Current Adelaide United coach Aurelio Vidmar was inducted into the FFA Hall of Fame today at a luncheon in Melbourne.

Vidmar, now a member of the Hall of Champions played 53 Socceroo games, 239 games with Adelaide City and 27 with Adelaide United before stepping into coaching. He scored 18 goals for Australia and was named Oceania Player of Year in 1995.

The 1st Australian woman to play in the US professional league, Julie Murray received a Medal of Excellence. Murray played 67 matches for the Matildas, scoring 19 goals in a career that spanned 13 years.

Another highlight of the luncheon was the Award of Distinction acceptance speech made by "Wee Johnny" Thomson (pictured right), who came to Australia from Scotland in 1947 and played football for Gladesville Ryde and Canterbury Bankstown in the NSW State League.

Two days after his arrival in Australia, "Wee Johnny" took the field for the Gladesville reserve side and his footballing career in Australia began.

As an administrator, he acted as Chairman of the NSL Co-ordination committee,  treasurer and an executive member of the NSW Federation as well as Australia's national team manager on our 1st Oceania tournament in New Caledonia.

He was involved with the negotiations for Australia's readmission to FIFA and represented Australia at Oceania Football Confederation meetings. 

Thomson is also a life member of the both the NSW and Australian Football Federations and has given 60 years to the game. Thank You 'Wee Johnny'

Formeroos Cliff Almond and George Keith along with Tracey Wheeler, John De Witt, and Peter Desira were also presented with the Award of Distinction.

Mike Wells, George Dick OAM and Don Di Fabrizio OAM, were inducted into the Roll of Honour for their lifeling service to the game.

Over 40 ex-Socceroos were in attendance, spanning from the 1940s to recently retired player Tony Popovic.

The FFA also launched a virtual Football Hall of Fame - www.footballhalloffame.com.au - covers all of the 208 inductees since the inception of the Hall of Fame in 1999. 

In other news : A book is being written about Reg Date and leading Australian football historian, Ted Simmons, is working on a history of football in Australia.