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Johnny Warren collection

At a glance

  • Memorabilia including soccer uniforms, medals, scrapbooks and trophies
  • 1974 FIFA World Cup
  • FIFA Centennial Order of Merit medal
  • Donated by Ross, Jeff and Jamie Warren and Sibere Rodrigues
Black and white photograph showing five men walking on a grass field. The man at front right is wearing a tracksuit top with the Australian coat of arms on the right breast and the words 'World Cup 1974' embroidered above. Behind him are four other three other men wearing tracksuit tops. A partially obscured man carrying a camera is visible on the right and crowds of people in tiered seating are in the background.
Johnny Warren leads the Australian team from the field at the 1974 World Cup.
Ceramic figure of soccer player running up to kick a ball, with right leg on the ground and left leg extended backwards and bent at the knee. The painted figure wears a white uniform with a red and green vertical stripe across the chest, black boots and green socks with a red and white stripe. The figure is mounted on a wooden plinth with rectangular base and an engraved metal plaque at the front.
A trophy awarded to Warren during his association with the St George-Budapest soccer club.

A champion of football in Australia

Johnny Warren (1943–2004) was a captain, coach, commentator and champion of football in Australia. In the 50 years that Warren was associated with the game, it evolved into a mainstream, international sport.

When Warren started playing football in 1948, it was called soccer by the locals and derided as a game for 'sheilas, wogs and poofters'. It was actually English immigrants who first promoted the game in Australia, in around 1880.

Football continues to grow in popularity today, with women, Indigenous communities and homeless people embracing 'the beautiful game'.

Football is now part of Australia's national sporting identity and its status reinforces Johnny Warren's words, 'I told you so'.

An auspicious start

Johnny Warren started playing club football at the age of five. His older brothers, Ross and Geoff, had to help sign Johnny's name on the Botany Methodists club registration form because he hadn't yet learnt to write.

Like most Australian kids Johnny played a range of sports at school but he was nicknamed 'Wog Warren' because he played football.

Long-sleeved yellow tracksuit jacket with high elasticated collar, waist and cuffs with zip fastener at front. Australian coat of arms badge sewn front, upper proper left with text above 'WORLD CUP / 1974'. Green stripe detail from shoulder to cuffs along sleeves
Tracksuit top worn by Johnny Warren at the World Cup in 1974. Photo:

Warren, a midfielder, quickly rose through the ranks of football clubs. At the age of 16 he joined the New South Wales State League. He played for several Sydney teams, including a 10-year stint at St George-Budapest (1963–1974).

1974 FIFA World Cup

Johnny Warren was part of the first Australian team to qualify for the 1974 FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) World Cup.

Most Australians didn't realise what an accomplishment it was to qualify as they had never heard of the tournament.

While football had been popular in Australia before 1974, buoyed by the influx of migrants from Britain and Europe, the World Cup brought the game back into the sporting foreground.

It would be another 32 years before the Socceroos qualified again.

Black and white photo showing a man dressed in a tracksuit, squatting at the same level as four young boys. The man is ressed in a dark tracksuit and boots and holds a white soccer ball. Behind him is a small soft-topped vehicle with a sign on top which reads 'THE SUN / Coaching Clinic'.
Johnny Warren with young players at a Sun Coaching Clinic, about 1980. Photographer unknown.

Coaching career

After retiring as a professional player in 1974, Johnny Warren spent nearly 30 years coaching and promoting 'the world game'.

He believed that the strength of Australian football lay in building the skills of the next generation.

Warren visited every school in the ACT to give football demonstrations, and in NSW he ran coaching clinics with Socceroo coach Rale Rasic.

As well as coaching juniors, Warren was coach-captain of club team St George (1975), a part-time coach for the Fiji football team (1976) and coach-manager of Canberra City (1977–78).

In 2004, in recognition of Warren's dedication to football, the New South Wales Government established the Johnny Warren Football Foundation to coach and develop young players.

A colour printed cardboard disc with illustrations of football players in different positions, and accompanying descriptive text. There is an illustrated portrait of John Warren at the centre with text 'JOHNNY / WARREN'S SOCCER / COACHING / CLINIC / Produced by / Wales Bank / First Bank in Australia / A Sponsor of / Australia's 1978 / World Cup / Challenge'.
Johnny Warren's soccer coaching clinic wheel, about 1978. Photo:

Commentator and Captain Socceroo

Black and white photograph showing two men standing beside a television camera on a grass field. Both men are wearing suit coats and ties and are crossing their arms. In the background a man wearing a headset uses the camera and there is a crowd of people in tiered seating.
Mr and Mrs Soccer, Johnny Warren and Les Murray, were the face of football for SBS Television. Photo:

Johnny Warren championed football in Australia with missionary zeal. He believed it was a 'world game' that could unite Australians from many cultural and racial backgrounds.

Warren and Les Murray were the face of football on SBS TV and were nicknamed Mr and Mrs Soccer.

Warren commentated on national and international matches for SBS and hosted its Captain Socceroo program.

He wrote or contributed to eight books on football, including his incomplete biography Sheilas, Wogs & Poofters, first published in 2002.

Warren also wrote newspaper columns, commentated on radio and was influential in the establishment of the A-League competition in Australia.

Football was the first sport in Australia to go national, in 1977.

International recognition

A gold metal disc with a central logo and the text 'INTERNATIONALE DE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION / FIFA / 100 YEARS / 1904-2004'. The medal hands from a blue and yellow vertically striped ribbon. A small circullar gold finished lapel pin sits below the main medal. Both appear on a black backdrop.
Johnny Warren's FIFA medal. Photo:

Johnny Warren devoted 50 years of his life to football in Australia.

When asked a few weeks before his death in 2004 what he wanted his sporting legacy to be, he said: 'I told you so'.

Warren was convinced that football would be embraced by the Australian public, that the Socceroos would one day qualify again for the FIFA World Cup (which they did in 2006 and 2010) and that the game he loved would no longer be seen as 'wog-ball'.

His dreams came true. Today, more people play football in Australia than any other code. In 2009 the most popular participation sport for boys in the 5–14 age group was outdoor football.

In 2004 Warren was awarded a FIFA Centennial Order of Merit in recognition of his dedication to football. It was one of only 100 given out worldwide.

Warren died less than six months later from lung cancer, aged 61.

National Historical Collection

In 2005 a collection of 503 items of memorabilia was donated by Johnny Warren's family to the National Museum of Australia, where it is now part of the National Historical Collection.

The Museum paid tribute to Warren in 2010 with a display titled 'I told you so': Johnny Warren and football in Australia.

Colour photograph showing four people standing in front of a blue gold and white banner with the words 'FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DE FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION' printed around a logo of two soccer balls superimposed on globes. A man at the centre has his arm arond a woman and his chin rests on the top of her head. The man holds a gold medal in a presentation case in his right hand. A woman stands to his left and a man to his right.
Johnny Warren receives the FIFA Centennial Order of Merit in 2004, just months before he died. He is pictured with mother Marjorie, partner Sibere Rodrigues (left) and FIFA president Sepp Blatter (right).

More

'I told you so': Johnny Warren and football in Australia

Johnny Warren Football Foundation website

Football Federation Australia website

FIFA website

Australian football timeline on the NSW Migration Heritage Centre website

Other key sporting collections at the National Museum