Croatian Football Vice President impressed with Sydney United’s Youth League




After a hectic few days at the FIFA Congress, the Vice-President of the Croatian Football Federation, Mr Ivan Brlekovic, extended his visit to Australia to spend time with players and officials at Sydney United.
Mr. Ivan Brlekovic spent Saturday morning watching a number of Premier Youth Games at the Sydney United Sports Centre.

Mr Brlekovic commented on the stature of the 14 and 15 year old boys and asked, “What these boys were fed in Sydney to make them so large”.

Mr Brlekovic was impressed with the tempo of the game and the skill level shown by the Sydney United boys.

He commented as much during the post match meeting and wished the boys the best of luck for the remainder of the season.

Mr Brlekovic commented how impressive the facilities at the Sydney United Sports Centre were and how extensive the Junior, Premier Youth and Senior teams playing structure was.

He praised the Board of Directors on their professionalism in managing 40 Football Teams from Under 6's to the Senior Team playing in the TeleChoice Premier League.

Mr Brlekovic was pleased that one of the foundation Croatian clubs of the Diaspora was getting on with developing football players and was more impressed with the fact that 69% of all players registered with Sydney United had Croatian Heritage.

He was amazed that a Croatian Club had also given 32 Socceroos to Australia.

Apart from watching a number of the Premier Youth teams play, Mr Brlekovic met with Sydney United Directors to discuss opportunities to strengthen the relationship with the HNS and offer opportunities for high potential players to consider a career path through Croatia.

Further discussions are planned to consider technology options in tracking the progress of identified players.

The club is considering a program to identify players that could be groomed in conjunction with assistance from the HNS.

shock horror

Have you got a link for this article?

did i need one?

Yeah, you do. Anybody can make shit up. It would be helpful to know who the hell is claiming that.

http://www.soccernsw.com.au/index.php?id=17&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=699&tx_ttnews[backPid]=1&cHash=54d6eed053

This one was from Sydney morning herlad



ON THE sidelines of a suburban Sydney football pitch stands one of the most powerful men in Croatian football. Ivan Brlekovic, vice-president of the Croatian Football Federation, has been lured to Edensor Park, home of Sydney United, with the promise of the freedom to pick out some of Australia's best young talent.

If he likes what he sees, he is told he can take it back to Croatia. Inevitably, he takes a shine to the hugely talented 16-year-old goalkeeper Robert Kolak, who is considered by coaches at the club and the NSW Institute of Sport to have the talent of a young Zeljko Kalac, just another product of the club's impeccable youth system.

Kolak's agent, former NSL defender Buddy Farah, takes up the story, saying yesterday: "The vice-president of the [Croatian] federation came down to the club and they just spotted [Kolak] at a coaching clinic down at Sydney United's ground.

"He liked him, so they actually flew him over there [to Croatia] and he went over initially to just check it out and to open up his eyes to a different country and the way they do things over there. [Croatia] really likes him. They've chased him very hard."

As coach of the Olyroos, Australia's under-23s team, this is Graham Arnold's worst nightmare. Sydney United is where he made his name, but if his old club follows through with a plan to funnel through its most talented players to the Croatian federation, Arnold said it would be a "very sad" day for Australian football.

"I don't agree with it and it's disappointing to hear it," he told the Herald. "A lot of good Australian-Croatian players have come through Sydney United, or Sydney Croatia, and a lot have gone on to represent Australia, and have made the club of Sydney Croatia very proud.

"We've always been threatened with Australian-Croatian players leaving and going to play for Croatia, but a lot of them, at the end of the day, are either Australian or Croatian."

One such player who may be looking to the European nation is Dario Vidosic, who moved to Australia when he was just one year old but is weighing up his options after being overlooked by Arnold to play for the Olyroos in Beijing. Coincidentally, his father, Rado Vidosic, is assistant coach to ex-Socceroos boss Frank Farina at Queensland Roar.

One man who wasn't overlooked by the Olyroos, Matthew Spiranovic, faced a similar decision between the two nations before ultimately picking Australia.

"I suppose it comes to personal choice," Spiranovic said. "I haven't spoken to [Dario Vidosic] about it, but I suppose the fact that there have been players from Australia that have gone to Croatia makes it a little more realistic and possible."

Spiranovic added that while it was normal for clubs to develop relations with other overseas clubs, he was not aware of clubs developing specific relations with overseas federations.

"Obviously, the Croatian-based clubs are going to have the connections overseas to find kids who've got talent and ability, and I can understand that, but if it's the national federation, it's a different issue," he said.

Football Federation Australia chief executive Ben Buckley was far from impressed by Sydney United's conduct. "If this is the case, I'd be extremely disappointed that a club that is part of our system is expressly developing players for another country," he said.

"If such a relationship was formalised, we would as a matter of course raise the legalities of it with FIFA and consider any action open to us in respect of the club and the Croatian Football Federation.

"Playing for your country is a privilege. Our talent pathway system is an enormous investment of time, money and resources and I would hate to see the investment we make in talented young players being made to the benefit of other countries.

"I hope that young people of Croatian background see Australia as their only choice, and are not forced into a system that is specifically designed to bypass playing for Australia.

"Imagine if the likes of Mark Viduka, 'Spider' Kalac, Jo Skoko, Tony Popovic and Jason Culina had been diverted from playing for Australia. All of them - and more - have worn the green and gold of the Socceroos with pride and distinction.

"We believe that by continuing to raise the profile and reputation of football in Australia, young people of diverse cultural backgrounds will see playing for the Socceroos as their only choice."

In the case of Kolak, the good news for Buckley and Arnold is that the star talent is ignoring the pleas of Croatian authorities in favour of his boyhood dream to play for the Socceroos.

"The best thing for Robbie is to cement his spot as the No.1 keeper with the Joeys and get as many games as he can with them for experience," Farah said. "Then he wants to come back and win a scholarship with the AIS, where he can develop even further.

"After that, we'd look at options for him locally first of all, hoping that he can come through the system and sign with an A-League club. If not, the overseas options are definitely there. We've already knocked back Dinamo Zagreb and the Croatian federation for now, because his main focus is to represent Australia and, one day, hopefully, play for the Socceroos."

But while Kolak may be strong enough to resist the overtures aimed at him, he is just one of many young Australian players being courted by overseas nations.

While the Croatian authorities are the most active - successfully netting 2006 World Cup trio Josip Simunic, Ante Seric and Joey Didulica - Greece have emerged as equally aggressive poachers of local talent.

Five Australians have played under-age for Greece in the past year, including Liverpool's star junior Dean Bouzanis, who joins Melbourne midfielder Apostolos Giannou in Greece's squad at the under-19 European Championship, which begin on Monday.

Spiranovic added that while it was normal for clubs to develop relations with other overseas clubs, he was not aware of clubs developing specific relations with overseas federations.

Interesting...No name on the article though, simply attributed as a Sydney Utd press release.

But if that's true, the FFA needs to take a good look at possibly implementing a similar rule to what the CBF has implemented to stop our young tallent disappearing overseas too quickly.

Bloody United can't get over the fact they are not in the top league.

You're the one that keeps harping on about the fact Leave them be and implement the same U18's rule that they have in Brazil and see what happens then.

FFA need to crack down on this...back stabbing SydUtd

crack down on what exactly? all they did was give the vice president of hhk a tour of the place, he just happen to see a kid who he liked and invited the kid to croatia, its no diffrent when a scout goes to a game to watch some kids play,

I agree, sounds very innocent to me...maybe we should send aussie reps to scout out any young talents in the uk with any Aussie ties watsoever :roll:

pretty bad example with the UK
Sydney United backstabing?..Their founded and run by Croatian immigrants and Aussies hate them...why wouldnt they help send some kids to Croatia?

I cant think of any other country australia can poach players from, except for the Richard Porat case, but that is only one player.



Well considering the Aust government gave them the grant for the land where there club and ground is at, i consider it pretty bad(same with Hajduk, Marconi, Bonnyrigg White Eagles, etc).

BTW, the reason that Sydney Utd isnt whole embraced by the 'Aussie' football community is because they have a tendency to be exclusively Croat, with the odd exceptions of some very very talented players(even they have it bad; a friend of mine is one at the moment).

Obviously their going to want to be exclusively Croat..

Whereas then you play the "Aussies hate them" card? By the way, isnt that called discrimination?

I'd say calling these Australian born players at Sydney United 'Croats' is discrimination.

The club is an important part of the Croatian community and giving opportunities to young people of Croatian heritage is a top priority. Thats why they are generally 'exclusively Croat'.

Come on, lets not fly of the hinge. What I meant was croat australian.

I dont mean to say that the club throw out their Croatian heritage. Noone has the right to deny ones background, heritage, race, creed, etc. But TBH Sydney Utds player recruitment is far less than open. E.g. if you look at their trialing system, cro heritage is more important than ability(shows on their field; currently paying with their results), whereas a club like Marconi(italian) focuses on talent before race(Senior team didnt do well but their u/20 were great).

Because of this ability to look purely on the ability these players have better chances of excelling and moving on to the next level eg. Elasi, Berger, Carle(via SydOly)

I hope all it is a meet and greet thats all but lets hope whats happened in the past with similar players doent happen again because its a total disgrace and desrepectful to this beautiful country.The ffa are on to this already.

Edited by astonvilla1: 22/9/2008 04:15:34 PM

Oy you.

This is Australia not Croatia.

You don't here Poms going lets make a pom only club.

You are Australian not Croatian and if you don't like that fact get the fuck out.

Selecting a Croatian in preference to anybody else because he is croatian is against the equal opportunities act of 1988.

The thing with Australia is, we're all australian and we've accepted all comers to our country, we let people bring their traditions and community approaches over here and we let them in, the least those people could to is reciprocate. And if you don't like it or don't think of yourself as Australian, you can leave. In fact, I'll pay for your plane ticket.

I would help pay but being an apprentice.....

Edited by guest: 22/9/2008 10:44:50 PM

hang on a sec

where in that did i say im not proud to live in australia or be australian? I'm an Australian who is proud of his Croatian heritage...
all i did was give you a reason why sydney united tend to stick with Croatian people.

Do you acknowledge that is correct though? Do you believe that their exclusivity is right or wrong?

In terms of the nationality topic:
Most people who are of ethnic backgrounds are proud to be Australian and proud to live here but are also proud of their background. It would be wrong not to be proud so I think everyone should get over the "get out of our country" business. Everyones favourite Socceroos Viduka, Skoko etc aren't any different and are just as proud as anyone else to have a Croatian background.

On the Sydney United topic:
Obviusly picking a team based on race is illigal and wrong and I understand that. Being of Croatian origins the club is always going to attract players of Croatian heritage. If a player is good enough, is not Croatian and wants to trial for Sydney United why not give them a go?

Back on topic though, Sydney United may try and send some players to Croatia but lets not forget how many they've given to Australia!

Admitidly some of the best in Cahill and Culina

I dont boubt the nationality topic, as i am australian(and very proud of it) but I too am proud of my Chilean heritage.

I still cant agree with you on the sending of players to Croatia(to benefit their NT). Its just plain wrong that their development is thaks to Australia yet the profit is enjoyed by another country(if its purely for club football then i have no objection...but we both know what its really about).

Finally, how many players have Croatia given Australia(dont mention Australians with croatian decendancy)?

Cahill has Croatian heritage?

dont think so,thought it was somoan,cahill doesnt sounds like a very croat name, names of the top of my head i can think of kalac, popovich and rudan,

Viduka, Culina, Spiranovic, Kalac, Povavic, Zelic, ZDRILIC, Djubic, Milicic, etc

[/quote]

I do feel sorry for Australia in terms of the fact that they paid and spent time on the development of these players but whether its right or wrong all second generation Australians are going to be in some way tempted to go back.

and Croatia havent given Australia any players...probably because there are no Aussies in Croatia...

Edited by croat23: 24/9/2008 03:39:00 PM

Bonnyrigg are in our comp this year..apparantly they want to play it behind closed doors

Yeah, the interweb sucks the sarcasm out of posts. They should fix that in the new version, or at least release a patch.

There's a word for that: "Racism".

Wouldn't think there were that many Croatians in australia. Scrap australia's dual citizenship rule I say. That'll put a swift stop to this bollocks.

And lets be honest, we're lucky Culina decided to play for us...Oh, and Culina first played for St. Albans too:-$

Considering what happened last time that's a good idea.

In an ideal fair world you are 100% correct.
BUT THE FACT IS people do not come here because they want to assimilate, they come here to better their lot.
Poms blend in because they are very similar to the trad aussie as are the irish,wesh ,scots,germans,italians,poles,greeks ect, but dont confuse immigration with assimilation, thats why so many europeans are leaving europe in droves,they are sick of being strangers in their own cities

Obviously youve never been to Melbourne

You're right, they don't. They're not hear to join out community, they're here to recreate the best of what they had back home. Which sucks, because the rest of us then feel like outcasts in the country we were born in and love.

No, he's right. There are a lot of them...you just have to knwo where to look. If you go into P.J O'Brien's of a weekend, you'll see that ALL the staff are foreign born just about.
But it's not just the europeans, I dont' mean to sound racist, but the Asians are flooding our borders and giving us a hard time.

Theres a fine line between preserving your culture and not assimilating. Most European immigrants love Australia and what its done for them but continue speaking their language to their grandkids and family because they dont want their heritage to be forgotten.People often think people arent integrating because they keep their language or support another countries football team but its just about being proud of your background.

Preserving your culture is having a restaurant or something. Not assimilating is Springvale/Dandenong/oakleigh/Footscray.

And a LOT of european immigrants come out here and have been here for 20/30/40 years and don't speak a word of english.

In Sydney you could list Cabramatta and Ashfield(more and more) onto that list as well(*,)

]

Ive always thought that was the biggest load of bullshit ever. Immigrants who come to Aust and qualify for all our benefits, but cant make an effort to learn the language.
My best mates grandad came over from Croatia and he was cheering to learn english. I believe its just common courtesy.

nothing shits me more then the 'imigrants' that come over and dont bother learnin to live like the australians do and act like we asked them to come over when in real fact they begged us to come here,i dont think they fully understand the diffrence australia is compared to there warn-torn contry they came from,

I'll try not to get into an argument but Australia actually did ask for immigrants(atleast the European ones post WW2). Australia needed work and Europe was the best place to get this after the hard life of WW2. The reason many of these European immigrants dont speak English is because when they came to work they mostly worked with their own people and therefore never had the need to learn English(considering some were working up to 4 jobs at a time). And not only that, you have to remember back in those days wogs were outcasts in Australia and therefore did not socialise with Aussies, they stuck with their own type(hence the formation of Croatian clubs etc).

You can think what you want to think but in my oppinion wogs(dosent include arabs) have done more good for this country than bad...and can be forgiven for not learning English

No they must know English and that goes for all races...

Almost suggesting that Arabs have been bad?

Most of these Wogs did come over in large numbers and stuck to their own. Their kids on the other hand learn English do they not? I don't really see a problem with it tbh, it was one group that came in here in difficult circumstances. It was an irregular occurrence, and they aren't passing on those traits of excluding themselves from the rest of society to anyone. Above all, migrants have done a great deal of good for this country, and far more good than bad.

Well being a descendent of one of those immigrants post WW2 I can say that don't forget that many of the women were not educated and stayed at home tending the house and/or farm whereas the men worked.

I do acknowledge the circumstances that many migrants encountered when comming to Aust, but life has become easier and accessibility is there in community programspromoted by local councils.
I dont expect many of the migrants(whether they arrived 40, 30 or 10 years ago) to speak perfect English. Many of my relatives and friends relatives speak basic english with strong accents, both in the words the say and the arrangement of those words. But that at least means that effort has been applied to make themselves accessible to others, as well as allowing them to access the wider community too.

What I cant stand is going to a place like Cabramatta, not being able to read the majority of the shop windows or advertisements and making myself feel alienated in my own country(addopted, but none the less).

The shops I understand, nothing annoys me more than seeing things written in Chinese. Obviously just like you I have people in my family that cant speak or struggle with English. They dont expect special provisions, no translations into Croatian out in the community, they respect that this is Australia and people dont speak Croatian and go about living their lives. I'm sure people like that can be respected by everyone else, they dont make a fuss and complain that nothing is in their language they just accept it and move on.

My grandfather and all his family (including my mother) came out here around 40 years ago from Lebanon.
My grandfather, grandmother, and all my uncles speak good enough English, though with accents. At home they speak in Arabic. But they all made the efforts to learn the language and are able to hold conversation with ease.

Croat dont think I am offended by your arab comment, I am not your typical Lebanese and I do understand that many Arabics have caused some problems. But so have many other races, but you are around to these Arab problems more though so which is why you think they are bad Which is understandable.

I wasn't trying to offend anyone, I have many Arab friends but its just the way I see it and I agree that many other races have caused problems. I just put 'dosent include arabs' in brackets because I dont believe Arabs are actually wogs.

I'm only familiar with the melbourne "race haunts" sorry.

The number of times I've had a chinese lady come up to me in the street, or at work, and tell me what she wanted in chinese now...it enfuriates me. If I went to a chinese casino and tried to tell them what I wanted in english, I'd be escorted off the premises.

Your Australian history sucks. The Australian immigrants from WWII are a relic of the English flooding their doors with migrants to try and get them out of the country to Australia. Several other european nations (Includign the Jews from Germany) saw fit to do likewise.

I'm sorry to point this out, but WWII was in excess of 60 years ago. What excuse to the european immigrants who have been here for 30 or 40 years have to offer up other than sheer ignorance??

Wog: Western Oriental Gentleman - you as a croat, class yourself as western oriental?? Hardly. Moreover, that's just ignorant to say that Turks, Lebanese, Greeks, Macedonians, Cypriots etc, have done more than the ENGLISH WHO FOUNDED THIS FUCKING COUNTRY is just plain ignorant, disrespectful and stupid.

But I'll still bet your father/grandfather (to whom you refer) could speak atleast SOME english!!!

Says the very person who's recieved a weeks ban on this very forum for starting a topic in croatian. The irony is sanwich worthy.

See above definition of the fucking word.

western oriental gentleman is what a wog once made up and it spread. Wog is a disease like a cold so people called European migrants wogs after they came because they thought of them as a disease! whos ignorant now?
and a weeks ban? I dont recall?
and i never said anything about wogs doing more than English...I just said they did good. You're putting words in my mouth.

add on to my previous reply:
why would someone be offended when some one is calling them a gentleman?


Edited by croat23: 16/10/2008 07:41:23 AM

Well now you have some ammo for future 'anti-sydney' arguments. [/quote]



Too true. I used to work in customer service and i copped plenty of that. Its bloody inconciderate. Im actually moving overseas too and you can be im gonna learn the language, out of common curtosy more than neccesity(spelling?)



I can see both your points here(to an extent). Afro is prob correct with his definition of the word wog, but what you also have to understand is that the word has changed in meaning as well. Where once it was exclusive to western orientals, it then was applied to refer to people of mediteranean origin, and then again to pretty much anyone of foreign origin(southrn euro, sth american, middleeastern, etc).
Contribution wise, cant really say that the immigrants have contributed more than the english(they would have had to arrive around the same time...and we would have probably spoken a different language, or two like Canada). Immigrants have helped to shape the aust profile to what it is now(a multicultural society).

Yes he knew some. I think it was better when he was working but once he retired and hardly spoke English it gets worse and worse and almost disappears.

I was just referring to the women though since that generation didn't really have working women.

Wog was originally used in Australia as a slang term for illnesses such as colds, the flu or malaria. This usage has been in existence since at least the early 1940s. It is recorded in the 1941 Popular Dictionary of Australian Slang by S. J. Baker as meaning a germ or parasite.

A once common expression in Australia (now severely outdated) when you had an illness (such as cold or flu) was ‘I am in bed with a wog’. It was said jokingly and was a double entendre referring to the use of the word ‘wog’ to describe illness and also persons of Mediterranean origin (as described below).

Wog is also an ethnic slur in Australian English. The term traditionally denoted immigrants principally of Southern European Mediterranean and Eastern European origins (and since then, also their descendants). Among those traditionally included as wogs are Australians of Italian, Greek, Maltese, Spanish, Portuguese, CROATIAN, Serbian, and Bulgarian descent.

The derogatory nature of the term when used as an ethnic slur largely succeeded in overtaking and driving out use of the term Wog to describe illness or undesirable insects.



Like I said before if it were western oriental gentleman why would it have ever been considered a racial slur or offencive. Its like me calling some of you guys British gentleman...thats a compliment not a slur.

Edited by croat23: 16/10/2008 06:28:40 PM

Thanks for not forgetting Malta :lol: it's so small how could you miss it.

I got that off wikipedia lol but never forget Malta..one of the great wog countries

How would you eat pastizzi's without us :lol: ?

Sorry im posting all of these replies all over the place.
ahhh you're wrong....never heard the term "populate or perish" in Australian history?
Australia almost got invaded by Japan in WW2 and wanted to increase the population and grow to build the country and Europe was the best way to do this. Australia basically advertised the country in Europe to attract wogs over here.

Yeah, uh, can we please limit the use of words such as "wogs" to instances when it is most appropriate, please.

I got banned for calling erebus a wog once. Wheres the consistancy? I feel ive been made an example of due to my high profile too many times.

What was the topic again?



BTW Fark, been soo long since ive had pastizzi...wanna smash a couple away now :x

There is a bakery in Sydney that make the nicest commercial ones I've tasted Called Gato's Pastizzi http://www.gatospastizzi.com.au you'll laugh when you see there home page. We buy there brand here in Adelaide.

Cant beat home made though.

F@rk, thinking of pastizzi again...my mates mum makes the best one, although im just as happy with the supermarket ones.

Pastizzi in Malta is also the another name for something else...because of the shape...:-$ 8-[

tbh, I didn't know it was a food:lol: