Information AboutSydney Fc |
Sydney FC, founded in 2004 , is an Australia n Football (soccer) club based in Sydney and competes in Australia's premier competition, the A-League . Sydney FC won the inaugural A-League Championship in 2005–06 by defeating the Central Coast Mariners 1-0 in the Grand Final. After winning the 2004–05 Oceania Club Championship , Sydney FC competed in and finished fifth (of six teams) in the 2005 FIFA Club World Championship in December 2005. As inaugural A-League Champions, Sydney FC also competed in the 2007 AFC Champions League . It finished 2nd in its group behind Japanese giants Urawa Red Diamonds . Its home ground is Sydney Football Stadium , a 45,500 seat multi-use venue1 in the suburb of Moore Park . Sydney FC quickly gained a reputation as the "glamour club" of the new competition,2 due to the club's high-profile personnel, including investor and actor Anthony LaPaglia , ex- Manchester United star Dwight Yorke as the team's first "marquee player" and 1990 FIFA World Cup winner Pierre Littbarski as manager in the first season. 3 HISTORY Foundation The first steps towards the foundation of Sydney FC were taken in April 2004 when Soccer New South Wales (now Football NSW ) announced their intention to bid for a licence in the new Australian football competition.4 The bid was lodged with the Australian Soccer Association (now Football Federation Australia ) on July 19 , challenged only by a consortium headed by Nick Politis , known as the "Sydney Blues",5 for Sydney's place in the 'one team per city' competition.6 A public row broke out between the two bidders after reports that the ASA were set to vote in favour of Sydney FC,7 causing Politis to withdraw his support for a team,8 and leaving Sydney FC as the only candidate remaining. Sydney was officially launched as a member of the new 8-team A-League on November 1 , 2004 , with a 25% stake in the club held by Soccer NSW, the remainder privately owned.9 Walter Bugno was announced as the inaugural chairman of the club. By February 2005, Sydney had filled 16 of their allowed 20 squad positions – attracting Socceroos Clint Bolton , Steve Corica and David Zdrilic as well as youth internationals Justin Pasfield , Mark Milligan , Wade Oostendorp , Iain Fyfe and Jacob Timpano .10 German Pierre Littbarski was signed as Head Coach, to be assisted by former Norwich City player Ian Crook . Sydney FC played its first ever match against Manly United FC on March 25 , 2005 , winning 6-1.11 Shortly after, Sydney set off on a tour to the United Arab Emirates to play matches against local teams FC Hatta , Al Ain FC and Al Jazira , winning all three.121314 Whilst in Dubai , Sydney FC announced that they had agreed to terms with former Manchester United player Dwight Yorke to join Sydney as their "marquee player" – one paid outside of the $1.5 million Salary Cap – for two seasons.15 Pre-League Sydney FC's first competitive match was held against Queensland Roar at Central Coast Stadium in Gosford as part of an Australian qualifying tournament to enter the 2005 Oceania Club Championship . After winning the match 3-0, Sydney went on to defeat Perth Glory and the Central Coast Mariners to win their first piece of silverware and qualify for the Oceania Club Championship, to be held in Tahiti . Despite an early scare against New Zealand club Auckland City FC ,16 Sydney won all of their matches in the competition and qualified for the 2005 FIFA Club World Championship in Japan . The start of the 2005 Pre-Season Cup marked Sydney FC's first match at Sydney Football Stadium , as well as Dwight Yorke 's first appearance for the club – Yorke scoring the first goal of Sydney's 3-1 win which stretched their unbeaten run to 9 competitive matches (15 including Friendlies ). Upon reaching the semi-finals, Sydney's unbeaten run finally ended at 11 with Perth Glory Midfielder Nick Ward scoring in injury time to inflict the new club's first ever loss.17 Club World Championship 2005 In December 2005, Sydney FC competed in the 2005 FIFA Club World Championship as the Oceania Football Confederation 's entry to the tournament following their 2004-05 Oceania Club Championships success in June. On December 12 , in front of a crowd of over 28,000 at Japan 's Toyota Stadium , Sydney FC narrowly lost to Costa Rica n champions Deportivo Saprissa 1-0, denying the club a semi–final match against European champion Liverpool . Four days later, Sydney FC defeated the African "Club of the Century" Al-Ahly 2–1 to finish the competition in fifth place. League 2005-06 See Also: Sydney FC season 2005-06 Sydney FC entered the inaugural A-League season as heavy favourites for the title,18 and hosted their first league match against Melbourne Victory on August 28 , 2005 . This event drew a then-record crowd for a regular season match in Australia. The stated figure was 25,208, though this is likely to be an underestimation of the true crowd size as the number of people who 'walked up' to the game meant that ticket sellers at the gate were unable to cope. For only the second time in the history of the SCG Trust (the operators of Sydney Football Stadium ), the gates were opened twenty minutes after the game had started, permitting around two–thousand fans to enter for free. At the conclusion of the twenty–one game regular season, Sydney FC finished in second place, seven points behind Adelaide United . However, in the Major Semi–Final they defeated Adelaide 4–3 on aggregate, ensuring a home Grand Final which produced a sell–out crowd of 41,689 (above the stated capacity of Sydney Football Stadium ) against the Central Coast Mariners on March 5 , 2006 . Sydney won the match 1–0 after Dwight Yorke set up Steve Corica for the deciding goal. After the first season, coach Pierre Littbarski left the club following a dispute over his contract which involved a significant pay cut from his reported $700,000 first year salary. 19 20 He was replaced by former England international and Motherwell manager Terry Butcher on May 17 , 2006 . 21 During the 2006 off-season, Sydney FC recruited Ruben Zadkovich (previously on a short-term contract with Sydney FC), Alex Brosque ( Queensland Roar ) and Jeremy Brockie ( New Zealand Knights ). League 2006-07 See Also: Sydney FC season 2006-07 The Second Season of the Hyundai A-league ("dubbed Version 2.0") was ultimately an unsuccessful and disappointing season for the defending champions. The club's Administration had spent Far More Than It Had Earnt over the course of the past two years, and subsequent budget cutbacks included the sale of marquee forward Dwight Yorke, a significantly reduced Advertising campaign, and the loss of German coach Pierre Littbarski. The team's displays on the field were widely reported by Australian sports Media to have ranged from showing glimpses of strong form to marked disappointment22, and no real challenge for the premiership was mounted. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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