Local Football Stalwart receives Football Federation Victoria Life Membership

Football Federation Victoria was delighted to present three stalwarts of Victorian football with FFV Life Memberships at the Annual General Meeting last week.

Ken Steel, Jim Ouliaris, and Bart Harrold were unanimously awarded with Life Membership by the FFV Members present (Zone Representatives and Standing Committee Chairpersons).

Ken Steel has been involved in football in the Gippsland region and state-wide for over 50 years as a player, coach, referee, and administrator.

After starting at Monash Soccer Club and playing his juniors there, at the age of 16, Ken also took up refereeing and enjoyed this role for the next 14 years. He was the President of the Referees Branch for several years.

Ken became a junior coach at Churchill for 7 years before becoming the GSL Squad Co-ordinator. In 1987, Ken was nominated to be the Chairman of the Victorian Country Leagues Association and is still in this role 26 years on.

He joined the Victorian Soccer Federation Junior League Management Committee in the mid 1990’s.

In recent times, Ken served as Chairman of the Gippsland Soccer League for 6 years and had a 5 year stint as a Commissioner with the newly renamed Football Federation Victoria (Country Representative).

The last 6 years has seen Ken in the role of Zone Representative for Gippsland to the Football Federation Victoria and he still holds this position.

Jim Ouliaris has been involved in refereeing for more than 30 years and is a former FIFA Assistant Referee. He was named Victorian Referee of the Year in 2005 and 2007 as well as being a member of the FFA and FFV Referees Technical Committees, FFV Referee Standing Committee and is an AFC and FFA Assessor and Instructor.

Bart Harrold is an outgoing FFV Director who has served his full term of seven years on the Board. He has been involved at Boronia Soccer Club for 25 years and has also been at Bayswater Strikers Soccer Club for over 10 years. He was also on the Metro Management Committee for eight years and the Victorian Soccer Federation Investigation and Disciplinary committee for eight years, his last four as Chair.

FFV would like to express its sincere gratitude to these three gentlemen for their service to football over a long period of time and thank them for playing their part in shaping the Victorian football landscape.