Late Pumpkins

A bit late, but whatever. You can download it from here. The most notable thing for mine is the reference to a passionate Marxist appraisal of the merits - or otherwise - of the monocultural A-League over the pluralist National Soccer League, by a Queensland academic named Kieran James. I'll have more to say on that in a few weeks. If you're on the Pumpkin Seed Eaters mailing list, you've probably already had it come through your inbox. If not, email me and I'll send you copy.

And the rest? Sounds from the World Football Gala, outdated reviews (my fault), a Singapore Cup preview, Aussies Abroad and the usual angry rhetoric. It's abrasive, sure, but someone's got to provide the Mr Hyde angle to the Dr Jekyll stuff, I suppose.

Our London sojourn rated a brief mention in The Age

You may remember the award for Oceanie Team Of The Century awarded by the IFFHS - whose dinner was postponed until May this year? Well, that was last week. Many famous faces were there, and by all reports a good time was had by the South contingent - especially Jimmy Armstrong. Anyway, only rraqson I didn't post anything was because, well, I'm waiting for the video footage to be released by SMFCTV. But in the meantime, here's a curious piece of commentary written yesterday by Mark Hawthorne in The Age's Sporting Life section.


Hellas of a decision

THE Football Federation of History and Statistics has named the ''club of the century'' for each confederation. Real Madrid gets the award for Europe. CA Penarol Montevideo in South America. Al-Hilal FC Riyadh in Asia.

And in Oceana? Try South Melbourne, a club that struts its stuff in Melbourne's suburbs. Hellas gets the gong because of its history of success in the old National Soccer League, but it's a glaring symbol of the problems in Australian soccer.


Is that some kind of backhanded compliment against us? Well done on the trophies, but thanks for holding the game back? Or is it more a case of, these guys are pretty successful, and the current Australian soccer regime should treat them with a bit more respect, like, what are they doing playing in a suburban comp? I hope it's the latter, but I can't tell.

South to be acknowleged as 20th century Oceania's greatest club

Apparently FIFA botched their Centenary celebrations by not having this casual soiree in 2004, so they're making up for it by acknowledging our awesomeness - and that of some other pissant no name clubs, I think one of them's called Royal Madrid or something - by inviting us to dinner and handing out some golden trinkets.

The other clubs to be invited are Penarol (Uruguay), Asante Kotoko (Ghana), Al-Hilal (Saudi Arabia) and CD Saprissa (Costa Rica). The body which made up the criteria is the FIFA recognised, International Federation of Football History & Statistics. 

Full media release on the South website. They've been sitting on this one for a while, and they're all very excited, and rightly so. Of course, people from all angles are putting their own spin on this honour, but that's the way the game's been played. I'm going to try and enjoy it for what it is, on its own terms.