By ADEM SARICAOGLU
MELTON Phoenix coach Theo Karapanagiotidis has expressed his disappointment in being placed in State League Four for the upcoming season.
Football Federation Victoria last week revealed a draft version of the new state league set-up after 30 clubs were accepted into the newly-formed National Premier Leagues Victoria competitions.
Phoenix convincingly won the 2013 State League Five title to earn promotion into Victorian soccer’s fifth tier for the upcoming 2014 campaign.
However, after the FFV re-aligned the state league structure to accommodate the NPL, all of the top eight teams from last year’s SL5 West competition, including Phoenix, are now part of the new SL4 West, which remains the sixth tier in the state.
“I’ll be very open about the fact I’ve been very disappointed with how the club’s been treated,” Karapanagiotidis told Star.
“Virtually all our success last year really means nothing now because there are seven other sides who jumped up from our league last year, so at the club we’re really shocked and me as a coach, I really can’t believe it.
“We believe, at least, the club should have gone up to State League Three.”
Karapanagiotidis also highlighted the inclusion of Altona City (last year’s SL3 North-West bottom-placed team) in the new SL2, saying his side has been left behind despite proving its worthiness to play at the next level.
“Altona City have been relegated the last two years and they were supposed to be in our league this year, and they’ve gone back to up State Two,” Karapanagiotidis said.
“I’m really shocked because a lot of hard work here at Melton last year has gone to waste, because it’s just virtually ended up a couple of teams shy of the same league, which is just a bit of a letdown.
“I would’ve thought we’d at least go to SL3 considering our facilities at Melton, our junior base and supporter base. I would’ve thought we were at least up to SL3 level.”
Karapanagiotidis stopped short of admitting his side will play with a chip on its shoulder this season, but the coach is very confident his squad will be even better than last year.
Having retained most of the stars that delivered silverware last season, Karapanagiotidis said Phoenix has added depth at every position for the upcoming season.
“We should be up there in contention,” he said.
“Almost all the guys are staying and we’ve got a couple of new additions at the club who are pushing for first-team selection, so I’m going in with the utmost confidence.”
