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There be of them, that have left a name behind them, that their praises might be reported. And some there be, which have no memorial; who are perished, as though they had never been; and are become as though they had never been born; and their children after them. Bible, King James Version Ecclesiasticus, 44 Verses 8-9

This is very much a work-in-progress of what will be a complex and thorough site of information. The ultimate goal is to create a database noting every senior soccer player in Australia who enlisted in the Australian Armed Forces. This site will also record those who lost their lives in the process of fighting.

A massive difference exists between what a culture does and the way the culture remembers its actions. We behave in particular ways but when we come to discuss such things the story shifts drastically; whether that be in the media we consume, the movies we produce or the books we write.

So it is with soccer. I’ve been researching Australian soccer for over 15 years now and I'm staggered that historic facts about Australia's most played football code tend to vanish into thin air. Of the many questions I hit upon in the early part of my research a particular question stood out: why is soccer so absent in discussions that weave ANZAC and sport together? Whether it be the contemporary sporting celebrations around the day or the historic stories that are told, soccer is missing.

Using the wonderful resource of the Trove website (funded by the federal government) which is a storehouse of Australia’s archival records, especially our newspapers, I found that the current position of soccer in our national discussion didn’t quite sit with what I was finding in the digital record, 100 years ago.

My research revealed some astounding information. 

1. Enormous numbers of soccer players enlisted in the Armed Forces in World War I. 
2. A staggering number of deaths of these players were suffered, usually in action but often as a result of injuries. 
3. I found the game played by Armed Forces personnel across the theatres of war. 
4. And soccer has a surprisingly central place in Australia’s war effort. 

None of these seem to be common knowledge. Indeed they remain obscure historical points.

We need to build on the research we have conducted so far. Substantial work has been done already. 

Firstly I and Athas Zafiris have constructed two sizable databases of Newcastle and Victorian soccer enlistments and deaths. The figures are astounding, yet remain incomplete. 

A second point is that research has alerted us to a number of missing artefacts and memorials to do with soccer participation in the Armed Forces. One of the great sadnesses for me is the disappearance of the Merewether Advance roll of honour which included 76 names of Merewether players who had enlisted in the Newcastle battalions. (It's not the only missing Roll). The second powerful artefact is what was termed the soccer ashes, constructed out of materials that had spent time at Gallipoli and was intended to represent footballing superiority in ,soccer est matches between Australia and New Zealand. The trophy went missing after 1954 and has not been seen since stop finding this object has become something of a grail for researchers.

More research needs to be done:

1. Completing the databases
2. Understanding the fate of the various artifacts.

This site will gather the threads of this material and provide a resource for myself and others working on the topic of Soccer ANZACs.