By Mark Baber
August 21 – Melbourne Knights have referred the Australian Football Federation’s (FFA) National Club Identity Policy to the Australian Human Rights commission after they were prevented from displaying three of their four kit sponsors for an FFA Cup match against Olympic FC.
Melbourne Knights currently play in the National Premier Leagues Victoria and have a glorious history, having been two-time Championship and four-time Premiership winner in the old NSL. The club was founded in 1953 as SC Croatia by Croatian immigrants and has built up a large following, mostly of people from the Croatian community, and is now one of the best supported clubs in Australia outside the A-league.
Soccer Australia began efforts to de-ethnicise the NSL back in the 1991/92 season and the club was forced to change its name from Melbourne Croatia to Melbourne CSC and then in 1993 to Melbourne Knights. On June 26 this year the FFA announced that a National Club Identity Policy will be implemented for all clubs. FFA CEO David Gallop explained that the key principle of the policy was to promote football as Australia’s most inclusive, accessible and multicultural sport.
The policy governs new and revised club names and logos but may not be applied retrospectively, so Melbourne Knight’s logo which features the same pattern as the Croatian flag is not affected. However, clause three of the new policy concerns club sponsors, stating that: “A Club must not use, advertise or promote (or permit any other person or entity to
use, advertise or promote) any ethnic, racial, religious or political identifiers in connection or association with the Club.”
This clause was used by the FFA to question three of the Knight’s kit sponsors, for the FFA Cup – namely Melbourne Croatia Soccer Club Inc (a social club run on the stadium premises), Australian Croatian Association Melbourne and Australian Croatian Association Geelong. Five days before the game, the FFA issued a memo stating that they would “only approve a Club’s Playing Strip as it appeared in their Member Federation 2014 league or cup competition, at the time of qualification to the Westfield FFA Cup 2014,” claiming the change was due to cost and timing issues.
Following the match, Melbourne Knights FC Vice President Pave Jusup and Melbourne Croatia Soccer Club Inc. President Ange Cimera lodged an official complaints to the Human Rights Commission under the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 regarding the application of the National Club Identity Policy and both complaints were accepted by the Commission and have been referred to the FFA for justification.
The club issued a statement on Wednesday saying that it intends to see out the process handled by the Human Rights Commission in the hope of a resolution and failing that is ready to challenge the FFA’s National Club Identity Policy in the Federal Circuit Court.
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