This week frustrated club president Felice Lomuco took to Twitter, contacting football media and luminaries of the game to rally support for their six to 16-year-olds.

“Council forcing us to reduce places by 50% or to fold due to unfair ground policies. RT to support our fight #UNITEDas1,” Lomuco tweeted.

The south-east Melbourne club has grown from one junior team to 14 in just eight years but says traditional clubs, with less than half the number of teams, have a stranglehold on local facilities.

Over the next few weeks United will ramp up its social media campaign, using Twitter and online petitions to generate a groundswell of support.

While the local council and other clubs says the allocation policy is fair, all concede the game’s growth is putting a squeeze on available space.

“Our club has ridden the wave of football’s resurgence since the World Cup 2006,” Lomuco said. “Since then we’ve played on something like six different council grounds.

“There are several clubs in our immediate area who are allocated grounds despite the fact they are under-utilising the facilities. Clubs who were allocated grounds last year and have had the same grounds for ever and a day - the policy is weighted in such a way those clubs pretty much always get those facilities.

“We’ve done everything we can to open up our club to people in the area by keeping our fees low. We also have a wheelchair football team. We should be rewarded for what we do rather than at the moment we feel like we’re being punished for growing the game in the area.”

Lomuco said grounds offered the club were either too expensive or lacked easy access to critical facilities such as toilets forcing the club to contemplate slashing the number of teams.

Five years ago they were offered an old AFL ground but it was “quite a distance” from the membership base at Rowville, Lomuco said and the surface was unplayable after just five games. 

Football Federation Victoria said it was aware of United’s plight and was working with the club and Knox City Council “to identify a workable outcome for the club for this season and into the future”.

The council denies the picture is that grim for the young club but concedes local authorities face a battle trying to accommodate the growth of the game.

Football, the council said, is “comfortably the fastest growing sport” in the area. A decade ago there were just over 700 participants – last year there were 1125.

The leafy suburbs are still a hotspot for Aussie Rules with 4670 participants but the rate of growth over the same period is not nearly so marked.

While Knox United never “really had a home base” the council says it has options including use of a number of reserves, shared facilities with Boronia Soccer Club and access to the Knox Regional Sports Park, with season fees waived.

Lomuco says the latter, in particular, was news to him.

“Knox United is a club which is definitely growing and soccer in Knox generally is growing quite rapidly which is great,” said council’s leisure development team leader Daniel Clark.

“(United’s) home base used to be at the Knox Italian Club and as they’ve continued to grow they’ve required more facilities. Unfortunately those facilities are being utilised to the absolute maximum by the existing tenant clubs which are also continuing to grow.

“There is only so much land available.

“A few years ago Knox used to be very strong in Aussie Rules - and still is – but for a soccer club that used to train Tuesday, Thursday, with increased growth they now train Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Most of the clubs have grown quite significantly.”

Clark said the allocation policy was fair and widely accepted by clubs in the area but agreed factors such as traditional ties to the community were taken into account when allocating resources.

“A lot of the clubs that are based at these grounds have invested significant money into the facilities there and that’s certainly factored in when allocating,” he said.

“Also their history at that venue is pretty significant and their history within Knox – you need to factor those things in.”

The case of Rowville Eagles underlines the complexity of the problem facing the council and clubs. Founded by Romanian Immigrants, they moved to Park Ridge Reserve in 1992 and members have little sympathy for the new kids on the block.

Having sunk more than $100,000 into upgrading facilities they take a dim view of the noisy expanding neighbours clambering for more space. Even if the club wanted to extend a lifeline, President Daniel Puscasu says the pitch can’t accommodate the extra traffic.

“Our point of view is that we’ve been here for 20 something years,” Puscasu said. “When we moved in we didn’t have lights – all we had is a pitch not even a fence.

“Why don’t they do that? Ask the council to give them land and slowly slowly put lights, fences, change rooms and then in 10 years’ time we’ll come and take it off them – see how it is.”

Nor is he moved by Knox United’s rapidly growing membership base. “Just because they’ve got extra teams it means nothing,” he said.

“It’s not our problem – that’s our ground it’s as simple as that. Last year they were merging with Boronia, this year they want to come to Park Ridge Reserve, next year they’re going to pick someone else. They’re like gypsies – I don’t want to offend anyone but that’s how they are.”