| Full name | Melbourne Heart FC | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Heart | |||
| Founded | 2008 | |||
| Ground | AAMI Park, Melbourne (Capacity: 30,050) |
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| Chairman | Peter Sidwell | |||
| Head Coach | John van 't Schip | |||
| League | A-League | |||
| 2010–11 | A-League, 8th | |||
| Website | Club home page | |||
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| Current season | ||||
Melbourne Heart FC is an Australian professional football (soccer) club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 2008, the club has competed in the A-League, the highest division of football in Australia, since its inaugural 2010–2011 season. It is the 12th club to have played in the league.[1][2] It plays its home matches at AAMI Park, which it shares with crosstown rivals Melbourne Victory. From its initiation, Melbourne Heart was built on the philosophy of producing an attractive brand of football and a commitment to developing the growth of young talent in Australian players.
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Large crowd numbers for Melbourne Victory in their second A-League season suggested to the FFA that the Melbourne market could support a second A-League side, but due to a five year exclusivity clause that exists to protect the original 8 A-League sides, no new Melbourne team could be introduced until the 2010/11 season. During February 2007, Victorian Major Projects Minister Theo Theophanous floated the idea of a second Melbourne franchise being formed, to be a founding tenant at the newly built ground Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, as Victory were reluctant to sign a full tenancy with the stadium.[3]
On 12 February 2007, South Melbourne FC revealed that they were courting approaches from private investors with the prospect of being the second A-League club based in Melbourne.[4] As part of the South Melbourne bid, the club was to be privatised and the bid name was to be 'Southern Cross FC'.[5]
On 1 March 2008 former Carlton Football Club vice-president and businessman Colin DeLutis expressed his interest in a second Melbourne A-League side, with an approach to the FFA to become sole owner of the second licence with the bid name of 'Melbourne City'.[6] FFA chief executive Ben Buckley raised the possibility of expanding the A-League from 8 to 12 teams in May 2008, in readiness for the 2009-10 season. Buckley also revealed the existence of a third Melbourne bid tentatively known as 'Melbourne Heart' backed by Peter Sidwell, who had some former involvement with Melbourne Victory as a potential investor, to compete with the two other bids of Southern Cross FC and Melbourne City.[7] On 25 July 2008, the Melbourne City bid dropped out of the bidding process leaving the Melbourne Heart and Southern Cross FC bids as the last two bids standing.[8] By September 2008, the Melbourne Heart bid was awarded exclusive negotiating rights for the league's 11th licence, beating out the South Melbourne-backed Southern Cross FC bid. Negotiations continued until Sidwell's group was awarded the licence to join the A-League's 2010–11 season by the FFA on 12 June 2009.[9]
Melbourne Heart was the eleventh franchise to enter the A-League (at the time of its first season), and the twelfth to ever play in it overall. Heart started its inaugural A-League season against Central Coast Mariners on 5 August 2010, at their home ground AAMI Park, losing 1–0.[10] The club's first ever goal was, bizarrely, an own goal scored by Ben Kantarovski in the Heart's second league game, a 1–1 draw against Newcastle Jets. Melbourne Heart's first win was a 1–0 defeat of North Queensland Fury, which came in the fifth round of their first A-League season on 4 September 2010.[11] They contested the first ever Melbourne Derby against Melbourne Victory on 8 October 2010, and won 2-1. In the middle of their season, they went seven matches without winning (six losses and a draw) and over five hours without scoring a goal. This was turned around when they travelled to play Adelaide United and beat them 2-1 in the final five minutes, despite trailing at 1-0 for all of the second half up to that time. Heart finished their first season on equal points with Newcastle Jets, but behind on goal difference in eighth position. They failed to make it into the top six teams to reach the finals, despite sitting in sixth position for majority of the season.
| Period | Kit maker | Front sponsor | Back sponsor | Sleeve sponsor |
Youth team sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010-2011 | Reebok | Westpac | PKF | Drake | N/A |
| 2011-2012 | ISC | ParkTrent |
On 16 February 2010, leading financial institution Westpac[12] teamed up with the Melbourne Heart for a three-year agreement believed to be worth close to $2 million.[13] They are be their principal partner, the Westpac logo appears on the front of the 'Home' and 'Away' Melbourne Heart kits. The club also hosts 3 'Westpac' community camps, annually across regional Victoria.[14] Drake International, Metlink and PKF are the major sponsors of the club.[15]
On 1 September 2011 ParkTrent was announced as the Melbourne Heart FC's youth teams primary sponsor. CEO Scott Munn said that the deal is the "largest ever National Youth League corporate partnership".[16] ParkTrent is a well established company for property investment in Australia established by Ron Cross in 1989 and is committed to all aspects of the property market.
The 2011-12 season sees the addition of a youth team to the club, which will compete in the A-League's National Youth League. John Aloisi is the inaugural youth team head coach, while highly respected Victorian coach Arthur Papas is his assistant.[17] On 23 October 2011 the team won their first ever competitive match. The result was 2-0 against main rivals, the Melbourne Victory youth, with Stipo Andrijasevic and Zac Walker the scorers.
On November 25 2011 it was announced that youth team assistant coach Arthur Pappas would leave the club. Pappas was hand picked by a former co-worker Newcastle Jets head coach Gary van Egmond. Pappas has been appointed second senior assistant and youth team coach at Newcastle.[18]
In October 2009, an online competition held by the Herald Sun gave the public the opportunity to submit their preferences for the name of the new Melbourne team. The preferred names were released on the Herald Sun website on 13 November 2009. The four options were 'Sporting Melbourne FC', 'Melburnians', 'Melbourne Revolution' and 'Melbourne Heart FC'. Some pondered if 'Revolution' had some context considering its intimation to the Eureka Stockade, the closest Australia has come to revolution.[19] The name of the new club was to be announced before the end of 2009,[20] but this was delayed until early 2010 due to AFL objections to the use of the words Melbourne, Football and Club[21] in the name. The Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation expressed concern that the name Melbourne Heart was too similar to its annual Heart of Melbourne Appeal, and lodged a protest with IP Australia in January 2010.[22] The club's badge was lodged to IP Australia the same month by the FFA,[23][24] and on 2 February 2010, the name of the club was announced as Melbourne Heart FC.[25][26]
Initially, a colour scheme of either black and white, or red and white were the two options for the club. The eventual choice was red and white stripes, with a red sash on white for the away kit.[27] The design for the team's third kit was chosen from entries submitted by fans.[28]
Melbourne Heart's home ground is currently AAMI Park, which it shares with rivals Melbourne Victory, Super Rugby club Melbourne Rebels and National Rugby League club Melbourne Storm. Melbourne Heart base its training and administrative facilities at La Trobe University. CEO Scott Munn indicated a preference to have the players housed at the one location.[29]
Melbourne Heart's rival is Melbourne Victory. Although there are many state or regional rivalries, this is the first and only local city derby in the A-League.[30] The first match between the two clubs saw Melbourne Heart win 2-1 in front of a sold out AAMI Park crowd of over 25,000 spectators.[31]
The rivalry became more intense in the third edition on 22 January 2011, when Victory's Kevin Muscat made a mis-timed tackle on Heart's Adrian Zahra, which earnt Muscat a red card and an eight-week suspension, and was the direct cause of a season-ending knee injury to Zahra.[32] The rivalry has reached new heights off the field with rival supporters "declaring war on the streets" with a Melbourne Victory supporter group stealing a "Yarraside" banner and in retaliation, Heart supporters attempted to kidnap a Victory supporter in a reprisal attack.[33]
Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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Players whose name is listed in bold represented their countries while playing for Melbourne Heart. For details of former players, see List of Melbourne Heart players.