Football Victoria’s Pride Cup continues its success

The fourth edition of the annual Pride Cup took place recently with a match between the Victoria Police Soccer Club (VPSC) and Melbourne Rovers SC.

The game was played at the Darebin International Sports Centre at the conclusion of the 2020 Midsumma Festival.

The Pride Cup celebrates the strengthening relationship between the Victoria Police and the LGBTIQ communities.

Assistant Commissioner Steve Fontana represented Victoria Police on the day, with Kimon Taliadoros representing Football Victoria.

VPSC were the winners of the Pride Cup this year, defeating the Rovers 7-4.

Both sides have now won the trophy twice over the four years.

“On behalf of all at Victoria Police Soccer Club, Melbourne Rovers FC and everyone involved with the 2020 Pride Cup, I would like to thank Football Victoria for its ongoing and significant support of this annual event,” VPSC Secretary Ronald Sinclair said.

“Without Football Victoria’s generous assistance, this event would not be such a success. Finally, Cindy Nitsos from South Melbourne FC captured the spirit of the event with some magnificent photos.”

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Philip Panas is a sports journalist with Soccerscene. He reports widely on football policy and industry matters, drawing on his knowledge and passion of the game.

The serious waves Series Futsal have made and what it means for the sport

Football within Victoria in a broad sense is difficult to unpack from multiple angles. What is clear is the passion displayed by fanatics.

Although not a traditional form of football, it’s cousin futsal has slowly emerged as a popular indoor sport that has abundance of opportunity within Australia’s major futsal organisation, Futsal Oz.

Futsal Oz has been the manifestation of the football extraordinaire Peter Parthimos, who founded the entity in 2006. When discussing with Peter in regards to why he created Futsal Oz, he discussed how he wished to unify people, provide competitive competitions to those who played the sport, all the while providing opportunity to those who want to play on a leisurely level all the way to a professional level.

Despite having a turbulent tenure throughout the global pandemic in 2020. Futsal Oz came out of Covid-19 with a newly furbished Futsal court fit for its most talented players. The court resides in their Thomastown location. Series Futsal is currently the highest level of futsal across the country and features abundance of Australia’s most coveted football players.

Melbourne-owned Sport Recreational Wear manufacturer AKU is a proud partner, with many women’s and men’s series sides opting to use AKU as a kit sponsor. The company also designed and created kits which were featured in the monthly major event in Thomastown, combining the best players across the Series Futsal competition to represent their respective ethnicities. The event was broadcasted on FireTv, a subsidiary to American-Bulgarian Company TrillerTv, who specialise in combat and European Sport streaming. Melbourne born Commentator Michael Schiavello spearheaded the broadcast acting as executive producer.

Each Wednesday and Friday the competitions are streamed live via YouTube and its independently ran application “Wefroth”, allowing its humble yet passionate fanatics to watch each round of Series Futsal unfold.

Through the running of competitions and the opportunities it sets through broadcast, futsal is in a healthy position.

Feyenoord secure record shirt sponsorship deal with MediaMarkt

German electronics retailer MediaMarkt will become the new shirt sponsor of Dutch club Feyenoord for the 2024-25 season in a record multi-year deal.

The two parties have agreed a three-year deal – through to the conclusion of 2026-27 – believed to be worth around €20 million (AU$33.1 million) in total, according to Dutch outlet De Telegraaf.

The company will replace EuroParcs which has been featured on the front of the Eredivisie club shirts since 2021.

MediaMarkt is a German multinational chain of stores selling consumer electronics with over 1000 stores in ten countries in Europe. The company is one of the largest sellers of electronics in Europe with a total of nearly 2.1 million products sold in 2023.

MediaMarkt’s head office is in Rotterdam and the company became convinced of the collaboration after gaining insight into various data about Feyenoord that suggests large growth is imminent.

It became attractive for the company because Feyenoord has gained a greater reputation not only nationally, but also internationally through long, reasonably successful participations in the Conference League, the Europa League and also the group stages of the Champions League.

As a result of this on-field success, the MediaMarkt partnership would be the Dutch clubs most lucrative shirt sponsorship deal which follows on from a record kit supply deal signed by Feyenoord last year with Castore, a UK sportswear brand.

Feyenoord have been winning off the field as well, recording record net revenue numbers in two of the last four years, including the 2022/2023 season which amounted to €99 mil (AU$164.2 mil), a thirteen percent increase on the previous year.

In domestic shirt sales, they ranked third last season behind PSV and Ajax but are projected to overtake PSV in 2023/24 after their recent league success.

Feyenoord has a tradition of long-term contracts with main sponsors, MediaMarkt will only be the eighth big name on the shirt. More than half a century ago in 1982, the Gouden Gids was the first shirt sponsor.

This deal is proof of Feyenoord’s incredible growth on and off the pitch with their marketing and trophy successes. MediaMarkt hopes to grow further by investing in Feyenoord’s upward trajectory, located right near their main headquarters.

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