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Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional football (soccer) club in the Australian A-League. Based in Melbourne, Victoria, Melbourne Victory FC is the largest club in the league, drawing the largest average crowds of any club and consistently setting league and domestic club football attendance records.

Melbourne Victory FC is also the most successful club in the history of the A-League, having won four major domestic titles in as many seasons. Melbourne Victory are the only club to complete the Premiership-Championship double having in fact completed the Premiership-Championship double twice, winning both during the 2006–07 and 2008–09 seasons. Melbourne Victory are also the first and only club to complete the domestic treble, winning the Challenge Cup, Premiership and Championship, all in the 2008–09 season.

Melbourne Victory are the reigning A-League Premiers and Champions, following their success in the 2008–09 season.

The Beginning
Melbourne Victory was founded in 2003 after the announcement of a revamped domestic league in Australia, which saw the National Soccer League disbanded in 2003 and replaced by the A-League.

Football Federation Australia (FFA) approved the Melbourne Victory consortium as Melbourne's representative in the league, with Belgravia Leisure Pty Ltd backing the club. The chairman and CEO of Belgravia Leisure, Geoff Lord, was installed as the inaugural chairman of Melbourne Victory FC. Melbourne Victory’s major sponsor was Samsung, with KFC also taking up the sleeve sponsor.

Gary Cole (an ex-Socceroo) was hired to become Football Operations manager, and was soon joined by Ernie Merrick, appointed as head coach from the Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS). Archie Thompson, a then regular Socceroo who had been playing in Belgium with Lierse S.K., was the club's first player signing. The club soon signed three more internationals for the inaugural squad — then Socceroo Kevin Muscat, Austrian Richard Kitzbichler and Belgian Geoffrey Claeys.


 * Trial match #1 MV/VIS vs Oakleigh Cannons 30 April 2005
 * Trial match #2 MV vs Bulleen Zebras 4 May 2005
 * FIFA Club World Championship Adelaide vs MV 7 May 2005

The remainder of the squad was quickly assembled, although room was left for signings before Melbourne played its first competitive match against Adelaide United in a World Club Championship qualifier. Unfortunately, this resulted in an inconsistent first season. Although highlights included a 5–0 drubbing of major rivals Sydney FC, Melbourne Victory finished as the worst Australian team (ahead of the New Zealand Knights), whilst Sydney, their major rivals went on to win the first A-League Championship.

The Victory has also set up a sister-city relationship with Chinese Super League Club, Tianjin Teda FC. The two clubs play against each other annually during the off-season, known as the Lord Mayor’s Cup.

Melbourne Victory are considered a broad-based club, appealing to all nationalities. The team colours — navy blue and white — are traditionally Victorian state colours.

Early Years 2005–2010
It was widely believed that Melbourne Victory would be contenders for the A-League championship but their inaugural season in the Hyundai A-League was anything but — the team only managed seven wins out of twenty-one matches, finishing second last.

The season saw Melbourne Victory sign two returning Socceroos, (Archie Thompson and Kevin Muscat). The highlight of the season was the 5–0 thrashing of eventual champions Sydney FC (with 2 goals from Archie Thompson and Kevin Muscat, and one from Richard Kitzbichler). At the end of the season the Melbourne Victory player of the year award was handed to Kevin Muscat, and the club top goal scorer going to Archie Thompson.

Melbourne began the 2006–2007 Hyundai A-League season hoping to vastly improve on their 7th place in the inaugural 2005–2006 season. Coach Ernie Merrick had made a number of off-season signings to bolster the squad with skill and experience including 3 Brazilians Alessandro, Claudinho, Fred along with Scottish Premier League player Grant Brebner. After a hugely successful round 2 fixture against Sydney FC at Etihad Stadium which attached the largest home and away crowd for regular club match, Melbourne Victory announced that they would move all but one match from Olympic Park to the new venue Melbourne would become  the first team to complete the A-League double in the history of the competition; clinching the premiership against the New Zealand Knights 4–0 at Olympic Park with 4 rounds of competition remaining, then beating Adelaide United 6–0 in the grand final at a sold out Etihad Stadium to take the championship. Melbourne also qualified for the 2008 Asian Champions League as A-League Champions.

Looking to capitalise on their successful 2006–07 campaign, Melbourne made some strong off-season signs including former Socceroo Ljubo Milicevic and Costa Rican international Carlos Hernández to cover the hole left by the departure of Fred to MLS club DC United. Again with the league largest crowds and a record membership of over 20,000, Melbourne were undefeated after 7 rounds but the season would slip away with some poor home performances and a mounting injury list. A late season rally gave Melbourne a hope of making the finals up to the second last round but they would finish 5th, 4 points out of the finals. Melbourne became the first side in A-League history to score 100 goals, reaching the mark after 65 games, with their first goal against Wellington Phoenix at Etihad Stadium on 11 January 2008. The 2008 Asian Champions League campaign started with a 2–0 home victory of Korean side Chunnam Dragons but inexperience was to show with the team not able to adapt to the East Asian style and long away trips.

The 2008–09 season brought the start of the A-League Youth League and the introduction of the W-League. Melbourne fielded teams in both competitions. Melbourne actively recruited, bringing in Socceroo Michael Thwaite, Costa Rican World Cup player José Luis López as well as Ney Fabiano from Asian Champions League rivals Chonburi FC.

Melbourne's season got off to an optimal start, winning the Pre-Season Challenge Cup. A 0–0 draw resulted in a penalty shoot-out, Victory winning 8–7 against the Wellington Phoenix.

After grabbing the Pre-Season Cup, the Victory were held to a 0–0 draw away against Sydney FC. They reinforced their premiership favouritism by coasting to 4–2 and 5–0 victories against Wellington Phoenix and the Newcastle Jets. Despite this, they succumbed 0–2 to an undermanned Sydney side at Etihad Stadium in front of 32,000 fans.

On the 6th of December, they became the 1st A-League club to amass total crowd figures of 1,000,000. On the 24th of January, Melbourne Victory won its final game of the season against Wellington Phoenix. The 2–0 win in front of 29,904 fans placed Victory ahead of Adelaide United on goals scored for the premiership title, a margin United failed to achieve in its 1–0 win over the Central Coast Mariners.

The Victory kicked off their finals campaign on the 7 February 2008 in the major semi-final first leg against bitter rival Adelaide United at Hindmarsh Stadium, a game which was won courtesy of goals from Costa Rican Carlos Hernández and Danny Allsopp. The second leg would see Melbourne demolish Adelaide United 4–0 with goals from Thompson, Hernandez, Allsopp and Pondlejak, granting Melbourne passage to the Grand Final on a 6–0 aggregate. Adelaide then defeated Queensland to set up a rematch with Melbourne in the Grand Final, which the Victory won 1–0 with Tom Pondeljak scoring in the 59th minute to regain the A-League Championship and becoming the fist A-League team to win their 2nd Championship.

In, 2009-2010, Greek gambling giant Intralot became the Melbourne Victory's new major sponsor to replace Samsung. Their logo now features on the front of Melbourne Victory's new strip.

The Victory made some off-season changes by releasing Steve Pantelidis to Gold Coast United & Sebastian Ryall to Sydney FC. Michael Thwaite will leave the club and go on loan to Gold Coast United for the new season. Several new signing were made, bringing goalkeeper Glen Moss from Wellington Phoenix, Thai midfielder Surat Sukha from Chonburi FC, the promotion of Matthew Theodore from the youth squad and the permanent signing of veteran Carlos Hernandez from L.D. Alajuelense for three years after his two year loan with Melbourne Victory.

Corporate
Geoff Lord and his partners have become the sole owners of Melbourne after buying out the shares held by Football Federation Australia.

Victory struggled to raise the initial $5 million equity capital to join the A-League three years ago and the FFA helped the club over the line by contributing franchise and set-up fees of about $500,000.

The FFA took a ten per cent holding in the club in return, as well as having a representative on the Victory board.

The shareholding was offered back to the club in 2007 and Lord and his partners — including Ron Peck, Richard Wilson and John Harris — raised the money to buy the shares.

The ownership of the club is structured as such:
 * Geoff Lord — 50%
 * Private Investors — 50%

Sponsors
On 27 October 2005, South Korean electronics giant Samsung became the club's major sponsor in a two year deal. This would ensure that Samsung would have their logo feature on the front and the back of Victory's home and away kits. Prior to the 2006–07 season KFC announced they would also be one of Victory's shirt sponsor's, with their logo appearing on the sleeve of Victory's home and away kits. On 28 January 2009 Samsung said that they would not be renewing their sponsorship for the 2009–10 Hyundai A-League season.

Greek gambling giant Intralot became the Melbourne Victory's new major sponsor when they signed a two season $2 million dollar contract on 4 May 2009. Their logo now features on the front of Melbourne Victory's new playing strip.

Colours and badge
Melbourne's kit colours are navy blue, silver and white, which encompass the traditional state sporting colours of Victoria. In the first A-League season, only the club badge displayed a chevron, known colloquially as the "Big V", a symbol traditionally used by the Victoria Australian rules football team. In the 2006–07 season the away strip was changed to a grey jersey with a white chevron on the front. This was an immediate hit with the club's supporters, and from the 2007–08 season onwards the Melbourne's home jersey also sported the white chevron on the front. A new kit was introduced for the 2008 AFC Champions League due to AFC rules requiring kits to have player numbers on the front of the uniform as well as the back, which would not fit well with the 'V' on the Victory's regular kit. For the 2009–10 season, Melbourne changed their away jersey to be a reverse of their home jersey; a white shirt with a blue chevron.

A-League AFC

Stadium


Melbourne were originally based at the aging Olympic Park stadium, where they played all home matches during the 2005–06 A-League season. This stadium has seated areas only on the wings, with standing-room sandy terraces on the north and south ends.

On the back of a then-record regular season attendance of 39,730 at the all-seater Etihad Stadium for the match against Sydney FC on 2 September 2006, it was announced that seven home matches would be moved to "the Dome". Only one match (due to a Robbie Williams concert) — against the struggling New Zealand Knights — would remain at Olympic Park.

This move to such a large stadium was viewed with scepticism by many, but proved to be an outstanding success, with the average attendance rising to over 27,000 during the season. However, some of the Victory's active supporter groups have little affection for "The Dome", citing over-zealous security restrictions for hampering their efforts on match day.

Prior to the 2006–07 season the club had planned to move to a new stadium being built to the east of the current Olympic Park complex. The new Melbourne Rectangular Stadium was originally expected to seat approximately 20,000 spectators (expandable to 25,000) and was to be completed in time for the start of the 2008–09 campaign.

These plans have since been revised after the Victory refused to commit to playing at such a small capacity stadium. On May 23 2007, the club announced it had signed as a founding co-tenant of the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, which would now be built to accommodate a maximum of 31,000 spectators with further renovations to 50,000 possible.

Etihad Stadium will continue to serve as the club's home ground until the completion of the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium. The club will split its home games between the new stadium and Etihad Stadium from the 2009–10 A-League campaign; the games of less importance or potential drawing power at the new stadium and the 'blockbusters' and finals matches at Etihad Stadium. This decision has left a large amount of fans with a bitter taste in their mouth as it means they will never see their team play against arch rivals Sydney FC or Adelaide United at what many regard as Melbourne's true home ground.

Rivalry
Rivalry exists with Sydney FC and Adelaide United. Victory have recorded big wins against Adelaide (6–0 in the 2006–07 Grand Final) and Sydney (5–0 during the 2005–06 Season).

Sydney is considered Melbourne's major rival, due to Melbourne and Sydney being Australia's two largest cities (see Melbourne-Sydney rivalry). Matches between the two teams are regularly controversial and bitter encounters. Strong tensions are also emerging between the supporters from opposing teams, evident in the sell-out crowds, and Melbourne's regular large travelling group of away supporters.

Adelaide is Melbourne's geographical rival as it is the closest team to Melbourne in Australia. This rivalry also stems from the other football codes, where the interstate rivalry is big between Victorians and South Australians. Rivalry has also built up from previous encounters, when an incident between the then Adelaide United manager, John Kosmina, and Victory skipper Kevin Muscat took place during a sideline altercation during a match in the 2006–07 season, and when Victory striker Ney Fabiano allegedly spat in the direction of Adelaide defender Robert Cornthwaite during Round 4 in the 2008–09 season. Ney Fabiano was banned for 6 matches. Victory and Adelaide contested both the 2006–07 and 2008–09 grand finals, with Melbourne winning both.

The FFA has also announced that a second Melbourne team will enter the competition in the 2010-11 season.

Supporters
Melbourne has a number of supporter groups with each group dynamics reflecting the style of support. The vast majority of supporters groups reside under the collective umbrella names of either the North or South Terrace. Each Terrace takes its name from the geographical position supporter groups occupied during the first A-league season at the 50-year old Olympic Park stadium.

While the style of support for both the North and South Terrace in the early days could be characterised as either European or British respectively, the styles in years gone by are merging to create a unique Australian style of support, neither European nor British.

The oldest supporters groups at the club (now entering their fifth year) are the UNION, Southern Death Crew (SDC) and the Blue White Brigade (BWB). The Blue White Brigade is often mistaken for all that occupy the collective North Terrace but is one of four entities that are often looked towards in terms of ‘active support’ on match day. The others include Nomadi ( a breakaway group from BWB), BWB Youth (an affiliate group that shares some resources with BWB but operates separately) and the Independent Terrace Alliance (ITA)).

With the introduction of home-end membership (HEM) by the FFA in season 2008/2009, the collective North Terrace guided and supported by elements of Nomadi, ITA and BWB, began a peaceful protest against the FFA decision by participating in a campaign of "zero active –support" on game day. This included not taking up their usual positions on Level 1 in the recognised active home-end. After several months the Blue and White Brigade and the unofficial North Terrace Capo ‘Tunna’ returned to Level 1 to take up the role of leading active support. In the weeks that followed most of the remaining groups (Nomadi, ITA) had returned.

The South Terrace has grown considerably over the years and now compares in size to the North Terrace.

Former notable players
See also List of Melbourne Victory FC players

Below is a list of notable footballers who have previously played for the Melbourne Victory. Generally, this means players that have played 50 or more first-class matches for the club. However, some players who have played fewer matches are also included, as are the club's integral founding members, where integral members of a championship winning team, have at least one senior international cap or made significant contributions to the club's history.

Personnel
Senior Club Officials
 * Chairman: Geoff Lord
 * Director: Ron Peck
 * Director: Richard Wilson
 * Director: Anthony Di Pietro
 * Director: Mario Biasin
 * Director: Ian McLeod
 * Director: John Harris
 * CEO: Geoff Miles

Senior Squad Coaching and Medical staff
 * Football Operations Manager: Gary Cole
 * Manager: Ernie Merrick
 * Assistant Manager: Aaron Healey
 * Assistant Manager: Kevin Muscat
 * Goalkeeping Coach: Steve Mautone
 * Strength & Conditioning Coach: Adam Basil
 * Sports Scientist: Anita Pedrana
 * Physiotherapist: Sam Bugeja
 * Physiotherapist: Daniel Jones
 * Doctor: Dr Anik Shawdon

Youth Squad Coaching Staff
 * Manager: Mehmet Durakovic
 * Assistant Manager: Steve Mautone

W-League Team Coaching Staff
 * Manager: Matthew Shepherd

Coaches

 * 2005–Present 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇦🇺 Ernie Merrick

Honours

 * Club


 * A-League Premiership:
 * Premiers (2): 2006–07, 2008–09
 * A-League Championship:
 * Champions (2): 2006–07, 2008–2009
 * A-League Pre-Season Challenge Cup
 * Champions (1): 2008–09
 * '''QNI North Queensland Trophy
 * Winners (1) 2006
 * '''Lord Mayors Cup
 * Winners (1) 2007


 * Individual

List of Individual award winners who won awards while playing for Melbourne Victory FC.


 * A-League Golden Boot Winners
 * - 2005/06: Archie Thompson *
 * - 2006/07: Daniel Allsopp


 * Joe Marston Medal Winners
 * - 2006/07: Archie Thompson
 * - 2008/09: Tom Pondeljak


 * A-League Rising Star
 * - 2006/07: Adrian Leijer


 * A-League Goalkeeper of the Year
 * - 2006/07: Michael Theoklitos
 * - 2007/08: Michael Theoklitos


 * A-League Coach of the Year
 * - 2006/07: Ernie Merrick

(*) Indicates co-winner

Year-by-year history
=Records and Statistics=

For detailed records and statistics see Records and Statistics

Records

 * Record Victory: 6–0 vs Adelaide United, A-League Grand Final, February 18 2007
 * Record Defeat: 0–4 vs Newcastle Jets, January 19 2007
 * Record High Attendance: 55,436 vs Adelaide United, Etihad Stadium, Melbourne, February 18 2007
 * Record High Attendance (Season): 50,333 vs Sydney FC, Etihad Stadium, Melbourne, December 8 2006
 * Most Goals by a Player in a Game: 5 - Archie Thompson, A-League Grand Final, February 18 2007
 * Most Wins in a Row: 8 - February 4 2006 – October 8 2006
 * Highest Season Average Attendance: 27,728 - A-League 2006–07
 * All-time Leading Goal Scorer: Archie Thompson, Danny Allsopp - 39 goals (as of August 15 2009)
 * A-League Leading Goal Scorer: Archie Thompson - 38 goals (as of August 15 2009)
 * Most Goals In a Regular Season: Danny Allsopp - 11 goals, A-League 2006–07, 2008–09
 * All-time Leading Appearances: Danny Allsopp - 93 appearances (as of August 15 2009)
 * A-League Leading Appearances: Danny Allsopp - 87 appearances (as of August 15 2009)
 * Longest Period Without Conceding a Goal: 475 minutes - January 11 2009 – August 6 2009 Goalkeeper Michael Theoklitos

Leading Scorers
Last updated August 15 2009,
 * Competitive, professional matches only, appearances including substitutes appear in brackets.

Most Number of Appearances

 * Competitive, professional matches only including substitution, number of appearances as a substitute appears in brackets.

Last updated August 15 2009,