 The earliest traces of the club date back to 1948 with the founding of Juventus, and was officially founded in 1997 with mergers and de-mergers occurring between Italian backed clubs within the Italian community of Melbourne.The club was founded in 1997 as a merger of several Italian backed football clubs in Melbourne, being the senior teams of Box Hill Inter, Brunswick Zebras (partially) and Bulleen Lions, to become 'Bulleen Inter Kings' being based at the Veneto Club in Bulleen.As the Brunswick senior team was broken into two separate entities, one being the part that makes Moreland Zebras today, and the other part later becoming part of rivals Whittlesea Ranges, the history of the club regarding events prior to 1997 have been disputed since.