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 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

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 d ...

(NSL) for Sydney City,

Sydney Olympic Sydney Olympic Football Club is an Australian semi-professional association football, soccer club, based in Belmore, New South Wales, Belmore, Sydney, New South Wales, that plays in the National Premier Leagues NSW. The Club was founded as Pan- ...

St George Saint George (Greek language, Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin language, Latin: Georgius, Arabic language, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christians, Christian who is venerated as a sa ...

, Marconi,

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 and was one of two ...

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 from season 1991/1992, until their dissolution in 1999/2000. The club fare ...

and

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

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

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 World ...

(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 dama ...

, 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 ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the Fo ...

and Paramount+. He currently covers the

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

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 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 soccer club based in Adelaide, South Australia. The club was known historically as Juventus — the original name given to the club by its founders in Adelaide's Italian community. Adelaide City is one of Aust ...

. 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'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, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

study at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

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 football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

. 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'' in 2006 and 2007.

Nine

Harper hosted the

Nine Network Australia The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, 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 five main free-to-air television netw ...

'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 The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

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

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

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 is an Australian professional soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was fo ...

. 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

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 Association football forwards Australian soccer players Newcastle Breakers FC players