The largest and oldest football tournament in Australia is back again.
The 39th Australian-Croatian Soccer Tournament will be hosted by the premier league team, Melbourne Knights.
The competition has been staged in every state and territory except the Northern Territory since its inception in 1974 and is an all inclusive tournament.
It consists of four divisions, with Division 1 made up of Premier and higher State League sides, Division 2 for lower State League and amateur teams, Masters for over 35s and an open Women’s league.
The tournament has hosted over 100 clubs in its entire history, attracts over 3000 spectators and will this year welcome a record 32 clubs and 56 teams.
Melbourne Knights president Ange Cimera says despite the name, the tournament is a multicultural melting pot of soccer prowess.
“It’s not a Croatian tournament, it’s Croatian by how it started but there’s probably 40-50 nationalities that play because lots of teams that come here to play are not Croatian,” Cimera said.
The Knights have won the past three editions of the Australian-Croatian Soccer Tournament but will not feature their senior Victorian Premier League players in Division 1 this year, given they will play against South Melbourne at Knights Stadium in the second semi-final at 7:30pm on Friday night.
“We’ll put our youth team in, which we feel is a pretty good team anyway,” Cimera said.
“They’ll be playing lower league teams in Division 1 like St. Albans Saints and North Geelong Warriors, so they’ll be very competitive.”
The event is on from October 3 to October 6 and entry is free for spectators across all four days.
For more information on the tournament visit the website at http://melbourne2013.com/
Clubs competing:
• Adelaide Raiders
• Canberra FC
• Dalmacija Sydney
• Dandenong City
• FC Strathmore
• Fremantle Croatia
• Glenorchy Knights
• Gold Coast Knights
• Gospic Bears
• Gwelup Croatia
• HNK Edensor Park
• HNK King Tomislav
• HNK Mostar Melbourne
• Hurstville FC
• Irymple Knights
• Kraljeva Sutjeska
• Luddenham United
• Melbourne Knights
• Melbourne Tornado
• NK Bunker Richmond
• North Geelong Warriors
• O’Connor Knights
• Prospect Knights FC
• Rocklea United
• South Coast United
• St. Albans Saints
• St. Albans Vukovar
• Sydney United
• Wednesday Knights FC
• Werrington FC
• Western Knights
• Whyalla Croatia