Football Federation Australia Chief Executive David Gallop has thrown his support behind the campaign to locate the lost Australian soccer ashes.
The soccer ashes is a casket made from Australian and New Zealand wood containing ashes from cigars of the captains of the two countries, and was last seen in Sydney in 1954.
A campaign is currently underway to locate this famous piece of Australian football history, with there being a possibility of creating a replica should the original not be found.
Speaking on Evenings on FNR, Gallop and football historian Ian Syson admitted that football governance in Australia does not do enough to preserve the game’s history.
“The game does a poor job of celebrating its history,” Gallop said.
“We join Ian and others in making a call-out to firstly the football family, but beyond that to see if we can find this trophy.”
On the actions of the FFA in particular going towards finding the artefact, its CEO highlighted an initial broad appeal to the football community itself.
“Maybe through our digital channels, seeing whether that sheds any light on maybe the last time saw the ashes,” he said.
Syson says some of the old players and people of past generations are pointing him “in the right directions” as he searches for the ashes.
“I’m pretty sure that a trip to Sydney and maybe elsewhere might be quite rewarding for me,” Syson said.
Gallop admitted that a possible football museum is a “great aspiration” for the future, while Syson hinted at creating a digital museum to bring football history into the public eye.
“If we can find out where every NSL trophy is for example, rather than collect them in a museum, collect them in a website,” Syson said.
If the campaign fails to bear fruit, Gallop admitted that erecting a replica of the ashes is “not a bad plan B.”
“It would be wonderful to find the real thing so I don’t think we should necessarily give up on that task,” Gallop said.
“Obviously a replica is one answer if we end up not finding the real trophy.”
The opportunity to strengthen the rivalry between Australia and New Zealand in a football sense is also something that Gallop would be eager to explore.
“Something like the ashes adds a little spice to an Australia-New Zealand game that other rivalries don’t have,” Gallop said.
