Bendigo City FC

Bendigo City FC
Full name Bendigo City Football Club
Nickname(s) The Towners, B-Town, City
Founded 2006
Ground Epsom Soccer Complex
Ground Capacity 10,000
Captain Ronaldo Yousef
Chairman Brock Rogers
Coach Srecko Baresic-Nikic
League NPL2 West

Bendigo City FC is a semi-professional football club based in Bendigo, Australia. It competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria 2 competition. Bendigo plays out of the Epsom Huntly Recreation Reserve soccer complex.

History

The Club was established as FC Bendigo in 2014[1] as part of the newly formed National Premier Leagues Victoria (NPL) competition, and then reformed as Bendigo City FC the following year.[2] FC Bendigo's licence was held by Bendigo Amateur Soccer League (BASL) while the new entity is backed by Bendigo Bank and the Bendigo City Council.

On the pitch, Bendigo had a solid first season in the National Premier Leagues Victoria 1. The Club finished 11th in the 14 team competition with 9 wins, 4 draws and 13 losses. Bendigo grabbed a memorable win against the eventually promoted North Geelong Warriors FC on 3 May 2014, when the Towners beat the Lara-based outfit by three goals to two at Elcho Park.

In July 2015, Bendigo City FC's committee resigned after disagreements with parents and members regarding a re-structure of the Club's finances, including the change of technical director Fob Soncin's role from full time to part time.[3] The committee was then reinstated 48 hours later at an Extraordinary General Meeting.[4]

The reformed Bendigo City FC, a more community-focused club than the previous FC Bendigo consortium, based their senior squad on local players rather than bringing in established players from Melbourne. Unfortunately for Bendigo, this resulted in a largely difficult campaign in the 2015 National Premier Leagues Victoria 2 West season, managing only six wins and seven draws from 28 games to finish second bottom of the league.[5]

One round into the 2016 NPL2 season, City head coach Esteban Quintas quit his post to return to his native home of Spain.[6] Bendigo's season slumped, earning just one win in the opening eight rounds and enduring heavy 2–7 and 1–7 defeats to North Geelong Warriors FC and Moreland Zebras FC respectively in Rounds 7 and 8 of the season, the latter their greatest ever defeat in their short life as a club.[7] After another heavy loss, this time a 5–1 drubbing at the hands of Ballarat Red Devils, Bendigo City FC announced that Jose Montana Santamarta had been appointed as the club's new senior head coach, assisted by conditioning coach Alenjandro Montano Garcia. Bendigo City finished the season in bottom place on the NPL2 West table, with 4 wins and 3 draws in 28 games.

Bendigo appointed Srecko Baresic-Nikic as its new head coach for 2017, replacing the outgoing Jose Santamarta.[8]

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
Australia Say Ka Pow
Australia Sam Scoble
Australia Josh Bauer
Australia John Roberts
Australia Eh Soo Seven
Australia Isaac Commadeur
Australia Vladimir Khamees
Australia Robert Munday
Australia David Younan
Australia Carl O'Keeffe
No. Position Player
Australia Wahid Hashimi
Australia Anmar Yousif
Australia Daniel Purdy
Australia Godwill Basha
Australia Lachlan Beever
Australia George Mcheileh
Australia Vinicius Branco
Australia Dillon Maikousis
Australia Alkin Keles

References

  1. ↑ "FC Bendigo is born". Retrieved 26 February 2014.
  2. ↑ Moran, Shaun. "Bendigo NPL Licence transfer finalised". MFootball. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  3. ↑ Bourke, Adam. "Bendigo City FC committee quits". Bendigo Advertiser. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  4. ↑ Bourke, Adam. "Bendigo City backflip". Bendigo Advertiser. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
  5. ↑ http://www.foxsportspulse.com/comp_info.cgi?a=LADDER&compID=337121&c=1-10178-0-0-0
  6. ↑ "Bendigo City FC coach quits after one game". Bendigo Advertiser. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  7. ↑ "Zebras' masterclass sinks Bendigo City". Bendigo Advertiser. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  8. ↑ "Bendigo appoint experienced Baresic-Nikic". The Corner Flag. Retrieved 18 October 2016.

External links

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