Update: 2nd Melbourne team confirmed as 11th A-League team

FFA set to approve new Melbourne team
Dan Silkstone
June 12, 2009

THE new A-League team for Melbourne should be officially born today with the Football Federation Australia board expected to rubber stamp inclusion of the league's 11th club.

Franchise representative Peter Sidwell met with FFA staff, including chief executive Ben Buckley, this week and presented the new team's financial backing, numbers that went down well with league bosses.

The group, which also includes businessmen Joe Mirabella and Michael Catalano, already had an exclusive right to negotiate with the A-League and is now expected to be granted entry for season 2010-11.

While that decision is likely to be made today, awarding of a planned 12th licence to a western Sydney or Canberra team will not take place for several weeks.

The Age understands the new club — which goes by the provisional name of Melbourne Heart but will be renamed by a public competition — has compiled extensive market research, suggesting the city has enough latent soccer support to sustain a second team.

"The Victory have done very well but there are a lot of indicators that suggest there are still a lot of people who still have not embraced the A-League but follow the sport," said a source who has seen the material.

The club will present itself as a community organisation, smaller and more in touch with the grass roots of the sport than Victory. It will play out of the new rectangular stadium that will be completed next year and also be home to the Victory and Melbourne Storm.

It has been a busy week for the FFA, which is fine-tuning A-League expansion while running World Cup qualifiers and preparing for Sunday's launch of Australia's bid to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup. The FFA has also taken advantage of Wednesday night's match against Bahrain in Sydney to woo one of the men seen as a potential political obstacle to the nation's World Cup bid.

Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa is the head of the Bahrain Football Association and also a member of that nation's royal family. He has previously been critical of Australia's joining the Asian confederation and even suggested the move was reversible.

It was Sheikh Salman who recently challenged AFC president Mohammed Bin Hamman for one of Asia's places on the FIFA executive committee, the body responsible for voting and awarding World Cup hosting rights.

The Sheikh was narrowly defeated after a bitter election in which Australia was seen to have sided with the incumbent against a bloc of agitators including Japan and South Korea.

This week Sheikh Salman has been in Sydney, attending Wednesday's match and being special guest at a gala dinner. He also spent a day in discussions with senior FFA staff about how Australia could help develop the sport in Bahrain, including sharing information and resources as Bahrain looks to Australia's A-League as a model for a more professional league of its own.

The Sheikh's influence will be vital in ensuring Australia has a chance of securing support across rival Asian factions, a key to hopefully harnessing the continent's four voting delegates. Australia will officially launch its World Cup bid on Sunday at Parliament House in Canberra, with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd attending.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/sport/soccer/ffa-set-to-approve-new-melbourne-team/2009/06/11/1244664794018.html

Nothing really surprising... good to know, that it is us and Western Sydney favourites.

Proud2BeCanberran wrote:[size=18]
The Age understands the new club — which goes by the provisional name of Melbourne Heart but will be renamed by a public competition — has compiled extensive market research, suggesting the city has enough latent soccer support to sustain a second team.

what you mean like the greeks from the south melbourne days? or the croatian melbourne knights supporters?

Melbourne awarded licence for 2nd A-League team
Ron Reed
June 13, 2009 12:00am

MELBOURNE has a new elite soccer club -- all it needs now is a name, colours, a coach and manager, some players, a ground, a chief executive, staff and a fan base.

So the six businessmen who were yesterday awarded a licence by Football Federation Australia to join the A-League next year have a lot of ground to cover in a hurry.

Chairman Peter Sidwell, who describes himself simply as "a businessman", will hit the ground running.

He leaves for Europe this weekend to try to hunt down some marquee names.

Out-of-contract Newcastle star Mark Viduka, a Melbourne boy, won't be among them, though -- not at this stage.

Viduka's name has been linked with the new club several times, but Sidwell said last night: "We have never spoken to him, although that's not to say we never will."

Sidwell's consortium, which has been the front-runner for the new licence since late last year, will give Melbourne two major teams for the first time since the old National Soccer League was disbanded.

Sidwell's partners are property developer David Kobritz, furniture supplier Michael Catalano, former Victorian soccer executive Manny Galanos, lighting distributor Joe Mirabella and entertainment promoter Patrick Prendergast.

Melbourne Heart is the working title but the public will be given the opportunity to come up with a permanent name and a colour combination.

Sidwell said the team hoped to play out of the new rectangular stadium but Etihad Stadium remained an option.

The most critical issue would be finding the right coach/manager, he said.

A marquee name would be sought. Several high-profile players had expressed interest, including at least one senior Socceroos star.

"There is a lot of interest at that level," Sidwell said.

"We are looking at players who have earned their big money overseas and who we might be able to get for three or five years.

As for supporters, Sidwell says he is confident "the passion for the game extends well beyond what's there" -- in other words, there will be plenty looking for an alternative to Melbourne Victory.

"Our research shows there is clearly room for a second club," he said.

"There is a huge cultural background here."

Sidwell has no soccer background himself, but says he is passionate about the game.

"I have an absolute belief in the game. It will never replace Aussie rules but we will run a very good second in the future," he said.

Sidwell said the club would roll out its plans very soon.

"We have been restricted in what we can do but now you'll see a lot of real activity," he said.

http://www.melbournevictory.net/forum/showthread.php?p=2324609#post2324609

Update: 2nd melbourne team confirmed

meh, expected.