The One Club Policy and its Discontent

First up, the competing press releases, starting with the SMFC one. For those who've been trying to follow the kerfuffle going on in the background, it seemed a rather sudden resolution.

SMFC – Women’s News

Monday, 15 February 2010 6:44 PM

As of today, South Melbourne FC will be directly managing all of our club’s Girls’ Sub Junior (Under 7s, 9s, 11s teams) and the Junior Girls’ Under 14 team as well.

The SMFC Girls' teams will be playing out of the Albert Park Precinct.

All coaches will be appointed by Ange Dallas (SMFC Director of Football) and Maryanne Rizopoulos (SMFC Girls’ Coordinator), and will sign SMFC contracts which include:

1. Performance Review mechanisms
2. Responsibilities schedule
3. Football Federation Victorian (FFV) Code of Conduct provisions
4. Annual player written report processes
5. Adherence to the new SMFC Curriculum

In our 51st year, the club is entering a new phase of development both in the construction of new facilities at the Albert Park precinct and more importantly in the design and implementation of the new Youth program. 2010 will be an exciting new year and earmarking the foundation process of many new initiatives in both boys' and girls' junior development. As part of the implementation of the ‘One Club Policy’, all junior boys’ teams have come under the SMFC umbrella, as are the junior girls’ teams as well.

Our Women’s Senior, Reserves, State League 3, and Under 16 teams will continue to be operated by SMWFC for the 2010 season.

For any further enquiries regarding the Junior Girls’ junior teams, please contact our SMFC Girls’ Coordinator, Maryanne Rizopoulos on 0411 968 826 or womens@smfc.com.au

The response from SMWFC was swift - and they obviously did not agree that they had agreed to anything.

South Melbourne Women's FC - Club Statement

The South Melbourne Women's Football Club (SMWFC) purpose is to promote and develop female football, both for participation and elite pathways, for example - our Senior Team achieved 3rd place last season in the Women's Premier League. The club will field the following teams in 2010: Under 9s, Under 11s, Under 14s, Under 16s, State League 3, and Women's Premier League - Seniors/Reserves. We were the first club to setup girls teams in Port Phillip in 2005, and will continue to grow as part of our Strategic Plan. We have dedicated facilities for our players and SMWFC’s members will directly benefit from the Albert Park Re-development. At present, the club does not support the South Melbourne FC's attempts to manage and control our existing girls' teams. No agreement has been made for SMFC to operate SMWFC’s teams. We strongly object to recent statements and actions made by SMFC that they will be managing our existing junior teams. Currently there are no agreements in place for SMFC’s girls teams to play out of Albert Park. SMWFC has a proud history of developing and promoting female football and will continue to do so. SMWFC's committee is more that happy to field any questions or concerns from the South Melbourne Football Family in relation to this matter. All inquiries should be directed to southmelbournewfc@gmail.com or by calling Alex on 0408 560 206.

While this particular game of tug of war is being played within South Melbourne, the core issues are those that face almost every women's sporting club attached to a men's organisation. You can change the laws to outlaw discrimination. You can put on your public relations face and say how important women's soccer participation is, and try and seem like you mean it. But in a socially conservative club like South, it has mostly been a case of bare minimums and lip service - as long as someone else does the work for the women's sides, keeps out of the way as much as possible, and as long as they understand that they will never be really equal, everyone loves women's participation in sport. There are also other issues, such as accessing SMFC and SMHSC's (amended) constitutions, which are notoriously difficult to get a copy of.

At last year's AGM there was, via the introduction of the junior revolution (and Lakeside/Albert Park redevelopment) at South, an opportunity to not only move forward in an operational sense, but also to rectify the follies of the past in a club sense, by bringing everything together under the one roof of the 'one club policy'. The main obstacle at the time was the belligerence of some of the members of the SMJFC board - what their true motives were, it's hard to be sure of. But they were soundly defeated by a near unanimous response from the SMHFC membership. The women's side giving their assent (or is that capitulation?) was presented as a mere formality. But, a few months down the track, it does not appear to be so. The women's side are attempting to assert their autonomy, and SMFC has reacted against that - with the apparent help of the junior wing, eager to get their hands on more talent. Oh, and there are some grounds at stake too...

Aside from all those issues, the problem as far as I can tell, seem to be more of poor communication. Both sides, or at least, the non disingenuous parts of both sides, want essentially the same thing, and they should be able, to come to a proper resolution if they put the sabres down. My belief is that should this battle continue to a point of irreparable damage, in the long run SMFC will win this battle. Despite whatever ambitions it may have to it, SMWFC does not own the South Melbourne name nor logo - and nor can it trace its lineage back to the original South Melbourne Hellas women's teams of 1978-82. Any advantages it may hold in the short term of being a women's only club, catering to that particular culture, won't last long, as talented junior girls seek to push themselves further, seek trophies instead of mere participation, as Victorian women's football starts to catch up to its northern counterparts, and dinosaur relics running men's clubs start to wither away. But that's just me blathering. I'm probably wrong on so many levels.