One city. One team.
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The groundswell is building and becoming hard to ignore.
The hashtag of #Wollongongstandalone is gaining some ground.
This region has two live bids for A-League expansion, announced by the Football Federation Australia on Friday.
FFA’s board has invited both the Wollongong Wolves and the Southern Expansion group to take part in the next stage of the process to decide the two new clubs to join the A-League for season 2019-20.
The Wollongong Wolves have been there before.
The Wolves of course won consecutive national championships in 2000 and 2001.
The Southern Expansion bid has the backing of the South Coast, Kogarah and Sutherland football associations.
The clear difference between the two bids is one is representative this region, while the other is a composite bid which would see some select presence here.
It appears the latter has its detractors despite the support of the politically powerful football associations.
“One city One team One region .this is fantastic news,” one reader said on our Facebook page on Friday.
“Lets hope Football South Coast show their support for our team and withdraw their support for southern Sydney bid .We are not Sydney we are Wollongong.”
Another used the opportunity to pot national football identity Craig Foster who is one of the front men for the Southern Expansion bid.
“An A-League team of our own would be great news for our 13,000 juniors that play soccer in our region,” the reader said.
“Craig Foster read it and weep. Sydney finishes at Waterfall the rest is Wollongong and South Coast territory.”
Publicly, Football South Coast has expressed support for a Wollongong-based team, but has been very vocal in backing the Southern Expansion bid, even posing for photo opportunities.
Southern Expansion has talked down a Wollongong bid with chairman Morris Iemma declaring in March their bid was superior.
“With no disrespect to the Wollongong Wolves bid,” Iemma said.
“The criteria and the actual numbers that are required would suggest that’s possibly not the best way to achieve A-League status.”
It seems this region might beg to differ.
