Melbourne City FC


Melbourne City Football Club is a professional soccer club based in Bundoora, Melbourne, Australia, that plays in the A-League, the top flight of Australian soccer, under licence from Football Federation Australia.
Founded in 2009 as Melbourne Heart, the club competed under that name from its inaugural 2010–11 season until it was acquired and subsequently rebranded in mid-2014 by the City Football Group, in partnership with Holding M.S. Australia. In August 2015, City Football Group bought out the Holding M.S. Australia consortium to acquire 100% ownership of the club.
The club is run from the City Football Academy, a facility in the northern suburb of Bundoora near La Trobe University. The club plays home matches at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, commercially known as AAMI Park, a 30,050 seat multi-use venue in Melbourne's City Centre. The club also has an affiliated youth team which competes in the National Youth League, an NPL team which competes in the National Premier Leagues and a senior women's team which competes in the W-League.

History

2010–2014: Foundation

After the dissolution of the National Soccer League in 2003, brought about by the Crawford Report, plans were drawn up for a new revamped national competition to begin the following season. Despite the calls for the new competition to feature two clubs from Melbourne, in 2004 Football Federation Australia, opting for a "one city, one team" policy, announced that the Melbourne Victory had won the licence to be the only Melbourne club to compete in the new national competition, known as the A-League. A 5-year moratorium was also established preventing any other expansion sides from the eight original A-League teams' areas entering the competition until the 2010–11 season, allowing Victory five seasons to establish itself in the Melbourne market.
On 1 March 2008, former Carlton Football Club vice-president and businessman Colin DeLutis expressed his interest in a second Melbourne A-League side, with an approach to the FFA to become sole owner of the second licence with the bid name of 'Melbourne City'. FFA chief executive Ben Buckley raised the possibility of expanding the A-League from eight to 12 teams in May 2008, in readiness for the 2009–10 season. Buckley also revealed the existence of a third Melbourne bid tentatively known as 'Melbourne Heart' backed by Peter Sidwell, to compete with the two other bids of Southern Cross FC and Melbourne City.
On 25 July 2008, the Melbourne City bid dropped out of the bidding process leaving the Melbourne Heart and Southern Cross FC bids as the last two bids standing. By September 2008, the Melbourne Heart bid was awarded exclusive negotiating rights for the league's 11th licence, beating out the South Melbourne-backed Southern Cross FC bid. Negotiations continued until Sidwell's group was awarded the licence to join the A-League's 2010–11 season by the FFA on 12 June 2009.
Heart started its inaugural season against Central Coast Mariners on 5 August 2010, at their home ground AAMI Park, losing 1–0. The club's first ever goal was an own goal scored by Ben Kantarovski in the Heart's second league game, a 1–1 draw against Newcastle Jets. Melbourne Heart's first win was a 1–0 victory over North Queensland Fury, which came in the fifth round of their first A-League season on 4 September 2010. They contested the first ever Melbourne Derby against Melbourne Victory on 8 October 2010, and won 2–1. Heart finished their first season on equal points with Newcastle Jets, but behind on goal difference in eighth position. They failed to make it into the top six teams to reach the finals, despite sitting in sixth position for majority of the season.
After a moderately more successful second season, Melbourne Heart finished 6th on the ladder, enough to make the finals. Heart's first finals game was against Perth Glory, where they were defeated 3–0 at nib stadium.

2014–present: City Football Group takeover

It was announced on 23 January 2014 that the City Football Group had acquired Melbourne Heart for $12 million. The deal involved CFG acquiring 80% of Heart, the other 20% to be held by a consortium of businessmen allied to Rugby league club Melbourne Storm. On 5 June 2014, the team obtained Spanish World Cup-winning striker David Villa on loan from New York City FC, another team owned by the City Football Group. Villa was expected to play in the A-League until New York City entered Major League Soccer in 2015. Villa played only four of an expected ten matches, scoring twice, before being recalled by New York City. Although none of the matches were won, coach John van 't Schip credited Villa with bringing attention to the new team, and it was estimated that his presence trebled the club's attendance. Ahead of the 2015–16 season, City Football Group announced it had bought out the remaining 20% share of the club held by a consortium for a $2.25 million fee, thus acquiring 100% ownership of Melbourne City Football Club.
Under manager John van 't Schip, the club developed a reputation for attacking and high-scoring soccer, with the 2015/16 season characterised as the club's most sustained period of on-field success. The signing of Uruguayan striker Bruno Fornaroli was key to the club becoming the most attacking and prolific team in the league that season. The senior team finished the regular season a club high fourth on the table whilst the women's team achieved a remarkable feat by winning all 14 of its regular season games on the way to both a maiden premiership and championship in the club's inaugural season in the women's league. The men's team qualified for its first final of any kind in November 2016, and achieved silverware when it defeated Sydney FC 1–0 in the 2016 FFA Cup Final. Despite this success, City continued to fall short in knockout finals matches, losing at the elimination or semi-finals stage of the series over successive seasons. van 't Schip left the club mid-way through the 2016/17 season to be with his terminally ill father and under the temporary stewardship of Michael Valkanis the season ended with another early finals exit.
Following van 't Schip's departure, City management signed former Manchester United Reserves and Wigan Athletic coach Warren Joyce as manager ahead of the 2017/18 season. Despite overseeing improvements in the team's defensive capabilities, Joyce was unable to bring any silverware to the club. He left the club at the end of the 2018/19 season, in which the club again failed to reach the Grand Final, though with a respectable winning percentage. Fairfax soccer journalist Michael Lynch reported that, despite shoring up the team defensively, Joyce's "two years in charge will be remembered for the number of high-profile players who departed the club" under his watch, which included a falling-out with star striker Fornaroli, as well as the departures of Neil Kilkenny, Fernando Brandán and Australia's leading goalscorer Tim Cahill.
The club appointed Frenchman Erick Mombaerts as manager ahead of the 2019/20 season, and further changes to the playing list occurred. Under Mombaerts City reached their second FFA Cup Final, though they were convincingly defeated 4–0 by the home team Adelaide United.

Name, colours and badge

Naming of Melbourne Heart

In October 2009, an online competition held by Melbourne's Herald Sun gave the public the opportunity to submit their preferences for the name of the new Melbourne team. The preferred names were released on the Herald Sun website on 13 November 2009. The four options were 'Sporting Melbourne FC', 'Melburnians', 'Melbourne Revolution' and 'Melbourne Heart FC'. Some pondered if 'Revolution' had some context considering its intimation to the Eureka Stockade, the closest Australia had come to revolution.
The name of the new club was to be announced before the end of 2009, but was delayed until early 2010 due to Melbourne Football Club objections to the use of the words Melbourne, Football and Club in the name. The Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation expressed concern that the name Melbourne Heart was too similar to its annual Heart of Melbourne Appeal, and lodged a protest with IP Australia in January 2010. The club's badge was lodged to IP Australia the same month by the FFA, and on 2 February 2010, the name of the club was announced as Melbourne Heart FC.
Initially, a colour scheme of either black and white, or red and white were the two options for the club. The eventual choice for the home kit was a red and white striped jersey with red shorts and red socks, the away kit was a red sash on white jersey, with white shorts and socks.
For the 2011–12 season Melbourne Heart introduced a third kit which would be worn for one match per season. The design of the kit for each season was determined via a fan-designed competition. All fans could enter a design submission with the final design being decided by a club panel. The winner for the 2011–12 season was Red and White Unite co-founder Steven Forbes and featured a red and white sash on a grey jersey. The 2012–13 winning third kit design had a black and charcoal hoops jersey with red sleeves. The 2013–14 winning third kit design had a red and white chequered jersey with red sleeves.

Name change to Melbourne City

After the announcement in January 2014 of a takeover of Melbourne Heart by the City Football Group, there was much speculation in the media about a potential re-brand of the club including a change of kit colour to sky blue. An application to trademark the name "Melbourne City Football Club" was lodged on 16 January, and Melbourne Heart's minority shareholders had registered the business name "Melbourne City FC" with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. However, there was no official statement from the club for some months, leaving fans in limbo as to the future identity of the club, because they robbed another team name, the original Melbourne City Football Club, established in 1991.
In April 2014, media outlets reported that Melbourne Heart had lodged an application with Football Federation Australia to rebrand the club similar to that of Manchester City, including a change of their playing strip from red and white to sky blue. It was reported that Sydney FC had lodged a formal complaint with FFA to block the proposed colour change. Sydney FC chairman Scott Barlow commented on the issue, saying "We're extremely concerned about the proposed use of sky blue by Melbourne Heart, and we've made our concerns very clear to the FFA...in a competition with only 10 teams, the idea of two teams wearing sky blue is nonsensical especially when sky blue is so closely associated with NSW".
In May 2014, it was reported that FFA had upheld Sydney FC's objection to a colour change to sky blue. However, Melbourne Heart released a statement shortly after confirming they were in discussions with Football Federation Australia on a range of matters relating to its future plans including its playing strips, indicating the matter was not settled.
The club was formally unveiled as Melbourne City FC on 5 June 2014.
Talks between Melbourne City and the FFA resumed in early 2016, and continued for a number of months —but finally, in June, the FFA announced an upcoming overhaul of the league's branding in the 2017–18 season, a commitment which allowed Melbourne City to update its brand and true primary colours by the start of the 2017–18 season. The changes will "allow for the full integration of the City Football Group’s playing strip colours" in the home kit, with the FFA Board saying "Sydney FC will retain exclusivity of its 'Sky Blue' brand as Melbourne City adopts the 'City Blue' colours."

Kits

Melbourne City's current home kit, in use since the 2017/18 season, is all-sky blue. The home kit shorts and socks are the same colour, though in the past these have been white. For many years the club utilised a red and white striped design for their away kit, though this was altered to a white zebra-shaped design with black shorts and socks ahead of the 2019/20 season. The red and white-striped design is currently the club's third kit. City wore an all-black third kit in the 2018/19 season.
Between 2014 and 2016, Melbourne City wore a mostly all-white home kit, which featured a vertical light and navy blue strip running down the right side of the kit. In the 2016/17 season, the home kit was again predominately white though the vertical strip was removed and was replaced with light blue sleeves and collar.
The away kit during the 2014/15 and 2015/16 seasons used a similar design to the traditional Melbourne Heart kits, with vertical red and white stripes strewn across. It was announced that "the away kit celebrates the club's history, the wishes of its existing fan base and the red and white that remains at the Heart of its identity. The away strip was changed to a horizontal white/red gradient in 2016/17, with the club's statement being "the kit.. displays the Club’s traditional red and white colours – a key feature of the Club’s badge".
Despite the unprecedented success City Football Group has brought to Melbourne City, many fans were uneasy about the transition from Heart to City in 2014, especially in the perceived abandoning of the club's traditional red and white colours. Some of the concerns were abated by the inclusion of red in the Supporters Scarves for the 2015–16 A-League season, and through the design of the club's away kits, which in most seasons since the CFG takeover have commemorated the club's traditional colours, red and white.

Sponsorship

Melbourne City's branding and sponsorship arrangements usually tie in with sister clubs in the City Football Group. Upon the takeover by CFG, the club's kits were supplied by Nike and it was sponsored by Abu Dhabi-based airline Etihad Airways. The Etihad sponsorship has remained though in 2019 the club's kit suppliers changed to German-based brand Puma, a deal in place for five years.
In the pre-CFG days, Melbourne Heart's foundation sponsor was financial institution Westpac for a three-year agreement believed to be worth close to $2 million, which allowed the institution's logo to be present on home and away Heart kits. Drake International, Public Transport Victoria and BDO were the other major sponsors of the club. The club signed a two-year deal with kit supplier Kappa in May 2012.
PeriodKit manufacturerFront shirt sponsorBack shirt sponsorSleeve sponsorFront short sponsorBack short sponsor
2010–2011ReebokWestpacPKFDrake InternationalMetlinkSolo
2011–2012*ISCWestpacPKFDrake InternationalMetlinkSolo
2012–2013*KappaWestpacBDO InternationalAXF Group
MatchWorks 		PTVFoxtel
2013–2014*KappaWestpacAlcatel onetouchAXF Group
MatchWorks 		Diabetes CollegeFoxtel
2014NikeEtihadHost PlusCoCo Joy
MatchWorks 		WestpacFoxtel
2015–2018NikeEtihadHost PlusCoCo Joy
MatchWorks 		WestpacFoxtel
2019–PumaEtihadHost PlusCoCo Joy
MatchWorks 		WestpacFoxtel

Stadium

Melbourne City's home ground is Melbourne Rectangular Stadium. Melbourne City's largest average season attendance is 11,047, while the largest ever attendance for a single home match is 26,457 against Melbourne Victory in round 12 of the 2012–13 A-League season.

Statistics and records

holds the record for Melbourne City appearances, having played 103 first-team matches between 2011 and 2016. Followed by central midfielder and loanee Luke Brattan comes second, having played 90 times. The record for a goalkeeper is held by Clint Bolton, with 70 appearances.
Bruno Fornaroli is the club's top goalscorer with 57 goals in all competitions between 2015 and 2019, having surpassed David Williams' total in 2016.
The club's highest home attendance was 26,579, in the December 2011 Melbourne Derby.
Melbourne City’s 2016–17 squad was the most expensive team in Australian soccer history, with team wages totalling $9.15 million.

Players

First-team squad

Youth and Under-20s

Managers

The club's current manager is Erick Mombaerts. The club's previous manager was Warren Joyce, who was appointed in June 2017. There have been six permanent managers of Melbourne City since the appointment of the club's first professional manager, John van 't Schip in 2009. The club's longest-serving manager, in thein terms of both length of tenure and number of games overseen, is John van't Schip, who managed the club between 2013 and 2017.

Corporate management

Team management

Honours

Domestic

RankTeamPoints
93 Ratchaburi Mitr Phol1.345
94 Ettifaq1.345
95 Melbourne City1.343
96 Nagoya Grampus1.340
97 Incheon United1.340

Melbourne City Women

is the women's soccer club affiliated to Melbourne City. The club holds the only record for most consecutive championships by club.
Melbourne City Women are the most successful team in the W-League since 2015. Since their debut in the W-League, they won their first three championships in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

Club facilities

For the first five years of their existence, Melbourne City trained on borrowed accommodation at LaTrobe University, operating under a partnership with the local educational body.
Following the acquisition of the club by City Football Group, Melbourne City paid $15m to construct for themselves a brand new training and administrative facilities on additional land leased in the LaTrobe University precinct, designed to a world class level. At the completion of the project, the new centre was dubbed the "City Football Academy" following the naming conventions established at the affiliated Manchester complex.

Rivalries

Melbourne City's local rivals are Melbourne Victory. Although there were many state or regional rivalries in the A-league, the Melbourne Derby was the first and only intra-city derby in the league until a second Sydney-based club, Western Sydney Wanderers joined the A-League in the 2012/13 season. The first match between the two clubs saw Melbourne City win 2–1 in front of a sold out AAMI Park crowd of over 25,000 spectators. The derby match between the two Melbourne clubs is often marked as an "annual spectacle" both on and off the pitch, attracting large crowds and frequently producing "enthralling" results and encounters.
The rivalry became more intense in the third meeting of the clubs on 22 January 2011, when Melbourne Victory's Kevin Muscat made a tackle on Adrian Zahra, which earnt Muscat a red card and an eight-week suspension, and was the direct cause of a season-ending knee injury to Zahra. The two rivals have met in a finals series match only once, in the 2014–15 season, when City lost 0–3 to a clinical Melbourne Victory outfit. City has defeated Victory in the only FFA Cup derby held between the two clubs, City winning the semi-final match 2–0.