The Romans Were Here!

In 1966 Italian Serie A giants AS Roma were brought to Australia for an eight game tour by the tobacco company W.D. & H.O. Wills. They were led on the tour by Guido Masetti, goalkeeper in their only championship win to that point in 1941-42, as well as having had stints as manager in 1943-45, 1950-51 and 1956-57.

The company produced the following promotional film of the tour, which as well as including some travel features (a visit to a VFL footy game, boating in Sydney Harbour) contains footage from four of the games played. It's a fabulous slice of not just football history, but of Australia at the time.

Roma had won the Coppa Italia in 1964, having captured the Inter-City Fairs Cup (later UEFA Cup) in 1961. They were coming off an eighth place in the 1965-66 season, finishing fourteen points behind champions Internazionale, and four places above local rivals Lazio. The touring side featured Giacomo Losi, one of the inaugural eleven inductees into the club's Hall of Fame when it was established in 2012.

Details of the games featured in the film:

Sunday June 19, 1966.
At Olympic Park (Crowd: 15694)
Referee: Geoff Harrison

Victoria 0 AS Roma 1 (Francesconi 79')

Victoria: J.Young, N.Shepherd, J.O'Neill, W.Janczyk, B.Rice, F.Micic, A.Abonyi (T.Roseweir), B.Vojtek (S.Jones), K.Kowalec, J.Anderson, H.McMeechan. Coach: Wieslaw Janczyk
AS Roma: F.Cudicini, G.Tomasin, M.Ardizzon, F.Capelli, G.Losi, S.Carpenesi, L.Leonardi, G.Tamborini, F.Francesconi, A.Spanio, F.Enzo. (V.Benitez on 46') Coach: Guido Masetti

Saturday June 4, 1966
At Newcastle Sports Ground (Crowd: 14931)
Referee: George Muir

Northern New South Wales 1 (Morrow) AS Roma 4 (Benitez 3, Francesconi)

Northern New South Wales: J.Dorman, R.Bullen (R.Reynolds 25'), C.Curran, R.Cameron, T.Garrett, R.Lloyd, B.Morrow, A.Oldham, R.Baartz, D.Wright, K.Twidle.
AS Roma: A.Ginulfi, G.Tomasin, A.Sensible, F.Capelli, G.Losi, S.Carpanesi, L.Leonardi, V.Benitez, R.Da Silva, F.Francesconi, F.Enzo (G.Tamborini). Coach: Guido Masetti

Saturday June 11, 1966
At the Brisbane Exhibition Ground (Crowd: 7800)
Referee: Vince Dobinson

Queensland 0 AS Roma 6 (Francesconi 2, Da Silva 2, Leonardi, Benitez)

Queensland: R.Kelly, W.Haigh, G.Kathage, M.Jackson, M.Hosie, L.Petie (B.Allison), G.McMillan, R.Richards, E.Pattison, R.Edmunds, K.Jones. Coach: George Pagan
AS Roma: A.Ginulfi, G.Tomasin, A.Sensible, G.Tamborini, G.Losi, S.Carpanesi, L.Leonardi, V.Benitez, R.Da Silva, F.Francesconi, F.Enzo. Coach: Guido Masetti

Monday June 13, 1966
At the Sydney Showgrounds (Crowd: 5800)
Referee: Roger Lamb

Australia 1 (Morrow 67') AS Roma 1 (Tamborini 88')

Australia: B.Rorke, T.Edwards, G.Nuttall, P.Hughes, B.Rice, J.,Watkiss, B.Morrow, R.Campana, J.Giacometti, D.Walsh, D.Holden. Coach: Joe Marston
AS Roma: F.Cuducini, G.Tomasin, M.Ardizzon, F.Capelli, G.Losi, S.Carpanesi, L.Leonardi (A.Sensible), V.Benitez, R.Da Silva, G.Tamborini, F.Francesconi. Coach: Guido Masetti

Programmes

New South Wales v AS Roma - June 5

Details of the full tour:

May 29   Victoria 2 (Gajda, Micic) AS Roma 4 (Spanio 2, Francesconi, Benitez)
June 4   Northern New South Wales 1 (Morrow) AS Roma 4 (Benitez 3, Francesconi)
June 5   New South Wales (Campana) AS Roma 2 (Leonardi, Da Silva)
June 11   Queensland 0 AS Roma 6 (Francesconi 2, Da Silva 2, Leonardi, Benitez)
June 13   Australia 1 (Morrow) AS Roma 1 (Tamborini)
June 19   Victoria 0 AS Roma 1 (Francesconi)
June 25   South Australia 0 AS Roma 3 (Tamborini, Francesconi, Da Silva)
July 3   Western Australia 2 (Reid, Lukcszek) AS Roma 4 (Da Silva 2, Carpenesi, O.G.)

Action from the May 29th game against Victoria.

                                          (Click on images to enlarge)

Where's The History?

Gr8 meeting & lunch with members of @footballvic Historical Commitee. Important our proud history is continuously celebrated & preserved ⚽️ pic.twitter.com/xbO8a1ByrZ

— Anthony Grima (@anthonygrima) December 7, 2016

Well, where do you start with this? Let's go to the last line "Important our proud history is continuously celebrated & preserved". This is from the organisation that removed the history tab from it's website after it was shown to have contained a few lies.

Let's try a few scenarios to see how well history has been preserved by the FFV.

Mack Heath (no relation to the great Eric) has stepped up to run his local club's website. The history section is pretty flimsy, so he's decided to do some research to flesh it out a bit. He's not sure the few pennants on the clubroom walls are everything the club has won, as there's been a ground change and break-ins over the years. So he heads to the FFV website to go through all the previous final tables over the course of the club's history:

The tables only go back to 2012 and the club was founded well before then.

Can Mack find the final tables for the senior team over the course of it's history on the FFV website? NO

Can Mack find, in the absence of tables, a list of champions for all senior, reserves, women's and junior leagues over the years on the FFV website? NO

Mack asks around and finds out the VSF Yearbook which came out until the year 2000 had all the final tables and award winners in it.

Can Mack find a scanned collection of VSF Yearbooks on the FFV website? NO

Does the FFV have a full collection of VSF Yearbooks in it's possession that Mack can come in and have a look at? NO

Mack discovers that in recent years the information he is seeking is usually found in the FFV Annual Report. This is only available online on the FFV website from 2007 onward though.

Can Mack get this information for between 2001-2006 from the FFV? NO

Jenny Diver is doing a school assignment, and would like to write about her grandfather who she's been told (sadly, he is no longer with us) was a top player in his day and even played for the Victorian state team in games against Manchester United and Roma in the 1960's.

Jenny gets on the FFV website to check out the history of the Victorian state soccer team.

Can Jenny find a list of games played by the Victorian state soccer team? NO

Can Jenny find a list of players "capped" for the Victorian state soccer team and how many games they played? NO

Can Jenny find any footage of the glory days of the Victorian state soccer team on the FFV's Youtube channel? NO

The club Louie Miller is involved with has just had it's home ground renovated by the council. The committee has commissioned him to get a flash looking honours board made for the new clubrooms. He's even been given full list of club Best and Fairest winners over the years from one of the old timers. He would like to add the names of those that have won League Best and Fairest Awards, and League Golden Boots over the years to the honours board.

Louie gets on the FFV website looking for the missing information. Can Louie find a complete list of FFV Player Award winners over the years on the website? NO

Can Louie find a list of League Top Goalscorers since they started to be recorded in the early 1980's anywhere on the FFV website? NO

Lotte Lenya writes for a football website. She's doing a piece on a leading club's new coach, who had a long career playing in the VSL and VPL through the 1980's and 1990's.

Can Lotte get on the FFV's results service to find team line-ups from that era? NO

She can't find a line up to click on his name to bring up his history of which clubs he played for and for how many games. Unlike other leagues and other sports, there is no record of who has played the most games in Victoria's top tier. The FFV frequently changes results service providers, and it seems we are lucky if they bother making sure all the information is correctly added in the present. Maintaining a working database of top tier results and line-ups is not a concern to them.

Some of the above information can be found in a partly complete set of VSF Yearbooks at the MCC Library. That the years between 2001-2006 are not online is appalling given it's hardly ancient history.

The FFV loves putting out propaganda, but until a few of the NO's above can become a YES it needs to stop patting itself on the back and maybe achieve something in regards to preserving history that can be easily accessible to everyone.

Don't take this as an attack on the FFV Historical Committee. A lot of the information missing is stuff the FFV should already have. If the FFV thinks the names of people who have won awards, of clubs that have won championships don't deserve to be recorded there's not much we can do. They just shouldn't expect us to swallow their bullshit comments on their token efforts in preserving history.

Final tables/champions, award winners and state representative honours, these should be the cornerstones we build our history on. I'm not seeing any evidence that this is happening to warrant any boasting. If they are so proud of our history, where is it?

Just The Facts Ma'am - Part 1

The catchphrase "Just the facts, ma'am" is often attributed to the character Sgt. Joe Friday of pioneering U.S. television series Dragnet. The fact is, he never uttered those words. He would sometimes state "All we want are the facts, ma'am" or "All we know are the facts, ma'am" but it was a parody record by satirist Stan Freberg that led to the character having the catchphrase assigned to him. The movie L.A. Confidential features a television show called Badge of Honour, based on Dragnet, who's leading character uses the actual "Just the facts, ma'am" phrase.

So sometimes what is assumed to be a fact, really isn't. Myths can be formed from slight errors, but also deliberate lies can also come to be accepted as fact. There are many instances of both occurring in Australian football.

For many years, the wikipedia entry for goalkeeper Michael Turnbull was one of the great pieces of Australian fiction. Claiming almost 50 senior Socceroos caps, and more than that many first team appearances in the Serie A for Roma, the entry was taken as fact by ignorant journalists who pushed a story that he had knocked back a move to the Budesliga in late 2014. The entry had been toned down by the time he gained notoriety for embellishing his playing career on the "reality" tv series The Bachelorette. It's an example how falsehoods come into existence and can be accepted as truths, and why lazy media should be held to account.

Emile Damey

Former Nunawading City player Emile Damey gained some media exposure last year when he linked up with the Liberian national team for a training camp. This included a game, in which he scored, that the author of his wikipedia entry touts as his international debut.

                                               (Click on all images to enlarge)

Now I'm not sure what the status of the game against Morocco was, but neither FIFA for the Liberian FA seemed to recognise it as a full international.

In the last few days that entry has been changed to note the game was against the Moroccan Under 23 team. His goals and appearances record for Nunawading City has also been amended. From 25 games and 10 goals across 2015-16 it now claims 13 games for 7 goals in 2015 and 19 games for 3 goals in 2016. The actual truth - who knows but I wouldn't trust that wikipedia page.

Sadly, some have.

http://www.fourfourtwo.com.au/news/dream-continues-after-african-adventure-437160

"Liberia were beaten by Tunisia in their final qualifying game with Damey failing to feature, however he did play in a friendly against Morocco, scoring with his first touch."

Reading that one would assume the friendly was a full International. It wasn't. Morocco's actual national team played a friendly the following day, in Albania. It's an important clarification that needed to be made, the fact that it wasn't makes you question the motives of those that published it.

South Melbourne

South Melbourne certainly has a long and storied history. Founded in 1959 as South Melbourne Hellas the club has won numerous titles in National and State competitions and represented Australia on the world stage at the World Club Cup.

In 2009 the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) awarded South Melbourne the title of Oceania Club of the Century and presented them with this trophy:

The club, and others, have since referred to this award as if it was issued by FIFA.

http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/labor-government-secures-south-melbournes-future-at-lakeside-stadium/

FIFA only issued one award for Club of the Century, to Real Madrid in December 2000. Real were presented with this trophy:

Real Madrid also picked up a trophy from the IFFHS in 2009 for European Club of the Century. Penarol, Asante Kotoko, Al-Hilal and Saprissa also collected IFFHS awarded for their respective Confederational Clubs of the Century. 

Now undoubtedly a FIFA award is more prestigious than an IFFHS one, simply because most people would ask "Who?" if you brought up IFFHS while with FIFA they would know who you were talking about. Looking at the South Melbourne trophy it's clear to see it's an IFFHS one given the number of times/panels IFFHS appears on it.

For a club which rightly demands more respect for Australian football's past, it could do without the embellishment. When you play around with history you diminish it's credibility, and that does the game no favours.