Victorian football club South Melbourne believe that a story that has surfaced today on SBS is part of a campaign to “throw shade” at the club with the intent to hijack its bid to enter the A-League.
Two days before the A-League aspirant clubs submit their bid vying over the two upcoming A-League licences, SBS uploaded a news article on their website “targeting Hellas” according to South Melbourne’s head of Legal and Public Relations and the chairman of their A-League bid committee, Bill Papastergiadis.
In the headline and the introduction of the published story, it is stressed that South Melbourne denies any connection with a soccer agent accused of illicit behaviour.
“The person in question is involved with dozens of soccer clubs promoting junior players overseas”, Mr Papastergiadis told Neos Kosmos adding that said person bears no relation to South Melbourne and its A-League bid.
“We have no connection to the person that has been accused of such misconduct. In Melbourne they attended our press conference with Roberto Carlos because the Brazilian national had employed them as their translator.”
This was not the only event the accused was present, however, “He has also attended another A-League aspirant club’s event where the Victorian Premier was present,” Mr Papastergiadis added making it clear that South Melbourne is being “shaded” because it’s a “strong” candidate.
“How do you explain that every other news outlet ignored the allegations?” he stressed explaining that even in the SBS piece there is no mention of South Melbourne or any of its members being involved in any way with the accused’s alleged misconduct.
Fifteen clubs are biding for a place in the A-League and only two teams will be selected by Football Federation Australia (FFA). The only state without a bidding team is the Northern Territory. The Victorian candidates are:
*TEAM 11 (Dandenong district)
*South Melbourne
*Western Melbourne
*Belgravia Leisure