Latest news with #LaScala
Korea Herald
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
La Scala's Ortombina on maestro Chung Myung-whun, Verdi and opera's future
BUSAN -- During the opening weekend of Busan's much-anticipated new concert hall, conductor Chung Myung-whun -- artistic director of Classic Busan, the municipal office overseeing the Busan Concert Hall and the upcoming Busan Opera House -- led a series of inaugural concerts that signaled a new chapter in the city's cultural ambitions. Among those in attendance was Fortunato Ortombina, artistic director of Milan's Teatro alla Scala, one of the world's most storied opera houses. Ortombina, who has worked closely with Maestro Chung over two decades, shared personal reflections and outlined a vision for deepening ties between Busan and La Scala. In an interview with Korean media on Saturday, Ortombina recalled his first glimpse of Chung in 1992. At the time, Ortombina was a student and tour guide in the city of Verdi's birth. A group of American tourists offered him a ticket to La Scala for a performance of "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" by Shostakovich, conducted by Chung. "I sat just five meters away," Ortombina remembered. Their first formal meeting came in 2003 at Teatro La Fenice in Venice, when Chung led the Orchestra of Santa Cecilia at the theater's reopening after a devastating fire. From 2003 to 2007, the two worked together at La Scala, where Ortombina served as head of artistic planning. Later, as artistic director of La Fenice for 17 years, Ortombina invited Chung to conduct nearly every year. "He is the conductor I've worked with the most in my life," he noted. Ortombina also highlighted Maestro Chung's enduring relationship with La Scala. Since his debut in 1989, Chung has led more than 180 performances with the Filarmonica della Scala, interpreting a wide range of operatic works — from Shostakovich and Strauss to Mozart and Puccini, with Verdi at the core. 'Verdi is Italy's most important composer,' said Ortombina. 'And although Maestro Chung was born in Busan, his musical sensibility is profoundly Italian.' Chung's deep understanding of Verdi, and his ability to convey emotional truth and narrative clarity, were central to his appointment as the music director of La Scala, Ortombina explained. The decision was made unanimously by the board and the city of Milan, he said. "When I had to choose a new music director, I asked who had the strongest connection with the orchestra and the capacity to shape a long-term project. That person was Maestro Chung," Ortombina said. "Talent is a miracle. Verdi probably didn't even know Korea existed, but his music found fertile ground here." As part of a growing partnership, the Filarmonica della Scala will perform at the Busan Concert Hall in September. Ortombina's three-day trip to Korea includes talks on further collaboration and a site tour of the Busan Opera House, set to open in 2027. With over 20 years of experience leading major opera institutions, Ortombina underscored the importance of public engagement. 'My dream is that five years from now, no one in Milan can say they've never been to La Scala. This is not only an artistic project; it's a social one.' He pointed to initiatives like youth education programs, school tours of opera workshops, and simplified opera adaptations for children. "Opera should be part of humanistic education," he said. "Just like we study Caravaggio or read Thomas Mann, we should experience Verdi." Describing La Scala as "the second home of every Milanese, which was rebuilt even before schools and hospitals after World War II," Ortombina said that "A theater should belong to its city. If Busan's citizens feel ownership of their new opera house, that will be the true success." Speaking about Busan's new opera house, Ortombina reaffirmed his belief in opera's enduring relevance. 'It's not about whether an opera is old. It's about how it speaks to us today. That's what Maestro Chung excels at -- bringing timeless music close to the heart.' On Saturday, Maestro Chung took the stage with the Asia Philharmonic Orchestra -- which he founded in 1997 -- conducting and performing as pianist in Beethoven's Triple Concerto in C major, Op. 56, alongside cellist Jian Wang and violinist Sayaka Shoji. The program culminated in a stirring performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, 'Choral.' Comprising top-tier musicians from Korea, China and Japan, the Asia Philharmonic Orchestra has alternated between periods of activity and hiatus since its founding. It reconvened under Chung's direction for the opening of the Busan Concert Hall. Reflecting on the evening, Ortombina said, 'I was glad to be part of the historic performance at the Busan Concert Hall. Reflecting on the meaning of the music and the work made it all the more moving. The acoustics were satisfying, and the performance was fantastic!'
Glasgow Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Glasgow Times
'Forgotten' Glasgow guides reveal city's best nightspots
Legendary institutions frequently mentioned include La Scala cinema, the Alhambra music hall and the Locarno ballroom. While nothing beats personal anecdotes from the people who frequented these places, it's still great fun to look through the city guides held within the city archives. (Image: Newsquest) Many are clearly targeted at tourists, but a number seem to have been produced for citizens and give detailed insight into the variety of places where the people of Glasgow could go to entertain themselves. Glasgow Illustrated Guide by George Eyre-Todd, author and historian, was published around 1930. This guide caught my attention thanks to the level of detail and evocative language Eyre-Todd uses when describing different institutions. He writes that the Grosvenor restaurant is 'busy with dances and dinners all winter through' and 'rivals the Grand Hotel as a resort of the city's gilded youth." Meanwhile, the King's Theatre is pronounced the premier theatre in Glasgow thanks to the calibre of actors who appear on its stage as well as its musical comedy and revue performances put on throughout the winter. Amongst the growing number of 'sumptuous' cinemas in the city he highlights the New Savoy and La Scala as notable for the fine music which accompanies their performances. (Image: Glasgow City Archives) My favourite section of the guide, however, has to be the feature on 'Palais de Danse' which highlights the Ritz on Berkeley Street, the Dennistoun Palais de Danse and La Plaza near Eglinton Toll. (Image: Newsquest) Indicating changing tastes amongst the dancers, he notes that 'at all of these, dancing is of the fox-trot, one-step and jazz pattern. No reels, strathspeys or country dances." And if you didn't have a partner to dance with, not to worry - professional dancers were retained at each place and could be relied on to whirl you about for the moderate fee of sixpence per dance. Glasgow Through a Drinking Glass, another insightful publication, was produced by the Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1973. This features an introduction from writer and broadcaster Jack House, who quips that as a former teetotaller passing a pub 'I used to hold my breath because of the smell. Now pubs hold their breath if I pass them." As well as noting the general improvement in atmosphere of Glasgow pubs since the 1920s, he also gives contextualising details about different drinking establishments. Rogano's is described as a high-class bar thanks to the cigar cutters attached to every table, while many aspiring stage artists hung out at Lauder's Bar, hoping its proximity to the nearby Pavilion and Theatre Royal might get them some work. Lauders, June 1930 (Image: Glasgow City Archives) In total, more than 80 pubs are featured in the guide. Just like Lauder's Bar (now called The Lauders), there are a number of pubs that still exist today. The Griffin is described as modern and bright with trendy clientele from the nearby King's theatre. The Saracen Head is also mentioned, although the popularity of the champagne cider, which he describes as a favourite of the locals, seems to have fizzled out. The legendary Horse Shoe bar is also featured, described as deserving its long-held reputation as 'one of the finest drinking places in the city centre.' As a pun-lover, however, my favourite pub in the guide has to be The Muscular Arms. (Image: Glasgow City Archives) Beyond nightlife, there are plenty of guides which cover activities for all to enjoy. Tourist guides from the 1950s list the city's pools, baths, billiard rooms, art galleries, museums and sports grounds. Visitors are encouraged to visit golf courses outside of the city or to take day trips on the Clyde coast steamers. There is also a very useful publication named Glasgow Official Guide: Historical, marketing and industrial survey, published in around 1938 and again in 1947. These read almost like handbooks for new citizens, featuring adverts for apartments and providing information on the development of schools and public health in the city. Bursting with ideas, these guides confirm Glasgow's long-held reputation as both a popular tourist destination and a great place for a night out.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Forgotten' Glasgow guides reveal city's best bars, restaurants and dance halls
ASK an older relative from Glasgow about nightlife in their youth and there's a good chance they will speak fondly of the many cinemas, theatres and dance halls the city has offered over the years. Legendary institutions frequently mentioned include La Scala cinema, the Alhambra music hall and the Locarno ballroom. While nothing beats personal anecdotes from the people who frequented these places, it's still great fun to look through the city guides held within the city archives. (Image: Newsquest) Many are clearly targeted at tourists, but a number seem to have been produced for citizens and give detailed insight into the variety of places where the people of Glasgow could go to entertain themselves. Glasgow Illustrated Guide by George Eyre-Todd, author and historian, was published around 1930. This guide caught my attention thanks to the level of detail and evocative language Eyre-Todd uses when describing different institutions. READ NEXT: 90s Glasgow band back with new album of 'covers and collaborations' I have incurable blood cancer but my symptoms were mistaken for menopause Paisley school with 'motivated, curious' pupils celebrates positive inspection report 'River City was part of my DNA for so long': Show's baddie on new Glasgow role Honours first for family who support children with cancer in Glasgow He writes that the Grosvenor restaurant is 'busy with dances and dinners all winter through' and 'rivals the Grand Hotel as a resort of the city's gilded youth." Meanwhile, the King's Theatre is pronounced the premier theatre in Glasgow thanks to the calibre of actors who appear on its stage as well as its musical comedy and revue performances put on throughout the winter. Amongst the growing number of 'sumptuous' cinemas in the city he highlights the New Savoy and La Scala as notable for the fine music which accompanies their performances. (Image: Glasgow City Archives) My favourite section of the guide, however, has to be the feature on 'Palais de Danse' which highlights the Ritz on Berkeley Street, the Dennistoun Palais de Danse and La Plaza near Eglinton Toll. (Image: Newsquest) Indicating changing tastes amongst the dancers, he notes that 'at all of these, dancing is of the fox-trot, one-step and jazz pattern. No reels, strathspeys or country dances." And if you didn't have a partner to dance with, not to worry - professional dancers were retained at each place and could be relied on to whirl you about for the moderate fee of sixpence per dance. Glasgow Through a Drinking Glass, another insightful publication, was produced by the Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1973. This features an introduction from writer and broadcaster Jack House, who quips that as a former teetotaller passing a pub 'I used to hold my breath because of the smell. Now pubs hold their breath if I pass them." READ NEXT: 10 pictures that tell story of Glasgow school and its links to Hollywood Glasgow Memories Letters: 'I was at school with Lulu's brother' Dramatic story behind Glasgow's 'dangerous' railway station As well as noting the general improvement in atmosphere of Glasgow pubs since the 1920s, he also gives contextualising details about different drinking establishments. Rogano's is described as a high-class bar thanks to the cigar cutters attached to every table, while many aspiring stage artists hung out at Lauder's Bar, hoping its proximity to the nearby Pavilion and Theatre Royal might get them some work. Lauders, June 1930 (Image: Glasgow City Archives) In total, more than 80 pubs are featured in the guide. Just like Lauder's Bar (now called The Lauders), there are a number of pubs that still exist today. The Griffin is described as modern and bright with trendy clientele from the nearby King's theatre. The Saracen Head is also mentioned, although the popularity of the champagne cider, which he describes as a favourite of the locals, seems to have fizzled out. The legendary Horse Shoe bar is also featured, described as deserving its long-held reputation as 'one of the finest drinking places in the city centre.' As a pun-lover, however, my favourite pub in the guide has to be The Muscular Arms. (Image: Glasgow City Archives) Beyond nightlife, there are plenty of guides which cover activities for all to enjoy. Tourist guides from the 1950s list the city's pools, baths, billiard rooms, art galleries, museums and sports grounds. Visitors are encouraged to visit golf courses outside of the city or to take day trips on the Clyde coast steamers. There is also a very useful publication named Glasgow Official Guide: Historical, marketing and industrial survey, published in around 1938 and again in 1947. These read almost like handbooks for new citizens, featuring adverts for apartments and providing information on the development of schools and public health in the city. Bursting with ideas, these guides confirm Glasgow's long-held reputation as both a popular tourist destination and a great place for a night out.
Sydney Morning Herald
06-06-2025
- Sport
- Sydney Morning Herald
They're the best soccer team in the bush. But they've got nowhere to play
In the middle of practically nowhere - six hours' drive west of Sydney, five hours' drive north of Melbourne - lies the best-kept secret in Australian soccer. Maybe Australian sport. Griffith, NSW, is a place that shouldn't exist. Without irrigation, it would be a desert - dry, flat, and empty. But in 1916, as part of the bold, utopian Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area scheme, it was built from scratch as a planned city, designed by Walter Burley Griffin, the same American architect who laid out Canberra. The early settlers, mostly returned servicemen and British migrants, struggled with the land; it wasn't until the Italians arrived, bringing with them generations of agricultural know-how and a relentless work ethic, that the region truly began to bloom. Today, around 60 per cent of the city's 25,000 residents are said to claim some degree of Italian heritage, and it shines through in everything they do. Top-notch Italian eateries line the city's main drag, Banna Avenue; walking into the famous old La Scala restaurant, down a dingy, dimly lit staircase, was like stumbling into a dinner scene from Goodfellas. The local wine scene is quietly excellent; Yellowtail, Australia's leading export brand and a bona fide global phenomenon, is produced in Yenda, which is a 13-minute drive to the east. Season two of Underbelly was also partially set in Griffith, harking back to a darker past that has unfairly coloured the town's reputation. And then, of course, there's the soccer. The standard of play at Griffith's grassroots is surprisingly high given its geographic isolation. The passion for the game is strong, and it has to be, considering the immense obstacles that need to be overcome just to take part. To play at any serious level is to accept many, many hours of driving for hundreds of kilometres just to find an opponent. In football, as in agriculture, Griffith's best produce ends up elsewhere. If you happen to be decent - like Brisbane Roar youngster Pearson Kasawaya, or former national league players such as Michael Musitano, Eliza Ammendolia or Jordan Jasnos - you eventually have to move to the big smoke to pursue your dreams. 'A big family affair' Griffith's biggest and most successful club is Yoogali Soccer Club, named for the small township on the city's eastern fringes, towards Yenda. It was formed in 1954 out of the Yoogali Club, one of Australia's oldest ethnic social clubs, which was where members of Sydney's Italian community visited for inspiration before founding Club Marconi - though it no longer plays there, having linked up with the Griffith Leagues Club down the road years ago. (That's why there's a second team based in Yoogali, known as Yoogali Football Club; the schism between 'YSC' and 'YFC' would require a whole book to properly explain.) Yoogali has won 34 first-grade titles in various competitions and regularly hosts teams from Sydney for pre-season matches. Tom Sermanni used to bring the Matildas there regularly for training camps during his first two stints as national team boss and spoke at Yoogali's season launch at the start of this year. In an alternate universe, where Griffith is, say, two hours' drive from Sydney instead of six, it's not difficult to imagine a club like Yoogali climbing the ranks into the old National Soccer League, back when it had promotion and relegation into the state leagues. Luke Santolin is the current coach of Yoogali's senior men's team. His grandfather (or nonno) Noé was one of the club's founding fathers - the field at the Yoogali Club is named for him - and his father Tony used to coach, and still plays. 'They used to play after church with all the Italian immigrants, and it just grew from there,' Santolin says. 'Like most football club stories, they were doing everything: they were cutting the grass, they were painting the lines, putting the nets up, all that jazz. It was a big family affair back then. My two boys have just started playing now. It's really all I've ever known.' Yoogali has an itinerant soccer history, through no fault of their own. Far too big for the local league in Griffith, they have spent decades trying to find somewhere to play, only to be consistently rebuffed. They've played in Shepparton (twice), Wagga Wagga, a short-lived Regional Premier League involving other Victorian teams, and most notably, in Canberra. Invariably, other teams get sick of driving to Griffith and find a way to get rid of them, even though they only have to travel once per year, and Yoogali every fortnight. 'We've never forfeited a game. Would you believe that? Never,' says Santolin. Griffith's greatest soccer triumph came in 1971, when a team called Griffith United (an amalgamation of Yoogali and Hanwood FC, their fierce rivals) won the league and cup double in the ACT. They played in front of big, boisterous crowds at home, and then jumped on a bus to Canberra every other weekend to fulfil their away commitments. In that team? Not only Tony Santolin and two Paraguayan brothers, Willie and George Wood, but a 16-year-old Walter Valeri, the father of future Socceroo Carl; his father (Carl's nonno) was one of Hanwood's founding members. The Valeris later moved to Canberra for work opportunities. 'The impossible dream came true,' wrote local newspaper The Area News when Griffith United were crowned champions. 'They trained hard, travelled long distance and fought tenaciously to give this town an enviable soccer supremacy. They won and thoroughly deserved it.' The next year, they were kicked out for administrative reasons. For the past five years, Yoogali has been competing in Canberra again, as part of the Capital Football system. In 2023, they won promotion to the top-flight NPL - putting them technically just one step below the A-League - and then last year, defied the odds to stay up. Unlike their opponents, they don't pay their players - although they do have a long, proud history of sourcing players from overseas, particularly from Scotland. They don't get paid either, but the club does cover their airfares and finds them work in Griffith (picking fruit, usually, at first) and a place to live. Some of them never go back. 'I remember as a kid growing up, my grandparents had a granny flat at the back of their house where the overseas players would live in,' Santolin says. 'I remember going to kick the ball with them and then seeing them play for Yoogali on a Sunday. We got to a level where players were calling us, saying they'd heard from a mutual friend or a contact about our club, and how do they come out? You only get that reputation by conducting yourselves the right way. Some of my best friends ever started off as visa players, and now they've got three, four kids, a wife, a business, when originally they just came over to kick a ball. So it's pretty special.' This year's team features five members of the Donadel family who, like the Santolins, are Yoogali royalty. Two of them are sons of Sante Donadel, assistant coach, former first-grade coach and a former player for over 50 years. The Donadels moved to Griffith in 1970; Sante's father played for Yoogali, and made life-long friends at the club, and his uncle was coach of Griffith United when they did the double in '71. 'We're still learning, as players, coaches and our committee, how to deal with that level of football, the NPL,' Donadel says. 'It's by far the best comp we've played in. But it's been good. We're one of the only [regional] clubs to have ever done something like this.' Things have been tracking well on the field. They recently smashed last season's premiers, Gungahlin United, 5-1. But then, without warning, Capital Football (CF) announced last month that the 2025 season would be Yoogali's last, having conducted a review which recommended the removal of teams from the Riverina - including the Wagga City Wanderers, who play in Canberra's second tier - from their competitions, again citing administrative reasons. History is repeating. 'Unfortunately, we can't control where we're located. For some reason, our grandparents chose Griffith because of the soil,' Santolin says. 'When it comes to football, yeah, it's always been a hurdle. But it's never dulled our spirit. If anything, as a club, we've embraced it. It's a feather in our cap, in the sense that we go there, and we go toe-to-toe with these teams from the bigger cities, and in many cases, come out on top. We use it to galvanise us. And that's why we've got such a big club spirit, that we're just not willing to surrender. 'But it just gets to a point ... it's our 71st year in existence. When do we get to breathe easier? It feels like we're always looking over our shoulder. As soon as you start doing well or getting too comfortable in a competition, the rug gets pulled from under you.' 'People don't realise what they're doing to us' CF's review determined that, from 2026, all NPL teams must also field junior teams in their sanctioned leagues. While it has established an exemptions process, Yoogali has been explicitly excluded because the travel to and from Griffith - four hours each way from Canberra, on a good day - was deemed 'not a viable option' as there would be too many forfeits, according to a letter to the club from CF. It also said that them fielding a senior team without juniors would compromise the 'sustainability and integrity' of their competitions. It amounts to a reversal of CF's decision in 2017 to expand into the Riverina, partly to help broaden regional support for a Canberra A-League Men's bid. Until 2023, Griffith was represented at junior level by a team called the Riverina Rhinos (later Griffith FC), who were strong at most age groups but struggled at under-18s - largely because, as Santolin says, in a place with a small population like Griffith, a good player at that age is usually playing seniors, which is better for their development anyway. Numbers are further drained by the fact that many teenagers leave to board at schools in big cities, and because there is no university in Griffith, they often don't return. 'We've had a lot of kids that have come from here and played and gone to uni and played for decent clubs in Sydney. That's the pathway. We can't hold our kids,' Donadel says. 'Honestly, if we had a uni here ... we'd be unstoppable because we'd have these kids staying and playing for us.' Santolin argues that Yoogali has a strong junior base and affiliations with a local academy, and that a suitable workaround could be figured out if the desire existed. He says CF is applying a cookie-cutter model that might work fine in metropolitan areas, but not out in the bush. The situation is emblematic of how towns and cities like Griffith are cruelled by the tyranny of distance in Australian sport, and often disregarded by administrators based in big cities - even though a disproportionate amount of high-performing athletes come from regional areas. 'This is the thing about Griffith,' Santolin says. 'They look at us on a map, and they think we're in the middle of nowhere - and we are, but come to the town. We're not some country bumpkin, a thousand people. These decisions affect a lot of people - players, supporters, families, sponsors, everything that we do. People don't realise what they're doing to us, and if they wonder why we don't want to take this lying down ... we're fighting for our family, almost. 'Football gets in its own way sometimes. Rather than work with us, look at our situation … they kick the whole club out. If something's too rigid, it breaks. They've never taken a flexible approach. This is why we continue to arrive in these situations. I know that if they took a more big-picture approach to everything, it could be brilliant. But instead, they take the easy option. The way that we've risen through the ranks, beat every challenge and are continuing to progress - that should be celebrated.' Yoogali has other problems with CF's review. Not only was the club not consulted, they believe some of the people who conducted it are affiliated with clubs who would stand to benefit from their removal from the pyramid. 'There's so many holes in it, it shouldn't hold water,' Santolin says. Nine other clubs from Canberra and surrounds have sent a letter to CF expressing their 'serious concerns' about the 'profound impact' their decisions could have on a club like Yoogali. But there are suspicions in Griffith that some Canberra clubs would be happy for CF to take the bullets so they can avoid all that pesky travel without political repercussions. The decision has shattered Yoogali's playing group, president John Keenan says. 'Our immediate thoughts were, we are going to fulfil our commitments for the rest of the season and show them the club we are and continue to turn up and give our best,' he says. 'If anything, it's probably motivated the group a lot. But then reality set in, and we had to look at what our options were, and the first thing we asked for was the criteria so that we could examine through the right channels and through the right pathways if we could meet that criteria. We still believe there are avenues there for us to pursue. 'We weren't invited to play NPL. We earned the right to play NPL. We managed to qualify to go up into NPL, and then we managed to stay up there. We're determined to stay. We believe we belong there.' CF did not respond to a series of questions sent by this masthead. 'The strong will prevail' Unless CF's decision is reversed, Yoogali is facing a grim future. Playing in the Griffith competition is an option, but not a good one. It's not what it used to be. 'My 70-year-old father plays in the Griffith comp. You can print that, that's good publicity for him,' Santolin says. 'Where do we go from here? We've put all of our eggs into this basket. If we were crumbling, disintegrating, forfeiting games - you wouldn't get any pushback from us. The gap between where we are now and where we would likely have to drop to is huge.' Club officials have sought the assistance of Football NSW and Football Australia, but thus far to no avail. 'We're not here to make any trouble,' says Donadel. 'We just want to play soccer. Football in Griffith is the only sport that goes out of town to play. Rugby league is just around here. Aussie rules, it's West Wyalong, basically, as far as they go. We try to travel, and the reason is to get to the best comp we can. And this is the best comp we can get to.' One solution could be the establishment of a separate NPL competition for the Riverina, featuring clubs on both sides of the NSW-Victoria border. On paper, it would be compelling. Yoogali's age-old nemesis Hanwood, who currently play in Wagga, would be a perfect fit, and ensure the first-grade return of what we might describe as the best Australian sporting rivalry you've never heard of. Add the strongest teams from Wagga, Albury, Young and Cootamundra, and it could be something. 'You've got the basis of an NPL there,' Keenan says. 'It takes time, though, to organise competitions and get the structures in place for clubs to be able to compete at that level and under those guidelines of, say, a regional or Riverina NPL. That would be one of the directions that we're hoping for because the amount of talent that has come out of the Riverina regional areas is substantial and continues to evolve and develop. If they're serious about football in the regions, they need to consider it.' Yoogali doesn't have to look too far for some words of inspiration, if they need them. They are written on the club's badge. Their slogan is ' E Forte È Vincerà ', which roughly translates from Italian to: 'The strong will prevail.'
The Age
06-06-2025
- Sport
- The Age
They're the best soccer team in the bush. But they've got nowhere to play
In the middle of practically nowhere - six hours' drive west of Sydney, five hours' drive north of Melbourne - lies the best-kept secret in Australian soccer. Maybe Australian sport. Griffith, NSW, is a place that shouldn't exist. Without irrigation, it would be a desert - dry, flat, and empty. But in 1916, as part of the bold, utopian Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area scheme, it was built from scratch as a planned city, designed by Walter Burley Griffin, the same American architect who laid out Canberra. The early settlers, mostly returned servicemen and British migrants, struggled with the land; it wasn't until the Italians arrived, bringing with them generations of agricultural know-how and a relentless work ethic, that the region truly began to bloom. Today, around 60 per cent of the city's 25,000 residents are said to claim some degree of Italian heritage, and it shines through in everything they do. Top-notch Italian eateries line the city's main drag, Banna Avenue; walking into the famous old La Scala restaurant, down a dingy, dimly lit staircase, was like stumbling into a dinner scene from Goodfellas. The local wine scene is quietly excellent; Yellowtail, Australia's leading export brand and a bona fide global phenomenon, is produced in Yenda, which is a 13-minute drive to the east. Season two of Underbelly was also partially set in Griffith, harking back to a darker past that has unfairly coloured the town's reputation. And then, of course, there's the soccer. The standard of play at Griffith's grassroots is surprisingly high given its geographic isolation. The passion for the game is strong, and it has to be, considering the immense obstacles that need to be overcome just to take part. To play at any serious level is to accept many, many hours of driving for hundreds of kilometres just to find an opponent. In football, as in agriculture, Griffith's best produce ends up elsewhere. If you happen to be decent - like Brisbane Roar youngster Pearson Kasawaya, or former national league players such as Michael Musitano, Eliza Ammendolia or Jordan Jasnos - you eventually have to move to the big smoke to pursue your dreams. 'A big family affair' Griffith's biggest and most successful club is Yoogali Soccer Club, named for the small township on the city's eastern fringes, towards Yenda. It was formed in 1954 out of the Yoogali Club, one of Australia's oldest ethnic social clubs, which was where members of Sydney's Italian community visited for inspiration before founding Club Marconi - though it no longer plays there, having linked up with the Griffith Leagues Club down the road years ago. (That's why there's a second team based in Yoogali, known as Yoogali Football Club; the schism between 'YSC' and 'YFC' would require a whole book to properly explain.) Yoogali has won 34 first-grade titles in various competitions and regularly hosts teams from Sydney for pre-season matches. Tom Sermanni used to bring the Matildas there regularly for training camps during his first two stints as national team boss and spoke at Yoogali's season launch at the start of this year. In an alternate universe, where Griffith is, say, two hours' drive from Sydney instead of six, it's not difficult to imagine a club like Yoogali climbing the ranks into the old National Soccer League, back when it had promotion and relegation into the state leagues. Luke Santolin is the current coach of Yoogali's senior men's team. His grandfather (or nonno) Noé was one of the club's founding fathers - the field at the Yoogali Club is named for him - and his father Tony used to coach, and still plays. 'They used to play after church with all the Italian immigrants, and it just grew from there,' Santolin says. 'Like most football club stories, they were doing everything: they were cutting the grass, they were painting the lines, putting the nets up, all that jazz. It was a big family affair back then. My two boys have just started playing now. It's really all I've ever known.' Yoogali has an itinerant soccer history, through no fault of their own. Far too big for the local league in Griffith, they have spent decades trying to find somewhere to play, only to be consistently rebuffed. They've played in Shepparton (twice), Wagga Wagga, a short-lived Regional Premier League involving other Victorian teams, and most notably, in Canberra. Invariably, other teams get sick of driving to Griffith and find a way to get rid of them, even though they only have to travel once per year, and Yoogali every fortnight. 'We've never forfeited a game. Would you believe that? Never,' says Santolin. Griffith's greatest soccer triumph came in 1971, when a team called Griffith United (an amalgamation of Yoogali and Hanwood FC, their fierce rivals) won the league and cup double in the ACT. They played in front of big, boisterous crowds at home, and then jumped on a bus to Canberra every other weekend to fulfil their away commitments. In that team? Not only Tony Santolin and two Paraguayan brothers, Willie and George Wood, but a 16-year-old Walter Valeri, the father of future Socceroo Carl; his father (Carl's nonno) was one of Hanwood's founding members. The Valeris later moved to Canberra for work opportunities. 'The impossible dream came true,' wrote local newspaper The Area News when Griffith United were crowned champions. 'They trained hard, travelled long distance and fought tenaciously to give this town an enviable soccer supremacy. They won and thoroughly deserved it.' The next year, they were kicked out for administrative reasons. For the past five years, Yoogali has been competing in Canberra again, as part of the Capital Football system. In 2023, they won promotion to the top-flight NPL - putting them technically just one step below the A-League - and then last year, defied the odds to stay up. Unlike their opponents, they don't pay their players - although they do have a long, proud history of sourcing players from overseas, particularly from Scotland. They don't get paid either, but the club does cover their airfares and finds them work in Griffith (picking fruit, usually, at first) and a place to live. Some of them never go back. 'I remember as a kid growing up, my grandparents had a granny flat at the back of their house where the overseas players would live in,' Santolin says. 'I remember going to kick the ball with them and then seeing them play for Yoogali on a Sunday. We got to a level where players were calling us, saying they'd heard from a mutual friend or a contact about our club, and how do they come out? You only get that reputation by conducting yourselves the right way. Some of my best friends ever started off as visa players, and now they've got three, four kids, a wife, a business, when originally they just came over to kick a ball. So it's pretty special.' This year's team features five members of the Donadel family who, like the Santolins, are Yoogali royalty. Two of them are sons of Sante Donadel, assistant coach, former first-grade coach and a former player for over 50 years. The Donadels moved to Griffith in 1970; Sante's father played for Yoogali, and made life-long friends at the club, and his uncle was coach of Griffith United when they did the double in '71. 'We're still learning, as players, coaches and our committee, how to deal with that level of football, the NPL,' Donadel says. 'It's by far the best comp we've played in. But it's been good. We're one of the only [regional] clubs to have ever done something like this.' Things have been tracking well on the field. They recently smashed last season's premiers, Gungahlin United, 5-1. But then, without warning, Capital Football (CF) announced last month that the 2025 season would be Yoogali's last, having conducted a review which recommended the removal of teams from the Riverina - including the Wagga City Wanderers, who play in Canberra's second tier - from their competitions, again citing administrative reasons. History is repeating. 'Unfortunately, we can't control where we're located. For some reason, our grandparents chose Griffith because of the soil,' Santolin says. 'When it comes to football, yeah, it's always been a hurdle. But it's never dulled our spirit. If anything, as a club, we've embraced it. It's a feather in our cap, in the sense that we go there, and we go toe-to-toe with these teams from the bigger cities, and in many cases, come out on top. We use it to galvanise us. And that's why we've got such a big club spirit, that we're just not willing to surrender. 'But it just gets to a point ... it's our 71st year in existence. When do we get to breathe easier? It feels like we're always looking over our shoulder. As soon as you start doing well or getting too comfortable in a competition, the rug gets pulled from under you.' 'People don't realise what they're doing to us' CF's review determined that, from 2026, all NPL teams must also field junior teams in their sanctioned leagues. While it has established an exemptions process, Yoogali has been explicitly excluded because the travel to and from Griffith - four hours each way from Canberra, on a good day - was deemed 'not a viable option' as there would be too many forfeits, according to a letter to the club from CF. It also said that them fielding a senior team without juniors would compromise the 'sustainability and integrity' of their competitions. It amounts to a reversal of CF's decision in 2017 to expand into the Riverina, partly to help broaden regional support for a Canberra A-League Men's bid. Until 2023, Griffith was represented at junior level by a team called the Riverina Rhinos (later Griffith FC), who were strong at most age groups but struggled at under-18s - largely because, as Santolin says, in a place with a small population like Griffith, a good player at that age is usually playing seniors, which is better for their development anyway. Numbers are further drained by the fact that many teenagers leave to board at schools in big cities, and because there is no university in Griffith, they often don't return. 'We've had a lot of kids that have come from here and played and gone to uni and played for decent clubs in Sydney. That's the pathway. We can't hold our kids,' Donadel says. 'Honestly, if we had a uni here ... we'd be unstoppable because we'd have these kids staying and playing for us.' Santolin argues that Yoogali has a strong junior base and affiliations with a local academy, and that a suitable workaround could be figured out if the desire existed. He says CF is applying a cookie-cutter model that might work fine in metropolitan areas, but not out in the bush. The situation is emblematic of how towns and cities like Griffith are cruelled by the tyranny of distance in Australian sport, and often disregarded by administrators based in big cities - even though a disproportionate amount of high-performing athletes come from regional areas. 'This is the thing about Griffith,' Santolin says. 'They look at us on a map, and they think we're in the middle of nowhere - and we are, but come to the town. We're not some country bumpkin, a thousand people. These decisions affect a lot of people - players, supporters, families, sponsors, everything that we do. People don't realise what they're doing to us, and if they wonder why we don't want to take this lying down ... we're fighting for our family, almost. 'Football gets in its own way sometimes. Rather than work with us, look at our situation … they kick the whole club out. If something's too rigid, it breaks. They've never taken a flexible approach. This is why we continue to arrive in these situations. I know that if they took a more big-picture approach to everything, it could be brilliant. But instead, they take the easy option. The way that we've risen through the ranks, beat every challenge and are continuing to progress - that should be celebrated.' Yoogali has other problems with CF's review. Not only was the club not consulted, they believe some of the people who conducted it are affiliated with clubs who would stand to benefit from their removal from the pyramid. 'There's so many holes in it, it shouldn't hold water,' Santolin says. Nine other clubs from Canberra and surrounds have sent a letter to CF expressing their 'serious concerns' about the 'profound impact' their decisions could have on a club like Yoogali. But there are suspicions in Griffith that some Canberra clubs would be happy for CF to take the bullets so they can avoid all that pesky travel without political repercussions. The decision has shattered Yoogali's playing group, president John Keenan says. 'Our immediate thoughts were, we are going to fulfil our commitments for the rest of the season and show them the club we are and continue to turn up and give our best,' he says. 'If anything, it's probably motivated the group a lot. But then reality set in, and we had to look at what our options were, and the first thing we asked for was the criteria so that we could examine through the right channels and through the right pathways if we could meet that criteria. We still believe there are avenues there for us to pursue. 'We weren't invited to play NPL. We earned the right to play NPL. We managed to qualify to go up into NPL, and then we managed to stay up there. We're determined to stay. We believe we belong there.' CF did not respond to a series of questions sent by this masthead. 'The strong will prevail' Unless CF's decision is reversed, Yoogali is facing a grim future. Playing in the Griffith competition is an option, but not a good one. It's not what it used to be. 'My 70-year-old father plays in the Griffith comp. You can print that, that's good publicity for him,' Santolin says. 'Where do we go from here? We've put all of our eggs into this basket. If we were crumbling, disintegrating, forfeiting games - you wouldn't get any pushback from us. The gap between where we are now and where we would likely have to drop to is huge.' Club officials have sought the assistance of Football NSW and Football Australia, but thus far to no avail. 'We're not here to make any trouble,' says Donadel. 'We just want to play soccer. Football in Griffith is the only sport that goes out of town to play. Rugby league is just around here. Aussie rules, it's West Wyalong, basically, as far as they go. We try to travel, and the reason is to get to the best comp we can. And this is the best comp we can get to.' One solution could be the establishment of a separate NPL competition for the Riverina, featuring clubs on both sides of the NSW-Victoria border. On paper, it would be compelling. Yoogali's age-old nemesis Hanwood, who currently play in Wagga, would be a perfect fit, and ensure the first-grade return of what we might describe as the best Australian sporting rivalry you've never heard of. Add the strongest teams from Wagga, Albury, Young and Cootamundra, and it could be something. 'You've got the basis of an NPL there,' Keenan says. 'It takes time, though, to organise competitions and get the structures in place for clubs to be able to compete at that level and under those guidelines of, say, a regional or Riverina NPL. That would be one of the directions that we're hoping for because the amount of talent that has come out of the Riverina regional areas is substantial and continues to evolve and develop. If they're serious about football in the regions, they need to consider it.' Yoogali doesn't have to look too far for some words of inspiration, if they need them. They are written on the club's badge. Their slogan is ' E Forte È Vincerà ', which roughly translates from Italian to: 'The strong will prevail.'
