''Nerds FC'' is an Australian television documentary featuring football. The first series of the show was aired as a lead-in for the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...

on the

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

network that featured coverage of the

Australian national soccer team The Australia men's national soccer team represents Australia in international men's soccer. Officially nicknamed the Socceroos, the team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia, which is affiliated ...

. The show follows a football

team A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to infor ...

of 14

nerd A nerd is a person seen as overly intellectual, obsessive, introverted or lacking social skills. Such a person may spend inordinate amounts of time on unpopular, little known, or non-mainstream activities, which are generally either highly techn ...

s who were trained over 3 months, climaxing with a match against a professional team. Nerds FC is produced by SBS independent and Grundy Television (which has now merged with Crackerjack to become FremantleMedia Australia). ''Nerds FC'''s format, ''

FC Nerds FC Nerds is a reality television sports franchise developed by Nordisk Film. Incarnations *Denmark: FC Zulu *Sweden: FC Z *Norway: Tufte IL and FK Zebra *Finland: FC Nörtit *Netherlands: Atletico Ananas *Germany: Borussia Banana *Australia: Ne ...

'', is based on the Danish reality TV hit FC Zulu. The first series aired on Australian TV from 14 April 2006, encored from 8 June 2006, and encored ''again'' from 21 April 2007. The

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

for the first series was released on 6 June 2007. The second series aired from 9 June 2007. The

for the second series was released on 16 August 2007.

Episodes

'' List of Nerds FC episodes''

Cast

The team was specifically selected to have little to no knowledge of football, and also little physical ability or aptitude for the game. To find such individuals, ads were placed in local university newspapers and internet chat rooms seeking 18- to 25-year-old men, ''Could you be described as an intelligent geek? Do you bore your friends with technical, scientific or obsessional details? Grundy Television wants you!'' The aim of the program is to build a group of nerds into a side, able to play with reasonable ability against (semi) professional teams, give some nerds a physical challenge, and to make a TV program. Unlike other

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

series, the team was meant to bond and produce a cohesive group that was capable of excellent results. There is no 'voting off' or winner, or strategic plotting against fellow participants, the team participates as a whole.

Vodcasts

Released shortly after each episode is aired the

vodcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing. ...

s include commentary and extra information from some of the nerds. They can be downloaded from th
Australian iTunes Music Store

Series 1

Squad

Strip

The Nerds FC Season 1 strip was

Royal Blue Royal blue is a deep and vivid shade of blue. It is said to have been created by clothiers in Rode, Somerset, a consortium of whom won a competition to make a dress for Queen Charlotte, consort of King George III. Brightness The ''Oxford ...

with white piping at the sleeves and neck, with matching shorts and socks.

Training Ground

The Nerds FC training ground is Wentworth Playing Grounds between

Glebe Glebe (; also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s))McGurk 1970, p. 17 is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved ...

and Pyrmont in

Sydney, New South Wales Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Song and Video

The third episode saw the Nerds FC team in th
301

recording studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for sound recording, mixing, and audio production of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large en ...

to make its team song, led by professional vocal trainer Erana Clark of

Australian Idol ''Australian Idol'' is an Australian singing competition, which began its first season in July 2003 and ended its initial run in November 2009. As part of the ''Idol'' franchise, Australian Idol originated from the reality program '' Pop Ido ...

fame. The

chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song) or refrain, line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in which all verse ...

of the song (and promotional video) is (in

rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually, the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for a musical or aesthetic ...

): "We will enter history,
Failure to victory,
This team is proud to be
Nerds FC." Watch th
Promotional Video

Games

The first game played by Nerds FC was against the "Young Matildas", the Australia women's national football (soccer) team under 21s football team. The score was 11:0 to the Young Matildas. The fourth episode had the Nerds FC playing a game against a team of inmates in a

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

. The score was 8:0. The seventh episode featured a rematch against the Young Matildas. The score was 5:0. The final 'professional' outing was against

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victo ...

in front of 25,000 people as post-match entertainment for the 2006 A-League Semi Final between Adelaide United and Sydney FC. The score was 12:2.

Cameo appearances

*Episode 1: One of

the Wiggles The Wiggles are an Australian children's music group formed in Sydney in 1991. The group are currently composed of Anthony Field, Lachlan Gillespie, Simon Pryce and Tsehay Hawkins, as well as supporting members Evie Ferris, John Pearce, ...

gives a "Go Nerds FC" cheer during the credits *Episode 2:

Anthony LaPaglia Anthony LaPaglia (, ; born 31 January 1959) is an Australian actor. He is best known for his role as Jack Malone in the television drama ''Without a Trace'' (2002–2009), for which he received a Golden Globe Award in 2004. LaPaglia won a Pri ...

gives a "Go Nerds FC" cheer during the credits *Episode 6: Blue Wiggle,

Anthony Field Anthony Donald Joseph Field, AM (born 8 May 1963) is an Australian musician, actor, songwriter and producer. He is best known as a leader of the children's group the Wiggles and a member of the 1980s and 1990s pop band the Cockroaches. While ...

, reveals his same-colour blue Nerds FC jumper underneath his Wiggles shirt and declares himself a fan.

Series 2.0 - Nerds Upgraded

Squad

Strip

The Nerds FC Season 2 strip was yellow with black shoulder and collar stripe, black shorts, socks and shoes. The goalie wore a grey shirt, grey shorts, socks and shoes. In a radio interview on station

2SSR 2SSR FM (the Sutherland Shire Community Radio Association) is a community radio station broadcasting from Gymea in Sutherland Shire, New South Wales, Australia. 2SSR FM is Non Profit and entirely managed by Volunteers. 2SSR FM is a Member Sta ...

however, Adam (the Goalie) commented that the grey shoes were due to his large feet, not the goalie strip; and that he would have been wearing those shoes regardless of the position he was given.

Training ground

The training ground for season 2 is th
Sydney Academy of Sport
in Sydney,

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Song and video

The team song for series 2 is a rock version of the previous season's song. The song features

finalist

Chris Murphy Christopher Scott Murphy (born August 3, 1973) is an American lawyer, author, and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Connecticut since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served in the United States ...

playing guitar and singing some solos and an orchestral backing in the final section of the piece. In addition to this, the rap in the middle is changed to fit with the interests of the series 2 nerds.

Games

In the first episode, the Nerds were taken to the

Marconi Stallions Marconi Stallions Football Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club based in Fairfield, Sydney, New South Wales. The club has been crowned Australian champion four times. The Stallions are the soccer team of Club Marconi, a socia ...

ground to play the

Under 11's Elite Squad. The score was 6:0 to the Under 11's. In episode three the Nerds played the Nerds FC team from Season 1. The original Nerds team won 3:0. In episode four, the team was taken to

Bluetongue Stadium Central Coast Stadium (known originally as Grahame Park), known commercially as Industree Group Stadium is a sports venue in Gosford, on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia. The stadium is home to the Central Coast Mariners asso ...

to face a team of celebrities. The celebrities won 5:2. In the fifth episode, the Nerds faced off against a team of military servicemen. The score was 2:0 to the military.

Final match

The final match was played on 27 February 2007 with the nerds playing an "International All-Star Team". The venue was Pittwater Park,

Warriewood Warriewood is a suburb in northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Warriewood is located 26 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Northern Beaches Council. Warriewood i ...

.photos - Jon Harsem
accessed 4 May 2007 The curtain raiser was a match between the Nerds FC Series 1 and the New South Wales Under 11's Elite Squad.

References

External links

Nerds FC Home Page

Trent Apted interview
21 June 2006 - Computerworld.com.au
Team song for series 2

Talk To The Nerds Website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nerds Fc 2000s Australian reality television series Special Broadcasting Service original programming Soccer in Australia Television shows set in New South Wales 2006 Australian television series debuts 2007 Australian television series endings English-language television shows Television series by Fremantle (company) Soccer mass media in Australia SBS Sport

Episodes

Cast

Vodcasts

Series 1

Squad

Strip

Training Ground

Song and Video

Games

Cameo appearances

Series 2.0 - Nerds Upgraded

Squad

Strip

Training ground

Song and video

Games

Final match

See also

References

External links