View source for Capital Football

{{About|the Australian organisation|the New Zealand federation|Capital Football (New Zealand)}}
{{Short description|Governing body for soccer in the Australian Capital Territory}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
{{Use Australian English|date=August 2015}}
{{Infobox organization
| name = Capital Football
| image = Capital Football logo.svg
| size = 150px
| formation = {{Start date and age|p=yes|2005}}
| type = Territory Sporting Association
| status = Active
| coordinates = {{coord|35|19|36.9|S|149|5|41|E|display=it}}
| headquarters = Football House, [[Deakin, Australian Capital Territory|Deakin]]
| location = {{flagicon|Australian Capital Territory}} [[Canberra]], [[Australian Capital Territory|ACT]]
| region_served = [[Australian Capital Territory|ACT]]<br />[[Monaro (New South Wales)|Monaro, NSW]]<br />[[Southern Tablelands|Southern Tablelands, NSW]]<br />[[Riverina|Riverina, NSW]]
| membership = 58,600 <small>(2019)</small><ref>{{cite web | url=https://capitalfootball.com.au/football-confirmed-as-the-largest-club-based-participation-sport-in-australia/ | title=Football confirmed as the largest club-based participation sport in Australia | publisher=Capital Football | date=7 November 2019 | access-date=4 January 2021 }}</ref>
| num_staff = 22+
| parent_organisation = [[Football Australia]]
| leader_title = CEO
| leader_name = Ivan Slavich
| website = [http://www.capitalfootball.com.au capitalfootball.com.au]
}}

'''Capital Football''' is the trading name for the ACT Football Federation Incorporated, the state governing body for [[association football|soccer]] in the [[Australian Capital Territory, Australia|Australian Capital Territory]] (ACT), but also has affiliated clubs based in surrounding areas of [[New South Wales]]. It is affiliated with [[Football Australia]], 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]] and [[World War II]] 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 [[Gungahlin United FC|Juventus]], [[Canberra Olympic FC|Olympic]], [[Canberra FC|Croatia]] 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]] (FFA). The organisation's name changed to the ''ACT Football Federation Incorporated'' and it started trading under the guise of Capital Football.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://capitalfootball.com.au/football-act-brief-history | title = Football in the ACT - A Brief History | publisher = www.capitalfootball.com.au | access-date = 2017-03-20 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170320232801/http://capitalfootball.com.au/football-act-brief-history | archive-date = 2017-03-20 | url-status = dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.capitalfootball.com.au/library/2005AnnualReport.pdf |title=Archived copy of 2005 Capital Football Annual Report |access-date=2007-02-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928191348/http://www.capitalfootball.com.au/library/2005AnnualReport.pdf |archive-date=2007-09-28 }}</ref>

In 2008, then Capital Football [[Chief Executive Officer|CEO]] [[Heather Reid (sports administrator)|Heather Reid]] was instrumental in securing Capital Football a [[W-League (Australia)|W-League]] franchise licence from FFA, the only licence given to an entity not associated with an [[A-League]] team.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.theage.com.au/sport/act-sport/saturday-serve-womens-sport-pioneers-leave-wonderful-legacy-for-future-generations-20160205-gmmhz8 | title = Women's sport pioneers leave wonderful legacy for future generations | publisher=[[The Age]] | first=Lee | last=Gaskin | date=2016-02-05 | access-date = 2017-03-20 }}</ref> Capital Football established [[Canberra United FC]] to compete in the inaugural W-League season in [[2008–09 W-League|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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/01/17/2468359.htm|title=Queensland claims inaugural W-League title|date=17 January 2009|access-date=18 January 2009| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090120052512/http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/01/17/2468359.htm| archive-date= 20 January 2009 | url-status= dead}}</ref>

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]] regarding identifying new playing grounds as the number of players and teams had reached a breaking point.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.canberratimes.com.au/sport/act-sport/soccer-reigns-supreme-in-junior-ranks-in-canberra-among-four-football-codes-20150327-1m9jwt.html | title = Soccer reigns supreme in junior ranks in Canberra among four football codes | publisher=[[The Canberra Times]] | first=Lee | last=Gaskin | date=2015-04-02 | access-date = 2017-03-15 }}</ref>

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 Capital Football season|2016 National Premier Leagues Capital Football season]], increasing the total number of teams in the ACT's top men's division to ten.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.canberratimes.com.au/sport/act-sport/canberra-united-academy-20151215-glo27p.html | title = Soccer: Canberra United Academy given green light to play in 2016 National Premier League | publisher=[[The Canberra Times]] | first=Lee | last=Gaskin | date=2015-12-15 | access-date = 2017-03-21 }}</ref> 17 December 2015, the eight [[National Premier Leagues Capital Football|ACT NPL clubs]] swiftly voiced their concerns regarding the new academy and its proposed ‘user pay’ system.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.canberratimes.com.au/sport/act-sport/soccer-canberra-npl-clubs-unite-to-voice-concerns-about-canberra-united-academy-20151217-glq6nz.html | title = Soccer: Canberra NPL clubs unite to voice concerns about Canberra United Academy | publisher=[[The Canberra Times]] | first=Lee | last=Gaskin | date=2015-12-17 | access-date = 2017-03-21 }}</ref> 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 (Australia)|National Youth League]] licence by the FFA. Grieve noted this became the federation's responsibility due to the absence of an [[A-League]] team in the region.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.fourfourtwo.com/au/news/canberra-united-academy-push-national-youth-league | title=Canberra United Academy push for National Youth League | publisher=www.fourfourtwo.com | first=Con | last=Stamocostas | date=2016-01-04 | access-date=2017-03-21 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170321081812/http://www.fourfourtwo.com/au/news/canberra-united-academy-push-national-youth-league | archive-date=21 March 2017 | url-status=dead }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.smh.com.au/sport/act-sport/canberras-npl-teams-to-boycott-canberra-united-academy-games-20160210-gmqhac.html | title = Canberra's NPL teams to boycott Canberra United Academy games | publisher=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] | first=David | last=Polkinghorne | date=2016-02-10 | access-date = 2017-03-21 }}</ref> 11 February 2016, FFA technical director, Eric Abrams, met with ACT NPL club presidents to discuss their ongoing concerns with the Canberra United Academy. [[Fairfax Media]] reported discussions had occurred regarding a break-away league being established if the impasse was not overcome.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/rebel-league-an-option-in-canberra-npl-disagreement-with-capital-football-20160211-gmrcrw.html | title = Rebel league an option in Canberra NPL disagreement with Capital Football | publisher=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] | first=David | last=Polkinghorne | date=2016-02-11 | access-date = 2017-03-21 }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.canberratimes.com.au/sport/act-sport/soccer-capital-football-hopeful-of-resolution-with-clubs-for-canberra-united-academy-20160331-gnv9xx.html | title = Soccer: Capital Football hopeful of resolution with clubs for Canberra United Academy | publisher=[[The Canberra Times]] | first=Lee | last=Gaskin | date=2016-03-31 | access-date = 2017-03-21 }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.canberratimes.com.au/sport/act-sport/soccer-capital-football-npl-clubs-agree-on-truce-to-play-against-canberra-united-academy-20160407-go11m4.html | title = Soccer: Capital Football NPL clubs agree on truce to play against Canberra United Academy | publisher=[[The Canberra Times]] | first=Lee | last=Gaskin | date=2016-04-07 | access-date = 2017-03-21 }}</ref> 27 May 2016, [[Cooma FC|Cooma]] 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.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.theage.com.au/sport/act-sport/soccer-npl-clubs-content-to-play-cu-academy-for-rest-of-season-20160527-gp5hrk.html | title = Soccer: NPL clubs content to play CU Academy for rest of season | publisher=[[The Age]] | first=Jon | last=Tuxworth | date=2016-05-27 | access-date = 2017-03-21 }}</ref> 27 February 2017, CF announced that CUA would continue to operate but would align with the [[FFA Centre of Excellence]] for the [[2017 Capital Football season|2017 NPL season]], freeing up a league place for [[Riverina Rhinos]] to join the league.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.nationalpremierleagues.com.au/article/ps4-npl-capital-football-structure--teams/1cpm5x5ck7pab187ejzhvkgwvx | title = PS4 NPL Capital Football structure & teams | publisher=www.nationalpremierleagues.com.au | date=2017-02-27 | access-date = 2017-03-21 }}</ref>

==Headquarters==

Capital Football's headquarters is located at Football House in the south-central [[Canberra]] suburb of [[Deakin, Australian Capital Territory|Deakin, ACT]] (address: 2/3 Phipps Cl, Deakin ACT 2600).<ref>{{cite web | url = http://capitalfootball.com.au/contact-us | title = Contact Us | publisher=www.capitalfootball.com.au | access-date = 2017-03-15 }}</ref> 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]]. Mr Donnelly suggested the total costs of building the headquarters would be £8,000.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2765633 | title = Football House Proposed for Canberra | publisher=[[The Canberra Times]] | date=1948-09-14 | access-date = 2017-03-15 }}</ref>

==Administration==

Capital Football Board, as of 16 March 2023<ref>{{cite web | url= https://capitalfootball.com.au/about-us/board-committees/ | title= Capital Football Board | publisher=www.capitalfootball.com.au | access-date = 16 March 2023 }}</ref>

{| class="toccolours"
|-
|+ style="background:#012B88; border-top:#012B88 5px solid; border-bottom:#012B88 5px solid;color:white"| '''Capital Football Board'''
|-
! style="background:#FFCE00;color:black;border:#0c1f3d 1px solid"|Role !! style="background:#FFCE00;color:black;border:#0c1f3d 1px solid"|Staff
|-
| Chair & Director || {{flagicon|AUS}} [[Angelo Konstantinou]]
|-
| Deputy chair & Director || {{flagicon|AUS}} Fran Sankey
|-
| Director || {{flagicon|AUS}} Kim Ward
|-
| Director || {{flagicon|AUS}} Gary Vandeburgt
|-
| Director || {{flagicon|AUS}} Justin Webb
|-
|}

==Competitions==

Capital Football runs a number of men's, women's and junior competitions:<ref>{{cite web |title=Competitions - Capital Football |url=https://capitalfootball.com.au/competitions/ |access-date=16 March 2023 |publisher=}}</ref>

{| class="toccolours"
|-
|+ style="background:#012B88; border-top:#012B88 5px solid; border-bottom:#012B88 5px solid;color:white"| '''Capital Football Competitions'''
|-
! style="background:#FFCE00;color:black;border:#0c1f3d 1px solid"|Men's !! !! !! style="background:#FFCE00;color:black;border:#0c1f3d 1px solid"|Women's 
!
! !! style="background:#FFCE00;color:black;border:#0c1f3d 1px solid" |Juniors !! !! !! style="background:#FFCE00;color:black;border:#0c1f3d 1px solid"|Mixed
|-
| [[National Premier Leagues Capital Football|NPL Capital Football Men's]] |||||| NPL Capital Football Women's 
|
| || NPL Boys || |||| PSFA
|-
| [[Capital Premier League (ACT)|Capital Premier League Men's]]|| |||| [[Capital Football State League|State League 1-6]]
|
| || CPL Boys || |||| ANU Mixed Social Futsal
|-
| [[Capital Football State League|State League 1-3]] |||||| Women's Federation Cup 
|
| || NPL Girls || |||| Diplomatic Corps Cup
|-
| [[Capital Football State League|State League Reserves 1-3]] |||||| Charity Shield Women's
|
|
|[[Kanga Cup]]
|
|
|Walking Football
|-
| [[Capital Football State League|Community League 1-5]] |||||| Masters 1
|
|
|ACT MiniRoos
|
|
|Powerchair League
|-
| [[Capital Football Federation Cup|Federation Cup]]
|
|
|Futsal 1-3
|
|
|ACT Junior Leagues
|-
| Charity Shield Men's
|-
| Masters 1-3
|-
|Masters Over 45s
|-
|Futsal 1-5
|}

==Associated clubs==

===Owned and operated teams===

Capital Football owns and operates the [[A-League Women]] franchise team [[Canberra United FC|Canberra United Football Club]] since its inception in 2008 into the competition, which was then called W-League.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://trove.nla.gov.au/people/475310?c=people | title = Reid, Heather | publisher=www.trove.nla.gov.au | access-date = 2017-03-20 }}</ref>
{{further|Canberra United FC}}

===Affiliated clubs===

As of 2021, Capital Football has a total of 31 affiliated senior men's and women's clubs, listed below.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://capitalfootball.com.au/affiliated-club-websites | title = Affiliated Club Websites | publisher = www.capitalfootball.com.au | access-date = 2017-03-18 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170318172810/http://capitalfootball.com.au/affiliated-club-websites | archive-date = 2017-03-18 | url-status = dead }}</ref> 23 clubs are from the ACT with and 8 clubs from the [[Monaro (New South Wales)|Monaro]], [[Southern Tablelands]] and [[Riverina]] regions of NSW (including two clubs from [[Queanbeyan]] and one club each from [[Goulburn]], [[Cooma]], [[Yass, New South Wales|Yass]], [[Palerang]], [[Wagga Wagga, New South Wales|Wagga Wagga]] and [[Griffith, New South Wales|Griffith]]).

{|
|- valign=top
|
{| class="wikitable" width=190px
|-
!ACT
|-
|[[Australian Defence Force Academy#Sports|ADFA Vikings]]
|-
|[[Australian National University FC|ANU FC]]
|-
|[[Belconnen United FC|Belconnen United]]
|-
|Belnorth FC
|-
|Belsouth FC
|-
|Belwest Foxes
|-
|Brindabella Blues
|-
|Burns FC
|-
|[[Canberra FC]]
|-
|[[Canberra City FC|Canberra City]]
|-
|[[Canberra Olympic FC|Canberra Olympic]]
|-
|[[Gungahlin United FC|Gungahlin United]]
|-
|Lanyon United
|-
|Majura FC
|-
|[[Narrabundah FC]]
|-
|[[O'Connor Knights FC|O'Connor Knights]]
|-
|[[South Canberra FC]]
|-
|[[Tuggeranong United FC|Tuggeranong United]]
|-
|[[UC Pumas FC|UC Pumas]]
|-
|[[Canberra White Eagles FC|White Eagles FC]]
|-
|Weston-Molonglo FC
|-
|Woden Valley FC
|-
|[[Woden Weston FC]]
|}
|
{| class="wikitable" width=190px
|-
!NSW
|-
|[[Cooma FC]]{{efn|The official name of Cooma Football Club's [[National Premier Leagues]] side is "Tigers FC".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.coomafc.com.au/npl|title=National Premier League|accessdate=20 July 2021|publisher=[[Cooma FC]]}}</ref>}}
|-
|[[Monaro Panthers FC|Monaro Panthers]]
|-
|Palerang United
|-
|[[Queanbeyan City FC|Queanbeyan City]]
|-
|[[Riverina Rhinos]]
|-
|[[Southern Tablelands United FC|Southern Tablelands United]]
|-
|[[Wagga City Wanderers FC|Wagga City Wanderers]]
|-
|Yass FC
|}
|}

{{notelist}}

==See also==
{{Portal bar|Australia|Association football}}
*[[Soccer in the Australian Capital Territory]]
*[[Sport in the Australian Capital Territory]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
*[http://www.capitalfootball.com.au/ Capital Football official website]
*[http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/ FFA official website]

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[[Category:Soccer governing bodies in Australia]]
[[Category:Soccer in the Australian Capital Territory]]
[[Category:Sports governing bodies in the Australian Capital Territory]]
[[Category:Sports organizations established in 2005]]
[[Category:2005 establishments in Australia]]