Brisbane Strikers

Brisbane Strikers Football Club is an Australian semi-professional football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in 1991 as Brisbane United, the club competed in the National Soccer League until the 2003–04 season and was one of two clubs contending for an A-League licence during the establishment of the league in 2004.

Brisbane Strikers currently competes in the National Premier League Queensland, with home matches played at Perry Park.

History

Background

Brisbane's first representation in the National Soccer League (NSL), then known as the Philips Soccer League (PSL), came in the form of Brisbane City and Brisbane Lions. Brisbane City won the first two national knockout competitions, by defeating Marconi in 1977 and West Adelaide in 1978.

Brisbane Lions won the knockout competition in 1981, also defeating West Adelaide. Brisbane City left the NSL in after the 1986 season and Brisbane Lions after the 1988 season.

National Soccer League 1991–2004

The next Brisbane team in the NSL was Brisbane United, which played from 1991 to 1993 coached by Miron Bleiberg. The team wore predominately white, with a blue and gold trim — the official colours of Brisbane. After a troubled time, with small crowds, confronting relegation and with a "disenchanted team", former Australian Soccer Federation chairman Ian Brusasco headed a trustee management group to restructure the club. The name was changed to the Brisbane Strikers for the 1993/94 season, with the colours, newly installed coach Bruce Stowell and most players retained.

Initially the Brisbane Strikers were owned by the Queensland Soccer Federation (QSF), which handed the running of the club to a Trust Management Group composed of Brusasco (also a former president of the QSF), Clem Jones (former Lord Mayor of Brisbane) and leading football official Frank Speare.

Coached by Stowell for three seasons, the Strikers finished fourth in 1995/96 to qualify for the