, September 19, September 26, October 10, October 17

1960 - April 23, May 7, June 25, August 13, September 24, October 1

As usual, any information on borrowing any Soccer News issues not found in this archive would be greatly appreaciated.

Evaporating History

Back in 2001 Roy Hay put out this appeal for old issues of Soccer News to aid in football research. It took up about an eighth of a page in Australian and British Soccer Weekly. I think I ended up going to the Oakleigh Public Library to makes photocopies (Pre-Officeworks days) of two issues that I had that he didn't to send to him. His collection can now be found at the MCC Library. I don't think the State Library would microfilm a collection which was so far from being complete.

What staggers, and infuriates, me is eighteen years later no governing body of the game has made any sort of concerted effort to make a similar appeal to redress the vanishing history of our game in this country. In these years how many more old newspapers, programmes, photos and yearbooks have ended up in landfill, many lost forever. We have competition histories that are incomplete and the resources to try and remedy that continue to disappear.

It makes me think of Dr Ian Syson's The Game That Never Happened. We have history rotting away, and only have ourselves to blame. Six paragraphs in ABSW in 2001, in one issue. Today we have social media. The FFA twitter account has 150,000 followers, Football Victoria over 11,000. There is a far greater platform now to appeal for historical documents by these well-staffed organisations, yet there has been absolutely nothing done. If they truly loved the game, these people would be ashamed.

                                      (Click on image to enlarge)

The Goal! Weekly Archive

I'm not exactly sure when, but at some point recently the Goal! Weekly website added the vast bulk of their back catalogue to an archive on their website called The Collection. I've now added a link to this collection to the Newspapers page on the History Documents section of the blog. The modern successor to Soccer News and Soccer Action rounds out the history of post-WWII soccer in Victoria.

The archive covers the golden era of the mid-2000's VPL. There were full page match reports and some sensational photos. Full, poster-sized team photos are also of great interest, as well as the full page Football Focus photo and interviews of a player. There is also the foundation of the A-League, and in later years the magazine is a virtual Football Record for the national competition.

From a history perspective, the Blast From The Past page with Roy Hay is unmissable. He along with former Soccer Action journalist Craig MacKenzie were the paper's veterans writers, along with George Stogiannou and with John Punshon, Steve Gray and Anita Milas on the cameras. They were later joined by Walter Pless, Mike Salter and Nat Adamopoulos as the paper went national. A whole crop of young media talent later got in on the act, like Sacha Pisani, Matthew Galea, Donald Sutherland, Matthew Naqvi, Teo Pellizzeri, Con Stamocostas, David Manuca, Matthew McNamara, Daniel Quinn, Brandon Galgano, Katie Lambeski and Shaun Moran.

It's great to have the paper available online. All hail the King, Costa Koutropoulos!

Soccer World, Week & News Plus A Spot Of Tennis

A few years ago I got a USB from leading historian Roy Hay which contained files of scans of old Soccer newspapers. The file was labelled the John Punshon-Tom Wall Collection. John is another of the great football historians, largely responsible for the Victorian state league section of OzFootball. I don't know who Tom Wall is.

The scans were a mixture of jpeg and pdf files, but each file was just a single page from the paper. They must have been able to scan full size A3 pages and are great quality. Having discovered sites that allow you to make pdf files of jpeg images, and merge single page pdfs into multi page documents, I can now add these papers to the various archives on the blog.

Soccer World

The Green Paper (not hard to figure out where this nickname came from) was Sydney's soccer newspaper from the 1960's to the early 1980's with Andrew Dettre and Lou Gautier chief contributors. Jim Cook was the longtime Melbourne correspondent.

If you scroll down the History Documents page, you will find the Soccer World archive.

The new editions added to my previous scans of 1970's issues are:

1961 September 8

1962 Septmber 21, 28 October 5

1963 August 9 November 8

1964 June 12

1966 October 7, 14

1967 June 9

1968 May 3 July 26 September 13 October 4, 11

1969 January 24 May 9 August 22 September 5, 12 October 3

Soccer Week

I've blogged about this mid-1970's Melbourne paper before. Now I can share the following editions, also found on the History Documents page:

1975 April 23 June 9, 18 July 9, 16 August 6

Soccer News

The old faithful Soccer News underwent several changes in the 1960's. Having begun as a small A5 booklet in the 1940's, it grew slightly larger in the late 1950's. In the 1960's it would go full newspaper size, also becoming Soccer Weekly in 1962 in an attempt to go national. Reverting back to Soccer News the following year, it became Soccer News & Soccer Life in 1966 and then Soccer Tennis News in 1968 with the legendary Harry Hopman involved in the tennis section, again reverting back to Soccer News for 1969.

Some of the news scans are missing pages, but I've added them to the archive as there may be information someone is after and something is better than nothing. The Soccer News Archive now has had the following added to it:

1962 August 30

1963 April 11 October 3

1964 February 27 March 26 April 2, 16, 23 May 21 June 25 July 30 August 27 September 17
         October 15 November 5

1965 March 12 May 27 September 9

1966 June 2 August 11

1967 April 6 June 8 and better versions of June 15, 22 & 29

1968 April 25 May 16 June 27 August 1

1969 May 22

A Version of History

This is the blog post I've had the most difficulty in writing, and it's not just because the last time I did a book review was back at school in the late 1980's. I've struggled with how to deal with some things from a book which I largely admired and is clearly a work of great significance. 

Roy Hay and Bill Murray's A History of Football in Australia: A Game of Two Halves is certainly a grand undertaking. A game with a poorly recorded history (particularly from it's own governing bodies) clouded with so many diverging political issues, it was never going to be an easy task to sum it all up in a manner that would satisfy everyone.

The chapter on the women's game towards the conclusion is a strong one. It's a lighter read than the heavy opening to the book which deals with the how the various forms of football were codified in the late nineteenth century. Once over this necessary introduction, the book soon delves into the various struggles of the game as it spread across the colonies. The hindrance of financial depressions and World Wars give way to migrant boom times and the expulsion from FIFA. 

The book is tremendously well-researched, as one would expect from two fine academics. There are hundreds of notations. It touches on the "Code Wars" without becoming bogged down in them, which is no mean feat.

There are some great insights into the numerous breakaways from previous governing bodies and the early World Cup qualification campaigns. Throughout the book, there are some amazing photographs which really capture their time perfectly.   

A famous quote, most often attributed to Winston Churchill, is that "History is written by the victors". With that in mind it is noteworthy that the Foreword of this book is written by Frank Lowy AC, Chairman of Football Federation Australia.  

Does this mean there is a lack of balance and objectivity in sections of the book later on? One can certainly raise a few questions. In the chapter relating to the NSL it is noted that "The 1987 season began in controversy when Frank Lowy, who had been at loggerheads with the ASF about the direction the game was taking, pulled Sydney City Hakoah out of the league after the first round". It does not go on to expand on how destabilising the action was to the competition, or treat the act of spite (later it is written he "had learned and come to despise Australian soccer politics") in the same disdain later expressed at how Clive Palmer's ownership of Gold Coast United would come to an end.

Whilst much is written about the Crawford Report, no mention is made of critical elements to it yet to be implemented. Similarly whilst it is explained how the the voting structures for the State Federations were reformed to take power from top tier clubs and share it with bodies representing juniors, women's teams and refereeing bodies, little is mentioned of how the FFA no longer seems to have any elections.

The former Chairman of Soccer Australia, David Hill, though described as divisive is also portrayed rather favourably. In relation to the infamous draw with Iran which saw Australia fail to qualify for the 1998 World Cup, Terry Venables is labelled as being out-coached on several occasions. To be critical of the coach, should one be as critical of the man who appointed him? When Venables is described as erring in not bringing on Milan Ivanovic to try and hold the lead at 2-0, I can't help but think of Zoran Matic, Ivanovic's highly successful club coach at Adelaide City. The Serb Matic would have stood a better chance of being appointed Socceroos coach under any number of Croats that may have been Chairman than he did from getting the job from the famously Anglophile Hill.

Perhaps I'm making too much of these issues, but with this book likely to be the first foray into the extended history of the game in this country for many readers, it does need to be pointed out that it is just a version of history and that being definitive on such as subject is probably impossible.

Does it deserve to sit atop the pile of books about the game in Australia? It's a question, like many aspects of the sport here, that is a real political football.

Interesting Expressions

With Expressions of Interest (EOI) for the National Premier League Victoria closing at the end of the week, there has been plenty of movement at the station.

Melbourne Knights Press Release

First came this press release from the Melbourne Knights about the decision of their members at an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) to not submit an EOI. How many other clubs have even put this decision to an EGM yet?

The FFV website today issued a reminder that interested parties have until 5 pm on Friday to submit their EOI.

FFV News Update

There is nothing on the FFV website at all pertaining to a query in the last paragraph of the press release, in which "The Melbourne Knights calls upon Football Federation Victoria to immediately release the criteria for the so-called 'community leagues' so that the club, and others like it, may prepare to the fullest for the 2014 season." I hope no one is holding their breath, because the vast and expensive FFV resources are being devoted solely to the NPLV and the grassroots can wither and die for all they care.

Mfootball - Green Gully Exclusive

Next cab off the rank to announce they don't want a bar of the NPLV is Green Gully. When the most financially stable club in the state won't take the risk on the viability of the FFV's brainchild, it is time to phone Houston, for we have a problem.

To get everyone in the mood for where we may currently stand in history, have a look at this if you have the time:

MARMARAS’ OYSTER OR SEAMONDS’ BABY: THE FORMATION OF THE VICTORIAN SOCCER FEDERATION, 1956-64

The great Roy Hay covers the split that lead to the foundation of the VSF. Are there any lessons to be learned from history?