Significantly, Syson’s book uncovers that while Australian Rules and Rugby League continued with their competitions during the conflict, soccer stopped and as a result the game suffered. 

“Footy and Rugby League kept going. Their players avoided going to the war," he said. "Collingwood, Carlton, Fitzroy, Richmond, all kept playing. They continue the game and that kept their infrastructure in place.

“But soccer said no, 'we are going to the war.' Rugby Union said 'no we are going to the war.' They were really vital decisions in terms of the future of these games.

“Because those other sports kept their infrastructure in place, they kept consciousness of the games in place as it was the only game to go to on the weekend.

“But in soccer the infrastructure breaks down, patterns of behaviour breaks down, if you stop following your team for a year, it’s very hard to get going again.

1909 Middle Park Victoria. Football was played in Victoria in the 1860's but the Museum of Victoria incorrectly states that this was the "start of Soccer in Australia"

Syson hopes football fans will appreciate that the research in his book has historical implications for how the sport should be viewed today.

“So, what I’m saying to soccer people is that your game belongs here,” he said.

“Look how much it belongs, see how old it is, see how many soccer players committed themselves to the army, see how many soccer players died in the war in a commitment to something like the Anzac legend.

“We need to acknowledge that Soccer played a very strong role in enlistments in the war. In Melbourne it was something like 500 players went to war. 

“I’ve only scratched the surface and there are so many more stories to be told.

“I intend to do work on the Newcastle Soccer Anzacs because there were 650 players in Newcastle and 550 of them joined up and about 80 were killed. And it had a massive effect on their community.

Syson added," I also din’t look at NSW much, so I want to redress that balance as there were parts of Sydney where soocer was a hegemonic game such as Balmain and Granville.

"Soccer has a strange history. I have to do more work, I have to find more descriptions. I have to find influences and so forth.

"The problem is all of the stories from that period are told by people who are from other sports, who see everything that happens in that period in their own image.”