Look how many people have a view on this and how many comments south Melbourne in the a-league gets.

That just tells you one thing,,,they would be a perfect expansion side.

I personally like South and think they would be the best candidate by a long way.

I don't know City would whinge too much.
Any lost fans to South would be made up for with 25k plus matches at these derbies as well.

City have Timmy and success, that will carve them out a place in a fickle town like Melbourne. SMFC will be a link to the NSL, it would be great to see Wollongong and/or the Strikers join them.

South Melbourne would seem to tick all the boxes ,that havent yet been set.They are where the fish .They would give six new derbies.They have a clearly defined support base,even if this is also based on heritage.
The big thing against them would be City Group .If they were agreeable ,then ,they should come in .
Time will tell whether their ultras end up docking their team points.Either way their presence would provide a lot of new news.(the newest metric)

SM is exactly what the FFA want. Self sustainable, have a fan base, would create massive interest in Melbourne causing more support of the sport in the city, would create 6 derbies which the TV people would love.

Really think another NZ team deserves a spot before these guys. 

They do bring trouble with them though, not necessarily them but Victory fans love to start fights with them.

I concur

True they do, but if derby matches are properly policed like they should be it wouldn't be a problem.

great club and wish them all the best, was great hosting them in pre season last season.

Missed my point brother. Namely WHO is she, how did she make her fortune (I.e. Chinese investment in Aussie Real Estate causing discontent in the community) and why is South seeking Chinese funding for their bid.

Am I clearer now?

True, I suppose its not like the FFA do anything anyway, threats and suspended sentences. 

To all those supporting SM's entry.
Would you be happy for FFA to allow entry on the basis that the HELLAS, HELLAS chant was banned?
Because I see this as the most obvious hurdle to SM proving they no longer have the mono cultural supporter base.

No money no honey. 

More derbies though :D

In Melbourne yes. Auckland v Wellington or Christchurch v Wellington is not a Derby. The common Aussie based soccer fan in the street has little care for the demands of the Kiwi Soccer Community, especially ehrn they try and intervene in the running of the A-League.

South M will generate a lot of news.Plus this news will spread outside of Melb,when you consider each big city has its own Olympic football club and hence potential support for South M.
South M is a well know brand name ,so easy to promote.
Then there is the potential for old rivalries,like Perth Glory ,Newcastle and Strikers if they came in.
I think that Melb Heart/City has shown that bringing in a big city team with no geographical or demographic identity after an existing team already exists ,does not work.Future teams need something people can identify with.

@ crimsoncrusoe

Spot on with that statement on "identity".

SMFC is an interesting case, in that it seems like the fans didn't also become fans of Victory or City when the HAL was introduced so I reckon Victory and City would see a minimal drop in fans (could be wrong here, just seems that way when you talk to SMFC fans). So there is definitely a large enough existing fan base that has been waiting patiently for a chance to return to national football.  If they are successful, I just hope the FFA are smart enough to allow them to keep their colours and branding. They have a large fan base with a long history, and to tell them they need to change their colours would be a big slap in the face. So what if Melbourne has 3 blue clubs, that's what away strips are for. I imagine the FFA may have some hangups about them being publicly perceived as an 'ethnic' club, but I think the FFA has started to realise that trying to re-invent the wheel with a brand new club sees a far slower turn around to overall profit than an existing wheel in perfectly good working order. 

we have seen that ffa policies asking clubs to become more mainstreams do not work and only create anger. It is up to South Melbourne to do this themselves and for the FFA to determine if they have marketed themselves well enough to merit a spot in the national top flight.

The bid was mentioned on radio 3aw during its news break and SEN this morning, bozza was on sen and backed the bid to come in immediately, surprisingly even the bogan hosts were upbeat about it, I'm shocked at how much traction this is gaining in the media down here and social media has lit up.

Don't think any other bid could possibly stir up this amount of emotion.

@ Southmelb

It even got mentioned on news radio in Brisbane this morning. The FFA would be foolish to overlook this bid without good reason - as you say there is no other potential entrant that could create as much PR as South.

Go play in traffic

Your paranoia is always clear...

She's an Australian citizen with a legitimately earned income...  If you want to go beyond that you have to ask the same questions about all of the owners.

Unfortunately, no matter how good SMFC's bid is, the FFA wont let them back because this would then open the door to other effnik clubs and would threaten the return to the "bad old" NSL days of effnik violence & flares (as opposed to the much better stralylan flares and violence of the HAL).

What like the City Group one that was on multiple front page covers of newspapers and even had the Herald Sun cartoonists out?

What other ethnic club in Australia has the same amount of assets/benefits going for it as South Melbourne?

City group was a buyout of heart, I'm talking about an actual bid gaining traction, when the bid is made official at the end of the month it will definately hit the papers down here if today's reaction is anything to go by, will be interesting to see if it makes any of the evening news bulletins.

And I might do that, thank you very much. Especially when South charges the kids 2000 per year to play there.

X2