Croatian-Australian identity as revealed through soccer club support: a case study of Melbourne Croatia Soccer Club (Melbourne Knights)

Kieran Edmond James

doi:10.1080/14443058.2023.2222290

Croatian-Australian identity as revealed through soccer club support: a case study of Melbourne Croatia Soccer Club (Melbourne Knights)

Kieran Edmond James^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Business and Creative Industries

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

Since the 1960s, Croatian soccer clubs have been an important feature of all major Australian cities, and a number of regional towns, with the most significant of these being Melbourne Croatia and Sydney Croatia, both of which played in Australia’s now defunct National Soccer League (NSL) (1977–2004). Effectively barred from the new A-League, from 2005 to 2006, these clubs experienced marginalisation and discrimination similar to that experienced historically by Irish-Catholic clubs in Scotland. This article aims to explore both Croatian-Australian identity and narratives about exclusion through the perspectives of key Melbourne Croatia representatives.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	640-655
Number of pages	16
Journal	Journal of Australian Studies
Volume	47
Issue number	4
Early online date	18 Jun 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2023.2222290
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 18 Jun 2023

Keywords

anticommunism
Australian soccer
Croatian-Australians
ethnic identity
Melbourne
Melbourne Croatia
Melbourne Knights

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1080/14443058.2023.2222290

2022 12 24 James Croatian finalFinal published version, 1.55 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

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Croatian-Australian identity as revealed through soccer club support: a case study of Melbourne Croatia Soccer Club (Melbourne Knights)

Abstract

Keywords

UN SDGs

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