With the timetable for a 12-team competition dominating the agenda of new chairman Chris Nikou, South are one of six aspirants awaiting a call on whether expansion will sanctioned for next season, or put on hold until 2020-2021.
South’s “old soccer” origins may have weighed against them in the previous Steven Lowy-led regime, as they compete for two spots with fellow Victorian aspirants Western Melbourne Group and Team 11, plus Canberra, South West Sydney and Southern Expansion.
However, bid chairman Bill Papastergiadis believes the return to the board of ex-Soccer Australia chief Remo Nogarotto, as well as the fresh blood like PwC’s Joseph Carrozzi and women’s football champion Heather Reid, will build a “bridge between the past, present and future” and guarantee the former NSL heavyweights a fair hearing.
“We are pleased with the FFA board changes. They signal a new direction and an openness and understanding of the game’s history,” he said.
“I think the new board is a progressive one and is open to change and ideas, and will examine each of the bids individually and on their merits.
“We can’t ask for any more than that. We don’t want the favoritism, or any preferential treatment.
“Transparency and openness is all any of us ever wants.
“You have a number of people there who will join all the dots and appreciate that the game is complex, and that passion plays a huge part.
“I think they can combine to create a bridge between the past the present and the future.
“There’s a real opportunity now for football to mend some significant fences.”
South represent a cabal of former NSL clubs whose followers felt disenfranchised by the formation of the A-League in 2004, and turned their backs in it.
But Papastergiadis contends that the time is right for the old to meld with the new.
“We’re a club that has recreated itself and haven’t been standing still,” he added.
South’s A-League intent has been given an added boost with prominent Victorian property developer Ross Pelligra pledging his financial backing to the cause, in what Papastergiadis believes is a significant move both symbolically and financially.
“We have gone out and enlisted a significant investor to take us past the club’s traditional ethnic (Greek) roots,” he added.
“Ross is of Italian background and has expressed interest for sometime. He’ll be the main investor in our bid and we’re delighted to have been aboard.”
Papastergiadis urged the new board to deliver on the pledge of their predecessors and bring on expansion as a matter of urgency, with former chairman Lowy admitting the A-League had “stagnated".
“Chris Nikou has already expressed his desire to make expansion a priority for next year, and if that’s the case we are the only team that is ready-made for that,” insisted Papastergiadis.
“We all know that ratings are well down in the A-League this year,” he said. “The competition is crying out for fresh blood.
“The FFA needs to deliver on its promises, otherwise you will lose investors and you also lose the trust that you’ve worked so hard to build.
“We all need to be accountable to the words that we say. We have already made a sizable on the back of those promises.
“The league needs an injection of passion and interest and we are a team that people either love or hate, and I think that’s what the competition craves.
“We have the stadium and supporter-base that won’t impact on Melbourne City of Melbourne Victory.
“Our NPL record is one of the finest in Australia, our juniors’ record is the best in Australia and our women’s program is the finest in the state.
“We also have the capital to adequately fund our players, coaches the administration.
“We’re a club that’s ready tomorrow.”
In an added plus for South, Papastergiadis pointed out that the State government’s $11 billion rail infrastructure project would deliver a station located 700 metres from the club’s Lakeside Stadium home.
