Football Brisbane and SEQ- CHANGE THE NAMES OF THE NEW SEQ 'DIAMOND' AND FB 'SAPPHIRE' LEAGUES!

This petition is targeted at players, officials and football fans in Brisbane. In 2012 the old Football Brisbane Women’s Premier and Reserves Leagues will be retired and replaced by new leagues aiming to strengthen and develop Women’s Football in South East Queensland. These new competitions will change the structure of Women’s football in Brisbane and South East Queensland. Whilst these leagues may weaken the first tier competition initially, it will eventually lead to a bigger and stronger Brisbane and South East QLD competition in the future. Our complaints are not against the change in the competition, but they regard the new names given to the competition. We understand that the names of competition had to be changed in order to distinguish between the old and new competitions; however believe that a poor decision has been made in naming the leagues 'diamond' and 'sapphire.' These names are immature and embarrassing to the players. The names are clearly adopted from an American ideology and have no place in Australian Sport. Australia has a proud history and tradition of sporting excellence and we should be proud of that and not trying to mimic the American culture. The men’s Brisbane Premier league will remain with the same title and it does not require a redundant word used to describe the league. Furthermore these names will surely create confusion amongst the footballing community. ‘Diamond’ and ‘Sapphire’ provide no explanation of which league is considered first tier. The answer is simple. The ‘diamond’ and ‘sapphire’ tags are unnecessary, immature and unwanted; with many players stating they would be embarrassed to say they play in the ‘diamond league.’ Get rid of these unnecessary tags and name the leagues something much simpler, such as: - ‘The Women’s South East Queensland League’ and ‘The Women’s football Brisbane league’ - ‘The Women’s South East Queensland League for Women’ and ‘The football Brisbane league for Women’ - ‘SEQ first tier women’ and ‘Football Brisbane second tier women’ The names are simple and easily define which league is first and second tier. If Football Brisbane is content on having an identifying name describing the league then they should consider something more Australian and not Americanise football in Australia!