With the Wollongong Wolves’ A-League bid cast aside the hopes for the region being represented in an expanded national football competition rest with the Southern Expansion bid.
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On the back of Wednesday’s news that the Wolves’ had been cut by the FFA board, representatives from Southern Expansion will arrive in Wollongong on Thursday to try and rally the city and region behind it’s cause.
“It is Plan B but we want A-League in this region,” Football South Coast chairman Eddy de Gabrielle said.
“What we do know is what is present and that is that Southern Expansion includes the Illawarra to have A-League and W-League games here.”
Yet, if the reception online to the announcement on Wednesday is any indication, the “Plan B” is going to be pushing the proverbial uphill to convince Wollongong football fans to jump aboard. This tweet by one football fan summed up how many were feeling _
“10 years trekking from Wollongong to Sydney to support the @ALeague but always hoping we’d get our own team. To not even be in the final 6 is crushing and just 2 days out has deflated the excitement I had for the new season #ALeague”
Others on Facebook were more direct.
“The hybrid monstrosity will destroy our local football if it gets in. Our youth will have a pathway but no better than the pathway they have now. The FFA have lost their direction and it'll come out in their fan base,” one reader said.
“Absolutely not. If Southern Expansion get a license I’ll never watch the A-League again,” another added.
As a way of testing the feeling of the community we asked via polls on social media whether locals would consider supporting Southern Expansion.
We received hundreds of votes and the result was a resounding “no”. And by resounding, we mean it was a landslide “no” vote. Football fans in the Illawarra are going to be clearly disappointed we haven’t got a team we can call our own any time soon in the A-League.
