As you probably know by now, Sydney Street Crew is a street football team. That’s how we began and built our name, it’s what made us stand out in Australia and in our continent in general since no one had attempted what we were building. But if you looked at what we are doing now, you’d be excused for thinking that we’re a fully fledged high end Futsal team, I wouldn’t blame you for forgetting that we ever had anything to do with street football in the first place.
Now how did this happen? It’s super simple, as I built something that didn’t exist in a country where football is the 3rd or 4th most popular sport, typically looked down upon by a large portion of the population, we had no one to play, no where to host events, and no real idea where to go next. When SSC was created at that point in time the branded street football events movement was in full swing. We had the opportunity to be flown around by Nike for tournaments, and to participate in 2 Adidas Tango league events. That was a great time. We grew from three 18 year olds, to a crew of 9 or 10 overnight, and we had a clear purpose. I organised 5 of our own hosted events in collaboration with brands like RedBull and it looked like the trajectory was exponentially going up. We held showcase matches and challenged other teams to street matches. I even helped build numerous street teams, but they all folded super quickly, because it’s work to run your own club, and people are lazy, so that explains that. Eventually it became too much, I realised that if I did nothing the scene didn’t move forward, since no one put in the effort, so I took the leap and moved Sydney Street Crew to a sport that had some movement to it.
Futsal in Australia is a neglected sport in it’s own right, but I didn’t enter SSC into Futsal to have us playing in Australia. I used Futsal as a way to earn more recognition and garner much greater international opportunities. Can you argue with that thought pattern…. We’ve already competed in International Invitation only Professional Futsal tournaments against some of the best clubs in the world. I want to have this understood that SSC is still a Street Football team and brand and that I won’t leave the sport to die on its own, but before I dive into helping it grow again, I need Sydney Street Crew to be something greater than it is now, I need the regular Footballer in Australia, Asia and Oceania to know who we are so that when I make a move or build a tournament or even a league that they all sit up and take notice, meaning more people get involved. I’ve tried working with some so called street football movements in Australia, but they all only act in their own interest, which is fine, but don’t expect the sport to grow in any way then.
Futsal on the other hand is coming out of that neglected state and blossoming into a fully fledged semi-professional sport in Australia. For example; SSC play in the National Futsal League, which is a semi-professional national league circuit that takes the best Futsal teams from each region in Australia. We are one of two teams selected from Sydney, which is a huge deal. To get back to the point, I switched SSC to Futsal in order to grow, to improve our ability, to obtain much greater opportunity, and to build the network I need in order to be able to grow street football when I return, because I had always planned to return.
