Long Awaited National Second Tier Finally Answers The Question: Which City Has The Best Greeks 

MONTY BENFICA | Amusements | CONTACT

The long awaited launch of Australian soccer’s national second division has finally freed the traditional ethnic soccer clubs from the confines of state based semi-professional football.

The opening match pits the iconic South Melbourne FC against Sydney’s former powerhouse, Sydney Olympic, a fixture that’s set to settle the age old question: which city really has the best Greeks.

Once the pinnacle of Australian soccer, the NSL (National Soccer League) was made up largely of teams that sprung up through the cultural clubs of Southern European migrants throughout the country, until the arrival of the more advertising friendly “A-league”.

“Yeah, for some reason Aussie advertisers weren’t too keen to get involved with a match between 4000 Serbs with flares and 4000 fired up Croatians in the early 90s during the height of ethnic tensions in Yugoslavia” explained Ante Horvat (56), canteen manager at Sydney Croatia FC.

“The atmosphere was absolutely electric though, wow” he added.

As the A-league continues to suffer from poor attendance, Football Australia have finally listened to the calls of Australian soccer fans in hopes of organically re-energising Australian soccer by bringing back the old school ethnic clubs to the national stage.

The “Australian Championship” brings together the best ethnic clubs (and a few ethnically ambiguous clubs like South Hobart FC) from each state league, into a single national competition that goes from October to December.

The hellenic showdown between Australia’s two biggest Greek clubs will be airing free on the home of ethnic soccer in this country, SBS.

“We are the face of Greek Australia, we birthed Ange Postecoglu, we have the biggest Greek population outside of Greece” explained Nikos Christodoulou (32), a die hard South Melbourne FC fan.

“The Greeks in Melbourne need to get over themselves, we are the oldest Greek community in this country! Some of you seem to forget that Sydney Olympic used to host the likes of Tim Cahill, Brett Emerton and Mark Bosnich!” said Dimitris Georgiou (28), a Sydney Olympic fan from Earlwood.

While neither Greek man was able to agree on a single contention, they were both happy that their teams were finally back at each other’s necks.