St Albans Dinamo Football Club will stage the annual I&D Gala Day at its Churchill Reserve complex in Melbourne’s West on Saturday.
Under the auspices of longtime Croatian community patrons Ivan and Kathy Filipovic from the I&D Group, the annual pre-season gathering of the Victorian Croatian backed football clubs’ Juniors’ and MiniRoos’ teams provides a festive day of football, food and Croatian culture.
With the rapid growth in popularity of football among Australian kids nationwide, the number of junior teams at each of the participating Croatian clubs is growing at an immense rate.
I&D Gala growing year on year
According to the hosting club Dinamo’s Head of Juniors and Female Football, Stjepan Gal, this year has seen a continuation of the extraordinary growth experienced at his club last year.
“Already in 2025, we have seen the club grow its junior participation figures again, especially within our female program which is brilliant,” said Gal.
“From having just one team seven years ago, we now have a total of seven female teams. And that’s the growth just with the girls.
“Overall, we are looking forward to a great 2025 for all of our junior teams,” added Gal.
Just like with previous editions of the I&D Gala Day, other clubs taking part in this year’s event will include the Melbourne Knights, Dandenong City, FC Strathmore Split and the North Geelong Warriors.
As for the sheer logistics of staging such a massive community event, Gal praised the vast army of volunteers that have already put their hand up to help out on the day.
“It is a massive event and we are so grateful to all the parents that give up their time to help out,” he said.
“It’s such a great pre-season hit out for all the kids, as well as a great opportunity for us parents to catch up with old friends from the other clubs.
“And most importantly, for the kids, there is no pressure to perform but only the pure enjoyment of playing football and sharing quality time with both old mates as well as creating new friendships,” concluded Stjepan Gal, looking ahead to Saturday’s I&D Gala Day at Dinamo.