Sydney FC wishes to congratulate both the Sydney FC Unofficial website and the Royal Exhibition Hotel for winning their respective awards at the inaugural FFDU Fan Awards night.
FFDU FAN Awards a night of fun, surprise and celebration
The inaugural FFDU Fan Awards were held at the Sydney Harbour Marriott on Friday night with surprise special guest, Tim Cahill.
There were over 100 people at the Fan Awards, representing just a snapshot of the Australian football community. The company of SBS, Celtic Sydney Supporters Club, FourFourTwo, The Football Sack, Everton Supporters Club, Sydney FC Unofficial, Melbourne Heart Red & White Unite, Australian Football Facebook and more were gathered in Sydney for the awards.
Lee Sutherland, who founded Footy Fans Down Under, introduced everyone to the night and immediately set the casual mood – reflecting the collection of fans in the room. The light humour continued throughout the night and really captured the character of fans and supporters of football.
Between the humour there was even some friendly – and at times cheeky – rival taunts. The night had a range of highlights including; what was an eternally long acceptance speech from Australian Football Weekly, the entire SBS crew accepting their award for TV Show of the Year, Santo Sam and Ed-s Cup Fever and David Zdrilic buying some time as he accepted Matt McKay-s award for Australian Based Football of the Year.
Les Murray, Francis Leach and Melbourne Heart CEO, Scott Munn were all guest speakers and reflected on their involvement with the game and how football has the unique ability to unite people from any corner of the world.
The Celtic Sydney Supporters Club made sure their voices were heard and fittingly won the Supporters Club of the Year Award. They were presented by FourFourTwo with a special signed cover of the first issue of Australian FourFourTwo magazine from 2005.
But without a doubt the biggest highlight of the night was the surprise appearance of Socceroo, Tim Cahill, who travelled from his Coaching Clinics at Homebush to accept his award for Overseas Australian Footballer of the Year.
The formalities of the night ended after the special award of Supporter of the Year was presented to Steven Forbes from Melbourne Heart-s Red & White Unite.
You can check out the great photos from the night here, thanks to FourFourTwo.
The full list of winners are as follows:
Australian Supporters Club Website of the Year
Sydney FC Unofficial
Overseas Supporters Club Website of the Year
OzSpurs
Football Website of the Year
Four Four Two
Football/Supporters Best Use of Social Media
Australian Football Facebook
Blogger of the Year
Les Murray
Football Podcast of the Year
The Football Sack
Supporters Club Event of the Year
Everton in Sydney Weekend
Football Print Publication of the Year
Four Four Two
Football Writer of the Year
Michael Lynch
Football Bar of the Year Australia
Royal Exhibition Hotel – Sydney
Football TV Show of the Year
Santo, Sam and Ed-s Cup Fever
Football Stadium of the Year Matchday Experience
AAMI Park – Melbourne Heart
Football Radio Station/Show of the Year
SEN – Francis Leach
Australian Based Footballer of the Year
Matt McKay
Supporters Club of the Year
Celtic Sydney Supporters Club
Sponsored by Four Four Two
Overseas Australian Footballer of the Year
Tim Cahill
Supporter of the Year
Steven Forbes (Red & White Unite – Melbourne Heart)
Sponsored by Ben Sherman
