It’s that time of the year again, where we review the season and sadly it is once again bad news for the Club, as it has been yet another disappointing season for Sydney Olympic, both on and off the field, with questions remaining throughout various aspects of the club.
On the field, the Club has had yet another unsatisfactory season.Although season 2025 has seen a slight improvement – very slight – compared to 2023 and 2024, the Club has once again failed to finish in the Top 6 and have again failed to qualify for the Finals, a bare minimum requirement for Sydney Olympic.
Even the most cock-eyed optimist, would have to now admit and acknowledge, that the entire 3 seasons as a whole under Labinot Haliti, have been a disaster.
This year we had the added debacle of some fool in the Club office not filling in a form properly / not sending information on time to Football NSW, which for some bizarre reason resulted in the Sydney Olympic 1st Grade team, receiving a 3 point deduction as punishment.
For this office / administration stuff-up aside, the geniuses at Football NSW came to the conclusion that a 3 point deduction was necessary for this very serious “crime”.
It is actually ridiculous, especially when you consider that year after year, they continue to turn a blind eye to numerous disgraceful situations and acts, by the same usual specific teams, yet you never see any punishment handed out to them and if any sanction has ever been handed out, it is either a light penalty, or a “suspended” one, which ultimately means nothing.
Maybe someone at the Club should investigate certain people inside Football NSW, who have had vendettas against Sydney Olympic for many years, starting off with that well known, nepo pencil-necked geek.
Back to the last 3 seasons, we have finished:
9th in 2023 – 10 wins – 9 draws – 11 losses
8th in 2024 – 13 wins – 3 draws – 14 losses
7th in 2025 – 12 wins – 7 draws – 11 losses
Out of 90 matches in the League, the club has won 35, lost 36 and drawn 19.
Yes you heard that correctly, we’ve only won 35 matches out of 90 in 3 years.
Give him another extension.
We have failed to make the Top 6 / Finals in any of the last 3 seasons, since we were Minor Premiers in 2022. We actually, sacked the coach – Ante Juric – who took us to that Minor Premiership; ironically we have kept the same coach – Labinot Haliti – that has had 3 abysmal seasons in a row.
Make it make sense!
And to make it all the more worse, there has not been so much as 1 good Cup run in either the Waratah Cup or the Australia Cup in any of the past 3 seasons, to compensate for this poor League record.
How is it, that after 3 years and after everything we have seen, it still has not occurred to certain people at the Club, that the current coach is just not good enough, how many more chances does he get, how many more years do you need, to finally see it?
I implore anybody out there to investigate whether a coach anywhere, who has failed for 3-straight seasons, has kept his job at a club. It is unheard of in general, let alone at Sydney Olympic, where for right or wrong throughout its history, the Club has never been shy of telling a coach to pack his bags.
The current coach, Labinot Haliti – δεν κάνει – he is not good enough to lead Sydney Olympic and never has been, end of discussion.
Is the Club going to look at making a change? From everything that I’m hearing, they are not. So if that’s the case, expect even less people to turn up to matches in the future and expect more years of on-field failure coming up.
Recruitment has also been a shambles, we sign players who are not good enough, some players sign for the Club only to renege a few weeks later, while other players are simply not being given opportunities at the Club.
The Club has also been a revolving door, players come in and others are cleared out seemingly on a weekly basis, I can’t keep up with who is in the squad at certain points during the season.
Then you have the panic signing of players with 6 weeks to go in the season, these signings are a waste of time and money and almost every single time, it is far too late for any of them to make a big enough of an impact, to our chances of any success.
There is no stability.
The lack of Greeks in 1st Grade, is also a common and legitimate gripe from supporters, especially when you consider how many of them are floating around in the NPL system.
Yes this is Australia not Greece, but it would be nice to have more Greek players wearing the Sydney Olympic shirt, wouldn’t it?
All in all, it has been a disgraceful 3 seasons in a row under Haliti, this team is going no where under this coach and for the good of the Club and for the good of the people currently in charge at the Club, the right decision better be made and we see the back of him, now.
Off the field, it has also been a circus, chopping and changing between Belmore and Kogarah during the last couple of years, the disgrace that is the Belmore Sports Ground pitch and the Club having to train all the way out at Valentine Park at Glenwood.
Obviously, the lack of a proper home or base, goes far beyond the current administration and board of the Club. They are not to blame, but they sure have inherited the disease.
The crooks and thieves who did nothing for over half a century are to blame.
However, this is an issue that has been and continues to be an albatross around the club’s neck going on 68 years now and I don’t see that changing any time soon. Going here, there and everywhere all in one season is not good for the Club, the players or for the supporters.
There have also been rumours lately, that the President of the Club is looking at getting involved with the Gosford Mariners in the a-league, One would have thought that he’d have his hands full with Sydney Olympic, but no, he apparently also wants to get involved with and piss money up the wall with that abomination of a franchise and competition.
It’s his money I guess, I just would have thought that there were enough issues going on at Sydney Olympic to keep him busy here, guess not.
Onto this “Championship” which will now be commencing in October 2025, that was once supposed to be a proper National 2nd Division, linked with promotion and relegation with the a-league above and with the NPL’s below and which has now become a slightly enlarged version of the National NPL Finals, that operated between 2013 and 2019 and which was then scrapped.
Honestly, what is the point of it now?
It’s been watered down to such an extent to where it is essentially a waste of time and a massive waste of money, when you also consider that certain clubs – Sydney Olympic included – paid a big fee to be involved and yet some other teams are qualifying for it now, based on merit.
It’s all over the shop.
On the Club / Fan engagement front, it is abysmal across all the various social media sites and the Club is way down the pecking order, compared to how other clubs operate. Throw in the deleting and hiding and blocking of comments and fans by the club and it is another amateur shit-show.
A rare, potentially positive news story was the announcement by the Club, that there will be a new Sydney Olympic Crest, to replace the bland and uninspiring one in use currently and which has been in use for the last 10 years or so.
The Club put out a survey around a month ago, asking for feedback from members and supporters about what it should contain and what it should like etc. without knowing the results of this survey, I dare say that the Olympic Rings were at the top of the list in terms of the responses given, to be included in the new Club Crest.
We’ve gone through this all before about copyrights and trademarks regarding the usage of the Olympic Rings, but if the Club genuinely wanted to bring them back, they could, despite all the alleged legal threats.
Fancy telling a sporting club which was founded by Greeks, that they can’t use some sort of version of the Olympic Rings on its club imagery. Without Greeks, there would never have been an Olympic Games to begin with, malakes.
In my opinion, I think it is a long shot for them to be brought back, but I guess we’ll all just have to wait and see what the Club comes up with.
We wait with baited breath, we hope for the best, but expect the worst and hopefully, it is the last time we change our Club Crest.
Recently, Sydney Olympic President Damon Hanlin, gave an interview to SBS Radio, where he discussed and attempted to give some answers, to several of these important issues concerning the Club that I have mentioned above.
In terms of investment into the Club – referring to the playing squad – he stated he has personally put in millions into the club and has invested heavily in the playing squad, over the last few years.
It’s clear and obvious that he has put plenty of his own money into the Club, not to mention stepping up when the Bill Papas debacle was going on. Given how that is the case, there is no way in the world that the President would be happy with results these last 3 seasons, all that money spent and basically nothing to show for it.
So it makes you wonder, why hasn’t he made a move on the coach and pulled the trigger, in all this time of failure?
In response to the question of a lack of Greek players within the Club, he stressed that he and the Club have attempted to bring these players in, but they make ridiculous demands, dick the Club around and attempt to play the big “μάγκα” during negotiations, making it difficult to secure their services.
He also stressed that the club would always prioritise the best players first, when it comes to recruitment.
In regards to a proper home and base for the Club, the President made mention that a proper base and home for the Club has been one of, if not the main priority of his during his time at Sydney Olympic and that he realises how important it is for the Club’s future, while also going on to mention how difficult it has been to get done, because of various factors, both historical and presently.
In passing and I’m not sure if he meant for this to get out, but he mentioned something about a site near Moorebank as a potential future home for the Club, but there was very little detail given other than that passing mention. Given the SBS interview was 2 months ago now, I have heard nothing about it since and haven’t heard anyone connected with the Club expand on these comments.
So there’s not much else to report on that.
As much as I would like to be optimistic regarding all this, the fact of the matter is, I and many of you have been around long enough, to know to never take any of these comments seriously.
Sydney Olympic members and supporters were fed the same bullshit about Tempe Reserve some 10 years ago now, not to mention all the other broken promises, failed agreements, council backflips, artists renditions and other hoaxes that we have endured since 1957.
In response to rumours the “Championship” is dead, the President remains confident that the format for 2025 is only the beginning, as he believes that it will eventually become a proper National 2nd division in the future.
He also stated, that he has created a new company for the purposes of the upcoming “Championship” where he will control 100% of the shares of this new entity, which will be separate to the NPL level Sydney Olympic in terms of how it operates, with the latter remaining a member based operation.
On engagement with the fans, the President himself said in the interview he gave to SBS, he never even knew that Sydney Olympic was still a thing, when he was in discussions to be brought onto the Board by former President Bill Papas in 2016.
So if he didn’t know, how many others are in the same boat and don’t know that the Club still exists – to answer the question we know there are many – the Club is essentially out of sight out of mind for many people.
I do my part – no matter how small it is – to keep the Club name out there in the minds and hearts of the community, but surely the Club should be doing more itself.
He also implored people to come back to the stadium and support Sydney Olympic, as the Club needs the support of its fans.
I think we should always support the club, it is our Club, created by our people, because when Greeks got off the boat and arrived in Sydney back in the day and went down to the local parks to join some of the local teams, they were all told in no uncertain terms to F*** Off, so we did and we created our own Club.
So you will not get any pushback from most people, urging them to keep supporting the Club, this doesn’t mean of course, that you can’t show your frustration or criticise what has been going on and we all hope the club is healthy and around in another 68 years time, but, fans don’t go to matches anymore because it’s a combination of not knowing and the Club being poor on the field.
You can talk about a lot of other important things concerning the Club – and we have over many many years now – but at the end of the day, if the results on-field are pathetic and the team is unsuccessful, which we have been for 3 straight years, people will lose interest and won’t turn up, it’s not rocket science.
Ultimately, it has been 3 years of mediocrity and it has not been good enough.
There will now be a small break of about 6 weeks, after which the 2025 “Championship” will commence:
We have been placed in Group A which features: Sydney Olympic, South Melbourne, Moreton City Excelsior from QLD and Broadmeadow Magic, a Skopjan team from Newcastle.
Our Club will kick the whole season off against South Melbourne on Friday Night, October 10, down in Melbourne.
We’ll see how all that goes and we hope that there will be changes before then.
No comments:
Post a Comment