Andy Harper (born 13 May 1967) is a former Australian

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player who played in Australia's

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its ...

(NSL) for Sydney City,

Sydney Olympic Sydney Olympic Football Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club, based in Belmore, Sydney, New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states o ...

St George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the R ...

Marconi Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquess of Marconi ( ; ; 25 April 1874 – 20 July 1937) was an Italian electrical engineer, inventor, and politician known for his creation of a practical radio wave-based wireless telegraph system. This ...

Brisbane Strikers Brisbane Strikers Football Club is an Australian semi-professional football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in 1991 as Brisbane United, the club competed in the National Soccer League until the 2003–04 season. Brisbane Strikers ...

Newcastle Breakers Newcastle Breakers FC are a defunct Australian football (soccer) club. Formed out of elements of the Newcastle Austral club, they participated in the National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in ...

and

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

. Harper began a commentary career while still playing, working for

Special Broadcasting Service The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is an Australian hybrid-funded public broadcasting, public service broadcaster. About 80 percent of funding for the company is derived from tax revenue. SBS operates six TV channels (SBS (Australian TV chann ...

(SBS), Channel 9,

C7 Sport C7 Sport was a pay-TV service in Australia, owned and run by Seven Network. The service was carried on the Austar and Optus Vision pay-TV networks between 1995 and 2002. Seven unsuccessfully pursued court action against competitors, seeking dam ...

, ABC Radio,

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...

and Paramount+. He currently covers the

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

for Paramount+ as an expert commentator.

Playing career

Harper began his professional playing career with Sydney City in 1986, their last season in the

. Harper spent the

1987 National Soccer League The 1987 National Soccer League season was the 11th season of the National Soccer League, the former top Australian professional league for association football clubs since its establishment in 1977. The season saw the format returned to a singl ...

season playing for

. In January 1989, Harper signed for

after spending much of 1988 travelling in Europe. After several years with St George, Harper was sold to Marconi-Fairfield for an $18,000 transfer fee. In the 1993 NSL grand final, Harper scored from a penalty kick to give Marconi a 1–0 win over

Adelaide City Adelaide City Football Club is a semi-professional soccer club based in Oakden, a north-eastern suburb of Adelaide. The club was a founding member of the now-defunct National Soccer League (NSL) and currently competes in the National Premier ...

. In 1997, Harper signed a two-year deal with the

. He cited a desire to continue commentating for the

(SBS) as a motivation for staying in Australia, despite overseas interest. Harper joined the

at the start of the 1999–2000 NSL season. With the Breakers on the brink of collapse, Harper and a number of other players walked out in September 2000, citing breaches of contract by the club. Harper joined the new

along with a number of fellow former Breakers. Last playing in 2001, Harper made 321 appearances, scoring 100 goals.

Writing

After retiring in 2001 Harper has written three books, the most popular being (

Johnny Warren John Norman Warren, MBE, OAM (17 May 1943 – 6 November 2004) was an Australian soccer player, coach, administrator, writer and broadcaster. He was known as ''Captain Socceroo'' for his passionate work to promote the game in Australia. The a ...

's biography), ''Sheilas, Wogs and Poofters, The Incomplete Biography of Johnny Warren & Soccer in Australia''. In June 2020 he completed a doctoral thesis titled "Australia’s Power Structures and the Legitimisation of Soccer (2003-2015)" as part of his

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

study at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

TV

SBS

He was a commentator on SBS covering the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 1 ...

. He also appeared on SBS in the

Grundy Television Reg Grundy Organisation (founded as Reg Grundy Enterprises, later known as both Reg Grundy Productions and Grundy Television and known informally as Grundy's) was an Australian-based multinational mass media company, primarily involved in tele ...

production ''

Nerds FC ''Nerds FC'' is an Australian television documentary featuring association football, football. The #Series 1, first series of the show was aired as a lead-in for the 2006 FIFA World Cup on the Special Broadcasting Service network that featured co ...

'' in 2006 and 2007.

Nine

Harper hosted the

Nine Network Australia Nine Network (stylised 9Network, and commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of the five main free-to-air television ...

's coverage of the

2002 World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

Fox Sports

He covered the

European Championships A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

in 2000 and 2004 with

, On 29 July 2006 he joined the Fox Sports football team as a pundit and commentator for the

. Harper also features on the weekly program Kick Off as well as previously hosting

Fox Sports FC ''Fox Sports FC'' (formerly ''Total Football'') was an Australian football (soccer) discussion show that televised on Fox Sports. History Aired at 8:30pm every Tuesday night on Fox Sports, the show was split into two halves, with the first half ...

. He is also a regular contributor as an 'expert'

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

commentator in the print and electronic media's coverage of football in Australia. During his commentary of an Adelaide United Asian Champions League game, he coined the phrase 'spawning salmon' after Adelaide United's Travis Dodd flew in the air to head down the ball assisting Fabian Barbiero.

Sydney FC

In December 2004 Harper was appointed CEO of

team

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club, commonly known as Sydney FC, is a professional association football, soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. They compete in the top-tier men's league in Australia, the A-League Men. Established in 2004, ...

. He became director of football development in July 2005, with the role of CEO replaced by an executive general manager. Harper resigned after the end of the 2005–06 season.

Honours

Club

;Marconi *

Championship: 1992–93 *

Minor Premiership: 1995–96 Club Wallamba FC .Football Mid North Coast AAMS Grand Final 2017

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harper, Andy 1967 births Living people Soccer players from Sydney National Soccer League (Australia) players Brisbane Strikers FC players Marconi Stallions FC players Newcastle Jets FC players Australian television presenters Association football executives Australian soccer commentators Men's association football forwards Australian men's soccer players Newcastle Breakers FC players 20th-century Australian sportsmen