Fund Football Fairly - ACT

31/07/2026

FUND FOOTBALL FAIRLY WELCOMES NEW MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS AT CANBERRA UNITED

The Convenor of Fund Football Fairly, Nick Houston, meets with the new owners of Canberra United, Theo Fotopoulos and Maurice.

Fund Football Fairly wishes the new owners of Canberra United the best of luck in their endeavours to build on the work of Capital Football and run a successful professional women’s football team in Canberra

Women’s football is a key and equal part of football in Australia just as it is with football all over the world. The Matilda’s effect has drawn hundreds of thousands of new players into the women’s game and participation rates are booming.

Canberra United as the professional women’s team in Canberra stands at the pinnacle of club football in Canberra. It is important to have a successful national league side in Canberra to give an aspirational destination to young female players who engage in the game they love week in week out throughout the Canberra winter.

The strength of the game at the local level feeds directly into the success of Canberra United. The professional team needs strong and vibrant grass roots football just as the grass roots needs a successful professional team.

When it comes to the resourcing issues, Government support directed at the needs of the grass roots of the football community will feed directly into the success of Canberra United and the broader football community.

Fund Football Fairly is calling on the Government to rectify decades of discriminatory underfunding of football by delivering a significant capital works program to upgrade football facilities at local clubs, to develop two regional football complexes in Canberra, the son and daughter of Throsby, to operate as community hubs for football that can seat up to 6000 people, and to implement a Sports Voucher scheme to assist families with the costs of participation.

At the same time, Fund Football Fairly observes the generous funding allocated to other football codes in Canberra at the elite level in comparison with the restricted support given to Canberra United over the years.

It is now not good enough to give the Raiders, Brumbies and Giants millions of dollars in support each year without extending the same level of support to football. Equity demands a reconsideration of current funding arrangements.

How to help

If you support this, we ask you to like the post and forward it to your friends, family, teammates and ask them to follow the Fund Football Fairly page.

27/07/2026

https://www.fsaaus.com/news-and-insights/why-sokkah-twitter-has-a-right-to-be-cheesed-off-at-rival-code-promo?fbclid=IwdGRjcATUHxNjbGNrBNQe5XBkb2YBZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeY4mtfgdbzHUaz2ZdqRuu4J9VmJp07AE_rcF5VbsTVC_Yn4tAMD3hZ01FYIs_aem__j-u5lweSK_B_D11CmheMg

To understand why football supporters across Australia are so cheesed off, you have to look at it through a historical lens.

18/07/2026

FUND FOOTBALL FAIRLY - RADIO STATION 2CC - INTERVIEW WITH LEON DELANEY – 10 July 2026

The level of the appropriate of funding for community sports in Canberra is heating up. The media are interested in the perspectives of the football community and in giving football a public voice.

In this interview between Leon Delaney, the experienced presenter of Canberra Live on Radio Station 2CC, and Nick Houston, the Convenor of Fund Football Fairly, the discussion ranges across the disparity of funding given to football in comparison with the other sports, football participation rates, the ability of synthetic fields to take the pressure off grass pitches, replacement options for the failed Home of Football in Throsby, historic racism as a reason for the discriminatory underfunding of football, the World Cup, and the recent meeting with Yvette Berry, the Minister for Sport.

Summary

The disparity in funding allocated to football in relation to the other sports is astonishing. Other sports have received tens of millions of dollars in support from the ACT Government while football was allocated a bit over $600,000 last year. This is set against booming rated of participation in grassroots football in Canberra.

The discussion raised the issue of investment in a “son and daughter” of the failed Home of Football in Throsby. The "son and the daughter" of Throsby refers to the construction of two football complexes, one on the northside of Canberra and one on southside, with ground capacity of around 5,000 people.

In relation to the meeting with Yvette Berry, it was noted that the Minister is open to continuing the discussion with Fund Football Fairly on these issues. The need to change ACT Government sport funding policy to fund sport based on participation rates and the need for major investment to rectify decades of historic underfunding of football infrastructure in Canberra are squarely in purview.

The construction of synthetic playing fields at all major playing hubs is presented as a great way of taking the pressure of the grass fields and allow play to continue all year. ACT ground maintenance crews do their best to prepare and maintain great playing surfaces, but grass is grass and given the amount of football use, surfaces invariably become rough, bumpy and muddy.

If you support this, we ask you to like the post and forward it to your friends, family, teammates and ask them to follow the Fund Football Fairly page.

We would also ask you to speak to Capital Football and your club president and ask them to support Fund Football Fairly.

17/07/2026

The Australian Professional Leagues announces Australian Sports Group as the new owner of Canberra United FC 🟢

The purchase secures the future of the women's team, along with establishing the option to introduce an Isuzu UTE A-League men's team for the 2028/29 season 💪👏

10/07/2026

The issue of the level of government funding of grass roots football is gaining a certain amount of coverage in the media. We would encourage you to share the posts and help build the campaign for better funding of football in the ACT.

10/07/2026

10/07/2026

INTERVIEW WITH ABC RADIO - Ross Solly - Tuesday 7 July 2026.

The video features an interview with the convenor of "Fund Football Fairly," a group organised to advocate for increased football funding in Canberra. The following themes and topics are discussed in chronological order:

Group Origin and Purpose: The speaker explains that "Fund Football Fairly" is a "ginger group" established to work with Capital Football and advocate for funding improvements. The group formed after the speaker and others in their football team observed a long-term lack of investment in football infrastructure and decided to organise to effect change.

Advocacy Strategy: The group collaborated with local club presidents in Canberra to develop a set of reasonable, unified proposals for the ACT government, with the aim of mobilising the football community behind these requests.

Participation Disparity: The speaker argues that football funding is disproportionate to the sport's high participation rates, noting that in 2023, 43,000 people played football—significantly outnumbering participation in other local sports like rugby, league, AFL, cricket, and netball.

Funding Comparison: The speaker contrasts the relatively low government funding received by football against the millions of dollars allocated to other sports infrastructure and professional sporting organisations in the region.

Meeting with the Sports Minister: The speaker recently met with the sports minister to present two principles:
Funding should be based on participation rates.
The government should rectify long-term underfunding through a major infrastructure program.

Outcome and Proposals: While the minister appeared resistant to changing the funding model to be strictly participation-based, there was potential support for specific infrastructure improvements. The group's specific proposals include:

Improving lights and playing surfaces to prevent injuries and ground closures.
A moratorium on expensive ground hire fees.
Constructing synthetic ovals at major hubs to allow year-round play and reduce pressure on grass pitches.

Next Steps: The group intends to continue engaging respectfully with the ACT government and collaborating with Capital Football and the broader football community.

09/07/2026

FUND FOOTBALL FAIRLY - ABC RADIO 666 - INTERVIEW WITH ROSS SOLLY - 7 July 2026

Listen to the discussion between Ross Solly, the ABC Radio presenter of Canberra Breakfast, and Nick Houston the Convenor of Fund Football Fairly, on the subject of our recent meeting with Sports Minister Yvette Berry.

What is Fund Football Fairly

Nick Houston explains that Fund Football Fairly is a ginger group set up in 2024 to push for better funding for football in Canberra. The group works with Capital Football and the local football community to lobby for improved funding of community football from the ACT and Commonwealth Governments.

"A ginger group is a formal or informal group within an organisation seeking to influence its direction and activity. The term comes from the phrase ginger up, meaning to enliven or stimulate. Ginger groups work to alter the organisation's policies, practices, or officeholders, while still supporting its general goals" (Wikipedia).

Fund Football Fairly emerged from an ANU Masters team that has played in the Over 45 competition in Canberra for many years. The group has years of experience playing football at senior and grass roots levels. It supports Capital Football and its CEO in its endeavours to bring leadership to football in Canberra.

Where do Fund Football Fairly's proposals come from

In June 2024 Fund Football Fairly met with Capital Football to discuss a lobbying campaign. It was recognised there were many potential requests that could be made to Government and these had to defined.

Capital Football convened a meeting with ACT football club presidents on 5 September 2024 to discuss a set of funding priorities. Following feedback from the clubs a final agreed set of funding priorities was established.

The request specifically did not include support for better Government funding for Canberra United or a future men’s A-League team, with this being seen as a matter for the Australian Professional Leagues and not a grass roots football issue, and nor did it include support for a new or renovated football stadium.

Arising from this process of community consultation, there is now a defined set of funding requests agreed upon by ACT football clubs and Capital Football. Rather than going club by club, ground by ground, light pole by light pole, there is an agreed set of funding proposals endorsed by the broader football community.

This is significant and allows Fund Football Fairly and the football community to speak with one voice in relation to the funding issues affecting the game.

What are the proposals

The funding requests are detailed and are gathered into three groups:

1. Deliver a significant capital works program to upgrade football facilities at local clubs

- Improved lighting and improved playing surfaces at local football grounds.
- An immediate moratorium on ground hire fees until grounds and change rooms are up to an acceptable standard.
- Construction of all-weather synthetic pitches at all major playing hubs.
- Construction of ten modern clubhouses with administrative, meeting, function, and female friendly change rooms co-located at suburban playing fields.

2. Develop two new regional football complexes - the son and daughter of Throsby

- Replace the failed Home of Football project at Throsby with two regional football complexes, one northside and one southside.
- The two complexes are to include function, office, café, and meeting facilities, and be on a level with the new Regional Sports Complex at Jerrabomberra built.
- The facilities are to have a ground capacity of around 6,000 people fit for the purpose of hosting major games including local finals and the Australia Cup and Canberra United games.

These complexes would match the physical facilities operated by the other codes and give football two physical locations to develop its activities. The complexes would be shared by local clubs.

3. Implement a Sports Voucher scheme

- Create a sports voucher program and give each school age child $300 per year to go towards sports participation costs. This will benefit not only football families but all families with children registered to play sport.

The cost of playing football is real issue in the community and many families struggle to come up with the thousands of dollars it can cost to have children enrolled in football programs. A sports voucher program would assist Canberra families with the cost of playing sport.

How to help

If you support this, we ask you to like the post and forward it to your friends, family, teammates and ask them to follow the Fund Football Fairly page.

We would also ask you to speak to Capital Football and your club president and ask them to support Fund Football Fairly.

There will be more to come on this subject.

07/07/2026

Fund Football Fairly supports the Football Supporters Association of Australia and its endeavours to achieve adequate resourcing of grassroots football across Australia. We encourage you to join the FSAA and contact your local Federal politician to raise the issues directly with your elected representative.

When the major tournament ends, the photo-ops stop, and the big screens are packed away, this is the reality left on the ground.

The numbers don’t lie.

Football is the largest team participation sport in Australia, yet it continues to navigate an unprecedented infrastructure deficit across our communities.

1.9 Million Active Participants lace up their boots across the country.

3,300 Local Clubs operate across every single postcode.

Just $37 Per Participant is received in government funding—a severe per-capita deficit compared to other major sporting codes.

This systemic underfunding has created a staggering $2.8 billion national infrastructure gap:

$1.56 Billion is urgently required to deliver basic, adequate, and inclusive change facilities so everyone can play safely.

$851 Million is needed to fix outdated lighting so community clubs can train after dark.

$391 Million is required to address drainage and ensure weatherproof pitches can withstand the winter strain.

We aren't asking for special treatment. We are asking for basic participation equity.

If you are tired of our game playing catch-up, join the FSAA today. Membership is entirely free and volunteer-led. Together, we are building the numbers required to hold decision-makers accountable.

Join here: www.fsaaus.com/join

Download our local MP letter template and demand funding equity here: https://tinyurl.com/mwczcshr

05/07/2026

https://www.fsaaus.com/news-and-insights/politicians-notice-football-funding-infrastructure

Australian politicians are happy using the 2026 World Cup for photo ops while walking past a $2.8B grassroots infrastructure gap. It's time to fund football fairly.