Capital Football is the trading name for the ACT Football Federation Incorporated, the state governing body for

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

in the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory until 1938, is an internal States and territories of Australia, territory of Australia. Canberra, the capital city of Australia, is situated within the territory, an ...

(ACT), but also has affiliated clubs based in surrounding areas of

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. It is affiliated with

Football Australia Football Australia is the sports governing body, governing body of Soccer in Australia, soccer, futsal, and beach soccer within Australia, headquartered in Sydney. Although the first governing body of the sport was founded in 1911, Football Au ...

, the national governing body.

History

Capital Football was founded in the 1960s as the ''ACT Soccer Federation Incorporated''. The organisation replaced the defunct ''Federal Capital Territory Soccer Football Association'' which controlled soccer in the ACT between 1926 and 1932 and the ''Federal Monaro District Soccer Association'' which lasted two years (1932–33). The

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

saw soccer all but disappear in the ACT with no new federation established and the odd team playing infrequent matches in NSW. Following the conclusion of the war new migrant communities settled in Canberra and founded clubs such as

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

, Olympic,

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

and Hungaria. These clubs formed the backbone of the new ACT Soccer Federation in the 1960s. The new federation and the clubs adopted a policy in 1960 to remove ethnic names but by 1966 this policy was abandoned and ethnic names returned. The ACT Soccer Federation continued to serve as the state federation body of the ACT under the trading name Soccer Canberra until 2005 when the organisation went through a restructure and rebranding in accordance with the new national rebranding set down by the new national federation,

Football Federation Australia Football Australia is the governing body of soccer, futsal, and beach soccer within Australia, headquartered in Sydney. Although the first governing body of the sport was founded in 1911, Football Australia in its current form was only establ ...

(FFA). The organisation's name changed to the ''ACT Football Federation Incorporated'' and it started trading under the guise of Capital Football. In 2008, then Capital Football

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

Heather Reid was instrumental in securing Capital Football a W-League franchise licence from FFA, the only licence given to an entity not associated with an

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

team. Capital Football established

Canberra United FC Canberra United Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. Founded in 2008 by Capital Football, the club was an inaugural member of the W-League and the only club not affiliated wit ...

to compete in the inaugural W-League season in 2008-09. Canberra United finished the season in third place behind Queensland Roar and Newcastle Jets before going on to win their semi-final against the Jets 1-0 and losing the grand final 0-2 against the Roar. 2 April 2015, it was reported that Capital Football's membership numbers had swelled to 12,500 players after recording membership numbers of 10,512 in 2013 and 11,655 in 2014. The steady increase in numbers caused Capital Football to enter into regular talks with the

ACT Government The Government of the Australian Capital Territory, also referred to as the Australian Capital Territory Government or ACT Government, is the executive branch of the Australian Capital Territory. The leader of the party or coalition with the Con ...

regarding identifying new playing grounds as the number of players and teams had reached a breaking point. 15 December 2015, Capital Football announced the amalgamation of its various elite high performance soccer programs into one entity, Canberra United Academy (CUA). The state federation additionally announced the Academy program would compete in the 2016 National Premier Leagues Capital Football season, increasing the total number of teams in the ACT's top men's division to ten. 17 December 2015, the eight ACT NPL clubs swiftly voiced their concerns regarding the new academy and its proposed ‘user pay’ system. 4 January 2016, Capital Football technical director, Warren Grieve, announced the intention for the state federation to push for the newly established academy to be granted a National Youth League licence by the FFA. Grieve noted this became the federation's responsibility due to the absence of an

team in the region. 10 February 2016, Canberra's NPL teams announced they would boycott all matches involving the Canberra United Academy including pre-season fixtures unless Capital Football removed CUA from the NPL and gave all eight clubs voting rights on the Capital Football board. 11 February 2016, FFA technical director, Eric Abrams, met with ACT NPL club presidents to discuss their ongoing concerns with the Canberra United Academy.

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reported discussions had occurred regarding a break-away league being established if the impasse was not overcome. 31 March 2016, outgoing Capital Football CEO, Heather Reid, revealed ongoing discussions had been taking place between the federation and NPL club presidents regarding the CUA issue. She reiterated, along with board member Mark O’Neill that they were confident a resolution would be found shortly. 7 April 2016, Capital Football and the NPL clubs came to an agreement not to boycott matches against CUA in the first half of the season as a sign of good-faith to the new CF CEO. Meetings would continue to take place during this time to determine the long-term future. 27 May 2016,

Cooma Cooma is a town in the south of New South Wales, Australia. It is located south of the national capital, Canberra, via the Monaro Highway. It is also on the Snowy Mountains Highway, connecting Bega, New South Wales, Bega with the Riverina. ...

president, Harry Hovasapain, confirmed all NPL teams would play CUA for the rest of the 2016 season, noting the clubs, the federation board, the CEO and the competition manager were all now working closely and moving in the right direction. 27 February 2017, CF announced that CUA would continue to operate but would align with the FFA Centre of Excellence for the 2017 NPL season, freeing up a league place for Riverina Rhinos to join the league.

Headquarters

Capital Football's headquarters is located at Football House in the south-central

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

suburb of Deakin, ACT (address: 2/3 Phipps Cl, Deakin ACT 2600). The first public mention of building a home for football in the ACT named "Football House" came on 14 September 1948 when Canberra Football League president, C A Donnelly, mentioned the idea in an article for local newspaper

The Canberra Times ''The Canberra Times'' is a daily newspaper in Canberra, Australia, which is published by Australian Community Media. It was founded in 1926, and has changed ownership and format several times. History ''The Canberra Times'' was launched in 1 ...

. Mr Donnelly suggested the total costs of building the headquarters would be £8,000.

Administration

Capital Football Board, as of 16 March 2023

Competitions

Capital Football runs a number of men's, women's and junior competitions:

Associated clubs

Owned and operated teams

Capital Football owns and operates the

A-League Women A-League Women (currently known as the Ninja A-League for sponsorship reasons), formerly the W-League, is the top-division women's soccer league in Australia. The W-League was established in 2008 by Football Australia (then known as Football Fe ...

franchise team Canberra United Football Club since its inception in 2008 into the competition, which was then called W-League.

Affiliated clubs

As of 2021, Capital Football has a total of 31 affiliated senior men's and women's clubs, listed below. 23 clubs are from the ACT with and 8 clubs from the Monaro,

Southern Tablelands The Southern Tablelands is a geographic area of New South Wales, Australia, located south-west of Sydney and generally west of the Great Dividing Range. The area is characterised by high, flat country which has generally been extensively cl ...

and

Riverina The Riverina () is an agricultural list of regions in Australia, region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, a climate with significant seaso ...

regions of NSW (including two clubs from

Queanbeyan Queanbeyan ( ) is a city in south-eastern New South Wales, Australia, located adjacent to the Australian Capital Territory in the Southern Tablelands region. Located on the Queanbeyan River, the city is the council seat of the Queanbeyan-Pale ...

and one club each from

Goulburn Goulburn ( ) is a regional city in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, approximately south-west of Sydney and north-east of Canberra. It was proclaimed as Australia's first inland city through letters patent by Queen Victor ...

, Yass, Palerang,

Wagga Wagga Wagga Wagga (; informally called Wagga) is a major regional city in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, with an urban population of more than 57,003 as of 2021, it is an important agricultural, m ...

and

Griffith Griffith may refer to: People * Griffith (name) * Griffith (surname) * Griffith (given name) Places Antarctica * Mount Griffith, Ross Dependency * Griffith Peak (Antarctica), Marie Byrd Land * Griffith Glacier, Marie Byrd Land * Griffith Ridge, ...

References

External links

Capital Football official websiteFFA official website
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