By Tania Phillips
Stanthorpe’s annual Festival of Football promises to be bigger and better than ever with more games set to be played in the annual clash between Italy and Australia.
Set for Saturday 1 June the Festival of Football celebrates Italian heritage of the many of those who played and still play the games in the region as well as celebrating the culture of many of the people who come to work on the farms in the area today.
Julie-ann Spiller, part of the organizing team behind the games said this year there would be Fillies and Over 35s as well as the men’s and women’s matches.
She said though the Australia v Italy game had been a long-time unofficial event in Stanthorpe but was formalised into the Festival of Football three years ago by local football stalwart Frank Arcidiacono who picks the team so the are even and fair each year.
Spiller, whose own parents both came out from Italy, said this year it was being helped along by the pausing of the local Stanthorpe football competition for a week.
and was growing each year.
“This is the first year we’ve had the Fillies and Over 35s as well as the men and women so in previous years we’ve only had the men’s and women’s,” she said.
“We are looking at more than a hundred people just playing plus spectators and coaches.
“We always get a lot of spectators and every year it seems to grow more and more. This year we are hoping it will be even bigger and better because of the extra games we’ve got scheduled.
“Stanthorpe is very strong with Italian heritage as well as having a very strong football following. For a small town we have actually have a number of clubs that play within our own district which is pretty strong.
“You look at other areas around us that can only field one club in their district to play outside whereas we’ve got five local clubs plus Tenterfield across the border – they play in our competition as well. It’s very strong. It’s been like this for many, many, many years. My father first played football here when he first came out to Australia.”
She said Frank Arcidiacono was the driving force behind the festival.
“Frank A filters through and tries to make sure the teams are even,” she said.
“He goes through and he picks those players that he knows have an Italian background, for instance my children – my parents were born in Italy so they have an Italian heritage and so they obviously play in Italian sides.
“He goes through the clubs and tries to pick a fair range so the teams are equal we don’t want to get there and have Australia flog Italy or Italy flog Australia. We want a good match that’s going to be close.
“He does a good job. We’re hoping this year the Italian men’ can win they haven’t had a win as yet but the Italian women’s team always win. This year we’re hoping for the reverse, though for me I’m hoping Italy comes through on all fronts,” she laughed.
“This is the first year we’ve got no club soccer played that weekend, in other years we’ve had people having to play their club games on the Saturday and back up for this on the Sunday.”
The Fillies game, which starts off the day, will be played for the Scott Goodwin Memorial Trophy.
“Scott played a big part in getting women’s football up and going and we sadly lost him quite suddenly not too long ago,” she said.
“His daughter will be playing in the Italy side.”
The very last game of the day is the IComply v Eastern Colour Cup.
“It’s all the employees – the Pacific Island workers who are working on our farms,” she said.
Action kicks off at 9am with the last game starting at 3.30pm.
