In a reshuffle of the club's football administration personnel, Petrillo will take over from Michael Valkanis, who replaced Petrillo in the role back in March.

 Adelaide United CEO Sam Ciccarello said on the announcement, "We see Michael Petrillo as one of the best football directors in the Hyundai A-League, so we're just delighted to get him back and get him involved in what is going to be a very challenging and exciting Hyundai A-League and ACL campaign coming up.

"On hearing that Michael Petrillo was possibly looking to relocate back to Adelaide for family reasons, we initiated some discussions with him in relation to the Football Director position, and this followed some earlier discussions where Michael Valkanis expressed his desire to take on a more active role in coaching.

"So with Michael Valkanis wanting to pursue his coaching career, we were delighted to be able to put an arrangement together that sees Michael Petrillo re-starting as the Director of Football at the club."

Petrillo has been fulfilling a similar role with new Hyundai A-League franchise North Queensland Fury for the past four months, but he is now looking forward to heading back to South Australia and rejoining United.

Valkanis will head up Adelaide United's Football Academy, which the club is currently establishing to help develop elite male players, aged 12-14. More details of the Academy will be released in the coming months.

Petrillo will officially start this Monday, 27 July 2009.