Welcome!

By registering with us, you'll be able to discuss, share and private message with other members of our community.

Sign Up Now!

Expansion Thread 🪜

LFC said:
its still a outlet for them better than nothing and in time who knows they start a club one day.
We have Chinese clubs now through our comps (teens/AA) incl in O55 haha
Click to expand...
Sure matey, but considering there are 50 x more Indians migrants here than Italians, Greeks, Yugos and Maltese combined, you would think they would have hundreds of clubs if they cared about soccer. The have hundreds of local cricket clubs that compete in locals districts and leagues.
 
Somebloke said:
I have been thinking about this a bit after going to a demographics thing for work. It was a whole bunch of data the govt and other research has learnt about community and social engagement in Oz.

Bascically Australia’s migration strategy until recently grew community organisations and institutions and grew the country’s social capital. Everything from ethnic social clubs, churches and sporting groups etc. The various ethnic based teams were a good example of this. However something in the last few years has changed. Now this is no longer happening, particularly since Covid.

There are still those migrants out there building community and social institutions but they are now dwarfed by a huge cohort of young single migrants with no kids who are only here temporarily (on short term visas) and have much less investment socially. (More Indians have come in the last five years than Greeks and Italians in a century).

Unlike migrants of old who kissed Nonna goodbye to start a new life, they are digitally connected back home and thus are not invested in building social capital here in the same way migrants of the past were. This is creating what they are calling desocialisation.

Something like a quarter of young adults in Oz are now in this short term migrant category and it’s much higher in major cities. Who is gonna invest in supporting a local team let alone contribute to a club if your mentality is that you are here for a couple of years?

Long story short, I went away thinking how no one is talking about this in football. Most interestingly they said Australian born people (of any ethnicity) are essentially now more likely to build social capital than migrants now, A huge change with big implications for football.
Click to expand...
Would say this is not just statistically but also anecdotally accurate.

In my line of work I interact with lots of new arrivals. Most of the new wave of Italian migrants as you say come as individuals as opposed to as part of a family group which was the case in the last big wave. They are still hyper connected to goings on back home, talk to friends and family every day due to the technology available now. Even 15-20 years ago phone calls to the family back in the motherland were occasions due to the cost of international calls etc. many of them do end up staying and starting families here, but many also work and live here for a few years and then end up going home after. As mentioned, it’s quite hard to get them into domestic Australian soccer as they can just continue to easily follow their Italian clubs through steaming services etc. back in the day when many of the ethnic clubs were formed if you wanted to watch soccer you had to physically go to a game and adopt a club. When they do end up staying and setting up shop long term they do often start to take more of an interest in the local game, particular if they have kids who end up playing

As a side note this more recent wave has injected new blood into the community. You see it with newer businesses and restaurants/at festivals etc. very interesting dynamic for example at the Leichhardt Italian festa last year where you have 3rd gen Italian Australian youth in trackies rubbing shoulders with fresh off the boaters the same age who have only been here a year or two

Re the subcontinental migrants; many of them do like soccer, especially the Nepalese who are now coming in big numbers, less so the Indians. But they seem to express their fandom in a different non traditional way. They all seem to be fans of players rather than clubs. Maybe that’s just modern football fandom

It’s really clear to see on the ground in Australia’s big cities imo that soccer probably is the number 1 most supported sport in the country, it’s just that most of that doesn’t trickle down the domestic clubs
 
Last edited:
BA81 said:
Some numpty on the comments-section of an 🇦🇺⚽️-podcast’s YT channel(forgot which one) suggested it too, as well as one for the 🇬🇷 community.

The concept’s simply not going to work for one of the long-established/powerhouse communities here, but I guess it wouldn’t altogether hurt to try w/one for the relatively-more-recent ones ie. the Latinos, Africans or Asians. The old heads on here might remember a stillborn-attempt at the last one in the penultimate season of the NSL; it would’ve been called Melbourne Dragons*🐉

*Incidentally, that club for all intents&purposes eventually came to exist in one of the Sunday League-comps here in Melb💡
Click to expand...
If I recall - didn't the Chivas try something like this in MLS? Sure, they had home games in LA, but I think the premise of it was to tap into Latino/Mexican community across the country
 
Glenardo said:
But they seem to express their fandom in a different, non-traditional way. They all seem to be fans of players rather than clubs. Maybe that’s just modern football fandom
Click to expand...
Yep, I've been noticing it among the young'uns even within the 'traditional' ⚽-loving communities here; it's the post-Y2K iteration of Eurosnobbery really.

Glenardo said:
It’s really clear to see on the ground in Australia’s big cities IMO that soccer probably is the number 1 most supported sport in the country; it’s just that most of that doesn’t trickle down to the domestic clubs.
Click to expand...
tenor.gif
 
NicCarBel said:
I'm sure I saw one somewhere in my database - Adelaide or Melbourne from memory.
Click to expand...
Azaad Club in the metropolitan leagues? All I can think of unless somewhere around Tarneit or Truganina has a connection
NicCarBel said:
If I recall - didn't the Chivas try something like this in MLS? Sure, they had home games in LA, but I think the premise of it was to tap into Latino/Mexican community across the country
Click to expand...
They're trying this in Hockey One this year, Melbourne Cobras aimed at Indian diaspora who are eventually planned to play in Beveridge, as included in this council petition image alongside Victory and their training centre
1788240603927.png
 
BA81 said:
Honestly I don’t think any 🇦🇺⚽️ administration has ever regarded Subcontinental communities as a viable clientele bc they’re stereotyped as being 🏏 tragics one-and-all. Of course mainstream/institutional-Australia as a whole has always felt the same way(not to mention helped perpetuate the stereotype too).

Rhys Williams and Nishan Vellupilay have roots from the region, but neither of them were used as cultural-ambassadors in any official capacity(though Nish did speak w/pride in a presser about being the first ethnic-Tamil to play at a World Cup).
Click to expand...
Sam Kerr could be the biggest ambassador for the Indian community in Aus, but she doesn’t seem to acknowledge or talk about that side of her heritage at all. Which is her right, not criticizing her.
 
NicCarBel said:
If I recall - didn't the Chivas try something like this in MLS? Sure, they had home games in LA, but I think the premise of it was to tap into Latino/Mexican community across the country
Click to expand...
Yep, and ultimately it failed bc of that association w/Chivas. The Mexican-Americans in LA/Chicanos who barrack for another 🇲🇽 club(and thus by default LOATHE Chivas with a passion) were never gonna get behind it, much less the other Hispanic communities such as my fellow-🇸🇻eans, for the same reason a Kiwi would never barrack for an Aussie team💡

That said, some people still maintain that had it been based out of San Diego or elsewhere in Cali(prob even El Paso in Texas) instead of being a crosstown-rival to LA Galaxy, it might've been better able to carve out its own niche w/o being dependent on that derby-rivalry w/Galaxy to justify its existence.

Kitwally said:
Sam Kerr could be the biggest ambassador for the Indian community in Aus, but she doesn’t seem to acknowledge or talk about that side of her heritage at all. Which is her right, not criticizing her.
Click to expand...
A lot of pleb dum-dums out there still assume she's First Nations, not least bc her AFL-player brother Daniel was mistaken for such during his playing-days.
 
Last edited:
NicCarBel said:
I'm sure I saw one somewhere in my database - Adelaide or Melbourne from memory.
Click to expand...
@LFC @Monoethnic Social Club

Confirmed:

Shaheed Bhagat Singh FC is a Sikh ethnic football club based at Andrew Smith Oval in Adelaide, playing in the SAASL Amateur League Sunday Division 7.

Andrew Smith Oval also hosts:
  • Maiwand FC - No longer part of a league - Afghani
  • Adelaide Dragon FC - SAASL Saturday Division 3 Red - Bhutanese
  • Zomi United Adelaide - No longer part of a league - representing the Zomi people, an ethnic group originating from the border regions of Myanmar (particularly Chin State), north-east India (especially Manipur and Mizoram), and parts of Bangladesh
Whilst two of these are no longer part of leagues, they would have been at some point across 2023-2026 as I've had them included on the nation-wide club database.

There may possibly be more than just that one, but that was just me searching "Singh" in the database because I recalled one with that name.
 
NicCarBel said:
@LFC @Monoethnic Social Club

Confirmed:

Shaheed Bhagat Singh FC is a Sikh ethnic football club based at Andrew Smith Oval in Adelaide, playing in the SAASL Amateur League Sunday Division 7.

Andrew Smith Oval also hosts:
  • Maiwand FC - No longer part of a league - Afghani
  • Adelaide Dragon FC - SAASL Saturday Division 3 Red - Bhutanese
  • Zomi United Adelaide - No longer part of a league - representing the Zomi people, an ethnic group originating from the border regions of Myanmar (particularly Chin State), north-east India (especially Manipur and Mizoram), and parts of Bangladesh
Whilst two of these are no longer part of leagues, they would have been at some point across 2023-2026 as I've had them included on the nation-wide club database.

There may possibly be more than just that one, but that was just me searching "Singh" in the database because I recalled one with that name.
Click to expand...
Nic for the record I stand corrected :) I no longer think there are NONE, just that there arent that many in comparison to the number of migrants.
 
NicCarBel said:
@LFC @Monoethnic Social Club

Confirmed:

Shaheed Bhagat Singh FC is a Sikh ethnic football club based at Andrew Smith Oval in Adelaide, playing in the SAASL Amateur League Sunday Division 7.

Andrew Smith Oval also hosts:
  • Maiwand FC - No longer part of a league - Afghani
  • Adelaide Dragon FC - SAASL Saturday Division 3 Red - Bhutanese
  • Zomi United Adelaide - No longer part of a league - representing the Zomi people, an ethnic group originating from the border regions of Myanmar (particularly Chin State), north-east India (especially Manipur and Mizoram), and parts of Bangladesh
Whilst two of these are no longer part of leagues, they would have been at some point across 2023-2026 as I've had them included on the nation-wide club database.

There may possibly be more than just that one, but that was just me searching "Singh" in the database because I recalled one with that name.
Click to expand...
There's Reservoir Yeti(Nepalese) from Melbourne, Khalsa(Punjabi) Lions also from Melb but they play in the proverbial Sunday-leagues, not the actual FootballVIC pyramid.

There was a Rohingya United some years back(from Brisbane I think) but I dunno what's new w/them; I assume they've likely folded by now.
 
Somebloke said:
I have been thinking about this a bit after going to a demographics thing for work. It was a whole bunch of data the govt and other research has learnt about community and social engagement in Oz.

Bascically Australia’s migration strategy until recently grew community organisations and institutions and grew the country’s social capital. Everything from ethnic social clubs, churches and sporting groups etc. The various ethnic based teams were a good example of this. However something in the last few years has changed. Now this is no longer happening, particularly since Covid.

There are still those migrants out there building community and social institutions but they are now dwarfed by a huge cohort of young single migrants with no kids who are only here temporarily (on short term visas) and have much less investment socially. (More Indians have come in the last five years than Greeks and Italians in a century).

Unlike migrants of old who kissed Nonna goodbye to start a new life, they are digitally connected back home and thus are not invested in building social capital here in the same way migrants of the past were. This is creating what they are calling desocialisation.

Something like a quarter of young adults in Oz are now in this short term migrant category and it’s much higher in major cities. Who is gonna invest in supporting a local team let alone contribute to a club if your mentality is that you are here for a couple of years?

Long story short, I went away thinking how no one is talking about this in football. Most interestingly they said Australian born people (of any ethnicity) are essentially now more likely to build social capital than migrants now, A huge change with big implications for football.
Click to expand...

Brilliant post.....You have hit the nail on the head there on a structural shift that goes far beyond football....

It is touching the very architecture of Australian civil society.

It's not something that I've even thought about before or seen discussed on any serious poltical or cultural news show either. Could say that it is a massive blind spot in our public discourse.

As far as football clubs go are you seeing any clubs or local associations actively trying to redesign their models to engage this new demographic of migrant, or is everyone still pretending it's business as usual?

I must admit if you go around the grounds in Brisbane and SE Qld there's a lot of young African players and in some cases supporters who have embraced the local competition here.

Not many young European or Asians though.

And there's a huge diaspora of young South Americans residing on the Gold Coast these days, particularly from places like Brazil, Colombia, and Chile....

But I get the feeling that they're here for the surfy, beachy lifestyle and that's their bag more than football.

So maybe they're probably more likely to log onto 'Fanatiz' or similar and watch their team from back home than head off to one of the local soccer clubs....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top