The beautiful game has been steeped into Paul Iliopoulos’ life since he could remember – where he once played the game at a high level in Victoria, he now enjoys a new role in promoting the game to ensure that it thrives and grows.
It was his passion for football that drew him to the role of Football Victoria’s Commercial Sponsorship Coordinator four months ago. With a men’s world cup at the end of the year and the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand next year, there is plenty to occupy his mind as he tackles his new role.
One of the key projects at present is the building of the the home of the Matildas at La Trobe University, Bundoora. The facility will not only serve as the new base for Australia’s women’s team ahead of the world cup next year, but it will also become Football Victoria’s administrative centre and will host high-performance programmes for young footballers. The different pitches and world class-facilities will also be available to community clubs.
“The centre will provide the best football facilities for girls and women in the southern hemisphere, we are very excited to be part of this,” Iliopoulos told Neos Kosmos.
“If we can host the women’s world cup then why not the men’s? Ange Postecoglou’s success at Celtic is showing he is one of the best coaches in Europe and we have many players that we can be proud of.”
“My belief is to think of the game first so that when it comes to forming partnerships, it is with businesses and organisations that share the same values and vision as Football Victoria and to ensure that they align with the sport and to have the right people to make football as strong as possible,” he said.
With that mission in mind, Mr Iliopoulos said he also sought partnerships with businesses that supported the game and who are also involved at community level. He said his organisation had for the past seven years run the Community in Business networking project that he hoped to grow further.
“The aim is to bring clubs, communities, businesses, government and sports people together in one room to grow the sport,” Iliopoulos said.
There are award nights to recognise the contributions of everyone in the sport. Right now he is busy preparing for Gold Medal Night on Monday that will bring over 600 people together to celebrate the hard work that match officials, players, their managers and the media have put in for the sport. And there are awards nights for community clubs and the work they do, often as volunteers, to promote the sport in their communities.
And football has long been the sport of many migrant communities, including Greeks, the rivalries have fed into the game and continue to do so to the benefit of the game as a whole.
For Iliopoulos, football has been a part of his life from an early age. He was born in Melbourne but his late father, Charalambos (Harry), moved the family to Athens when Paul was very young. He played for local Athens clubs as a child and he continued to play football after the family returned to Australia in the late 1980s when he was 11 years old.
His older brother, George, played football to a professional level and he too retains links with the game as a referee.
“Dad never played or coached but went to the games as part of social outings on Sunday with his friends, but for my brother and myself, the game was something more. Dad was more about education and work, not sport,” recalls Iliopoulos who played at junior level at Kingston, and then went on to play for Nunawading, Caulfield and Ringwood City but he mainly played for Northcote City.
“I started as a midfield but I ended up playing most of my football as a defender. I stopped at senior level mid-30s,” he said. But even now at 45, he is still playing albeit at a Sunday league level which helps him keep fit, sharp and in tune with the game.
“The generations change but the old clubs are still there and there is still a passion for the game that links the present generation with the past.
“I think the future growth of the game is through equal gender representation where the game is definitely getting bigger.
“Being the largest participating sport in numbers, kids are also deeply involved in the sport at an early age up to early teens, but as they get older this is shared a bit more evenly with other sport codes,” Iliopoulos said.
“Football is evolving in Australia and the next 18 months will prove the important time for us all here in Australia. The Women’s World Cup is massive and we in Football Victoria can feel the buzz and excitement,” he concluded.
