mmg.com.au

Goulburn North East Football Association club Shepparton has set its sights on hosting the biggest and best Macedonian Cup yet, when the annual tournament kicks off at McEwen Reserve next month.

The weekend-long tournament was first formed in the 1980s and was resurrected in 2010 after a lengthy recess.

The cup is shared between nine member clubs, with Shepparton to serve as host for the first time this year.

Macedonian Cup committee member and Shepparton player Johnny Davkovski said the club was proud of its Macedonian heritage and the slogan for the tournament was ‘‘Bringing the Macedonian community together’’.

‘‘All these clubs were formed by Macedonians back in the day and even though now every club has got every nationality playing for them, it’s just good to have a cup to recognise where the clubs have come from and what people did to start them up, because a lot of people sacrificed a lot,’’ Davkovski said. ‘‘When all the communities get together, people meet each other that they haven’t seen since the old days in the villages of Macedonia.

‘‘It’s very exciting for the club and if we get the 3000 to 4000 people that we’re anticipating and make it the biggest tournament ever for soccer in the region ... hopefully in a few years’ time when we’re talking about involving NSW clubs, they’re looking at us to hold it first.’’

Representatives from participating clubs, which include Lalor Park, Altona Magic, Preston Lions, Noble Park and Sydenham Park, were in Shepparton last weekend to inspect the facilities.

As last year’s host, Lalor United was also on hand to hand over the prized cup.

The tournament features three divisions, men’s, women’s and reserves, with round-robin matches played on Saturday, March 9, followed by finals the next day.

State League One side Altona Magic is the reigning men’s champion and Davkovski said he expected it to be the team to beat again this year.

‘‘They’re probably the highest placed Macedonian club (in Victoria), we actually played a practice game against them the other day and they won 3-0, so everyone is probably looking to knock off Altona Magic at this stage,’’ he said.

‘‘Shepparton has got three teams in and we’re looking at hopefully taking one of those out.’’

For more information and fixtures and results, visit www.macedoniancup.com.au