Greater emphasis will be placed on celebrating and preserving Australia’s rich but often overlooked football history after an official heritage committee was announced.
On Friday Football Federation Australia said it was acting on one of the new board’s main priorities to recognise the game’s history by launching plans to centralise memorabilia collected by individuals over time, with a longer-term ambition to establish a bespoke football museum.
“It is time to preserve and honour Australian football’s heritage and those associated with it,” the FFA chairman, Chris Nikou, said. “I am pleased that we will be able to dedicate the resources towards promoting football’s valuable cultural, social, economic and historical significance.”
As part of the push, FFA will introduce annual awards to recognise those who have played a significant part in the game throughout its long history in Australia.
The Fox Sports commentator Simon Hill, who is among several members of the football community invited on to the committee, said it was time to “recognise and reconcile the past”.
“[It’s time to] pay our due respects to a game that, despite the popular narrative, is 160 years old in Australia,” Hill said. “We must celebrate our greats and our history, good and bad, because a sport that forgets its past has no future.”
Hill will be joined on the committee by his fellow commentator Andy Harper, publisher Bonita Mersiades, former Matilda Heather Garriock, former Socceroo Peter Katholos, author Trevor Thompson and Jamie Warren, chairman of the Johnny Warren Football Foundation.
Football historians Roy Hay and Ian Syson, and the prominent statistician Andrew Howe are among a panel of experts who will form a subcommittee to support the heritage committee.
“In the past we have relied on passionate individuals to document our history, to collect memorabilia, to showcase our history, and it’s now time to bring all of this together in a coordinated way for the entire community to enjoy,” FFA’s director, Remo Nogarotto, said.
