Brisbane Strikers Football Club is an Australian semi-professional football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in 1991 as Brisbane United, the club competed in the National Soccer League until the 2003–04 season and was one of two clubs contending for an A-League licence during the establishment of the league in 2004.
Brisbane Strikers currently competes in the Football Queensland Premier League, with home matches played at Perry Park.
History
Background
Brisbane's first representation in the National Soccer League (NSL), then known as the Philips Soccer League (PSL), came in the form of Brisbane City and Brisbane Lions. Brisbane City won the first two national knockout competitions, by defeating Marconi in 1977 and West Adelaide in 1978.
Brisbane Lions won the knockout competition in 1981, also defeating West Adelaide. Brisbane City left the NSL in after the 1986 season and Brisbane Lions after the 1988 season.
National Soccer League 1991–2004
The next Brisbane team in the NSL was Brisbane United, which played from 1991 to 1993 coached by Miron Bleiberg. The team wore predominately white, with a blue and gold trim – the official colours of Brisbane. After a troubled time, with small crowds, confronting relegation and with a "disenchanted team", former Australian Soccer Federation chairman Ian Brusasco headed a trustee management group to restructure the club. The name was changed to the Brisbane Strikers for the 1993/94 season, with the colours, newly installed coach Bruce Stowell and most players retained.
Initially the Brisbane Strikers were owned by the Queensland Soccer Federation (QSF), which handed the running of the club to a Trust Management Group composed of Brusasco (also a former president of the QSF), Clem Jones (former Lord Mayor of Brisbane) and leading football official Frank Speare.
Coached by Stowell for three seasons, the Strikers finished fourth in 1995/96 to qualify for their first NSL finals appearance, in which they lost a semi-final playoff over two legs to Sydney United.
In the 1996/97 season, the Strikers ditched the white to wear a predominately gold kit, with blue trims, and were led by player-coach Frank Farina. The team finished second on the NSL ladder to Sydney United before going on to beat United in their semi-final to set up a home grand final – against the same team.
During this period, future FIFA whistleblower Bonita Mersiades worked for the Strikers as the club's media officer.
At a time when football was struggling for mainstream acceptance and credibility in Australia, NSL Grand Finals– the pinnacle of club football in Australia – generally drew crowds between 12,000 and 25,000. But the 1997 Grand Final, played at Lang Park in Brisbane, drew a capacity 40,446 spectators to watch the Strikers beat Sydney United 2–0 with goals by Farina and Rod Brown.
This was a watershed moment for football in Australia, but the Strikers struggled the next season, finishing 12th. A significant event in the history of the club occurred in 1998 when the QSF divested itself of its ownership, which passed to the Strikers Football Club Pty Ltd.
Scarcely three years after the club had played its part in Australian club football's proudest moment, it was dealt a savage blow when Soccer Australia, as part of a restructuring of the national competition, refused the Strikers' application for a place in the NSL, citing financial concerns. Canberra Cosmos was also expelled. This left the national league without a representative from the country's third most populous state.
Politicians, supporters and the general public waged a campaign to have the club reinstated to the national league. Then-Queensland premier Peter Beattie said of Soccer Australia officials: "Who the hell do they think they are?" How can you have a national soccer competition without a Queensland team? I mean, it's absolutely ridiculous. Soccer officials must be sensitive to its national obligations."
Public pressure eventually convinced Soccer Australia to reverse its decision and grant the Strikers Football Club Pty Ltd a licence for the 2000/2001 season.
Back on the field, under coach John Kosmina, the Strikers finished fourth and qualified for the NSL finals. Eventual premiers South Melbourne FC prevailed over the Strikers in their two-legged semi-final.