Fund Football Fairly - ACT

05/05/2026

Tuggeranong United Football Club blasts ACT Government after home ground deemed 'completely unsafe'

According to an article in the Canberra Times on 5 May 2026 a National Premier League referee report on Saturday 2 May 2026 found the state of the surface at Kambah Field 201 for men's and women's first grade and under-23 matches was "completely unsafe" and presented an injury risk.

The danger with the surface is around injuries to ankles and knees. A Tuggeranong United player suffered a knee injury on the Kambah 201 field earlier.

The referee report on Kambah 201 said it was "inappropriate to schedule further fixtures until remediation is done" which impacted the men's matches and the NPLW fixtures the next day.

Stan Mitchell, the Tuggeranong United President, lodged a formal complaint with ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr and Sport Minister Yvette Berry. In the letter of complaint, he said that following a long list of issues with their home ground these incidents were "the last straw".

That this should happen is not surprising. Fund Football Fairly has been highlighting the need for significant Government investment in football infrastructure for some time but there seems to be a distinct lack of interest on the part of the ACT Government to listen to the concerns of the football community.

In August 2024 Fund Football Fairly engaged in a consultative process with Capital Football and the local football clubs. Out of this process we identified three key and unanimously agreed upon funding requests.

These proposals are simple, and the grass roots football community is united around these aims. The three funding requests are as follows:

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

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

2. Development of two dedicated football complexes, one northside and one southside

The complexes are to be on a level with the new Regional Sports Complex at Jerrabomberra built by the Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council and are to include function, office, café, and meeting facilities.

The facilities are to have playing arenas with 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.

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.

None of the things requested are exceptional. Other sports in Canberra with lower participation rates than football have facilities to the standard requested by Fund Football Fairly. Voucher systems exist in other states.

Queanbeyan has better football facilities than Canberra funded by the NSW Government.

In the context of the discussion about a new billion-dollar stadium, the bankruptcy of Gungahlin United Football Club, and the pending collapse of Canberra United for want of reasonable support, being support equivalent to that provided to the other codes, it is time for the ACT and Federal Governments to respond to the needs of the football community and start to fund football fairly.

As Yvette Berry vows to address 'frustrating' issue across Canberra sports.

04/05/2026

Fund Football Fairly ACT Convenor Interviewed on "Canberra Live" with Leon Delaney

Nick Houston, Fund Football Fairly ACT Convenor, was invited to comment on football matters in Canberra by Leon Delaney, host of "Canberra Live" on Radio Station 2CC.

To be sure, there are issues of concern floating around football in Canberra at the moment. These include the looming collapse of Canberra United, the travails of Gungahlin United, the open letter of the NPL clubs (as reported) seeking greater or different representation at Capital Football, vandalism at the Monaro Panthers, and continual chatter about the construction of a new football stadium and the funding implications this will have for grassroots football.

Mr. Houston rejected the idea that football is suffering from an omni-crisis and suggested that instead the issue is the lack of public support and funding of football in the ACT.

To put the funding issue in perspective, Netball ACT received $7.5 million from the ACT Government two years ago to remediate five district playing courts. Other sports have also received support.

In contrast Canberra United received $250,000 from the ACT Government in 2024 that was then increased by $200,000 to $450,000. In 2025 and 2026 the funding was set at $400,000 each year.

The key debt that drove Gungahlin United into bankruptcy was the $184,451 owed to the ACT Government for ground hire fees.

The NSW Government has a club grants program – Infrastructure Grants (Sport & Recreation stream) that provides funding of up to $300,000 per project to fund substantial capital works. This can include playing fields, ovals and turf upgrades, change rooms and club buildings, lighting infrastructure, and stadium or major facility upgrades.

Nothing like this level of generosity exists in the ACT and this is reflected in the paucity of facilities available to local football.

To be frank, if the same level of support existed for Football as for Netball, the collapse of Canberra United would be averted, and the alleged football omni-crisis would disappear.

ACT Sport Minister Yvette Berry can say what she likes to the Australian Professional Leagues (APL) regarding the future of football in Canberra, specifically focusing on the sustainability of Canberra United and the introduction of a men’s A-League team, but she could also say nothing and provide funding to football on a level equivalent to Netball.

$7.5 million dollars would go a long way to ensuring the survival of Canberra United and improving football facilities in Canberra. It is time the ACT Government addressed the funding disparities in the allocation of resources and funded football fairly.

It is also time for the football community in Canberra to insist that sports funding arrangements be based on participation numbers.

13/04/2026

After the Women’s World Cup: Big Promises, Uneven Outcomes - Football Diddled Again

Has anyone paused to consider whether promises made in the aftermath of the Women’s World Cup, and the overwhelmingly positive presentation of women’s football in Australia and love for the Matildas, ever translated into more government support for football?

In the weeks after the FIFA Women’s World Cup, Australians were told this would be a “once‑in‑a‑generation moment” for women’s sport — especially football.

We heard promises of a lasting legacy, grassroots investment, facilities fit for the explosion in participation, and funding that matched football’s role as the biggest women’s team sport in the country

The headline commitment, “$200 million for women’s sport” sounded transformative.

But nearly three years on, the picture on the ground tells a different story.

Much of that funding has now been allocated but football — despite being the most‑played women’s team sport in Australia — has received only a fraction of the total. Large shares have flowed to sports with far smaller participation bases, and football’s well‑documented facilities crisis remains largely unresolved

This is not about begrudging other sports investment. Women’s sport across the board deserves support. But fairness matters.

Football did the heavy lifting in 2023 with record crowds, record TV audiences, record participation growth, and a national moment led by the Matildas.

Yet when the money started flowing, football once again found itself competing for crumbs — while the infrastructure gap facing our clubs, volunteers and players continues to grow.

In places like the ACT, the consequences of underfunding are obvious with clubs at capacity, inadequate change rooms, overworked community facilities, and participation still growing faster than investment

The Football Supporters Association of Australia (FSAA) has commented on this issue in a recent article.

https://www.fsaaus.com/news-and-insights/6u0t6ywtv6dsuhpbjwqt4ydk3rs721

Join the Football Supporters Association Australia

The FSAA is working on a national level to lobby for and secure better funding for grassroots football. Fund Football Fairly will be working closely with the FASAA to promote better funding for football.

Fund Football Fairly encourages you to join the Football Supporters Association and join the effort on a national level to secure fair funding for football.

Football does the heavy lifting, but rival codes eat from the table. Why this political bait and switch is leaving the Matildas' tangible legacy severely diminished.

06/04/2026

Take action - Join the Football Supporters Association of Australia

The Football Supporters Association Australia (FSAA) is the peak independent, membership-based association providing representation and advocacy for football supporters across Australia and New Zealand.

It is the Australian version of the Football Supporters’ Association of the UK and equivalent fan-based organisations in Germany and Spain.

Established in 2023, the Football Supporters Association Australia (FSAA) provides unified, independent representation for Australian football supporters. It has been created to lead, unite and advocate for issues affecting football fans and supporters at all levels of the game, including on the issue of fair funding.

It gives supporters, clubs, and players a collective voice to Football Australia, the Australian Professional Leagues, the state federations, and to government.

FSAA is working to secure fair funding

The fair funding issue is not unique to Canberra. There are similar issues in the other states. While Fund Football Fairly (ACT) is pushing for more funding from the ACT Government, similar groups are working to lobby other state governments and the Commonwealth to fix the historic underfunding of football in those states.

The FSAA is working to coordinate the efforts of local groups. Fund Football Fairly (ACT) is not a lone voice here in Canberra and neither are you as an individual wanting better funding in Canberra for the game we love.

The FSAA is working on a national level to lobby for and secure better funding for grassroots football. Fund Football Fairly (ACT) will be working closely with the FASAA to promote better funding for football.

Join the Football Supporters Association Australia

Fund Football Fairly (ACT) encourages you to join the Football Supporters Association and join the effort on a national level to secure fair funding for football.

There is no membership fee and joining is free. Visit the following link to subscribe:

06/04/2026

The Civic stadium proposal is back, bigger than ever, and so is Fund Football Fairly.

It is not that Fund Football Fairly opposes the construction of a luxury new stadium costing $2.3 billion to house the Canberra Raiders. We love the Canberra Raiders, particularly when they are losing. It is just that we think the money could be spent on a whole lot of better things.

For a start we would like to see money invested in an urgent upgrade of football facilities at local football clubs in Canberra, including improved lighting and playing surfaces, the construction of all-weather synthetic pitches at all major playing hubs, and the construction of modern clubhouses with administrative, meeting, function, and female friendly change rooms at suburban playing fields.

We also want an immediate moratorium on ground hire fees until grounds and change rooms are up to an acceptable standard. Ground hire fees represent the abhorrent transfer of money from the football community to the Government and constituted the key debt that drove Gungahlin United into bankruptcy. Whatever else has been said on this issue, the debt of $184,451 to the ACT Government was the largest amount owed by the club to any creditor.

Thirdly, Fund Football Fairly calls for two dedicated football complexes, one north side and one south side, on a level with the Regional Sports Complex at Jerrabomberra. These complexes are to include function, office, café, and meeting facilities, and have a ground capacity of around 6,000 people.

Football is the largest participation sport in Canberra but receives a fraction of the funding received by other sports. Other sports have excellent facilities that are the envy of the football community, including the National Hockey Centre, facilities at Phillip Oval and Manuka Oval for AFL and cricket, and marvellous facilities for the Raiders, Brumbies and Giants.

The historic lack of funding of football is reflected in the paucity of facilities available to the football community in 2026.

The $2.3 billion cost of the new stadium would fund our humble proposals ten times over. It is time the Government listened to the community and not corporate sport and directed funding to where the needs are.

Fund Football Fairly fights for fair funding arrangements for football and seeks the active support of the broader football community in the task of lobbying ACT and Commonwealth governments for better outcomes for football.

31/10/2025

https://region.com.au/more-than-43000-canberrans-play-football-are-they-getting-a-fair-go/916735/

24/10/2025

FUND FOOTBALL FAIRLY STATEMENT ON THE COLLAPSE OF GUNGAHLIN UNITED

The collapse of Gungahlin United offers a salutary tale for the rest of the Canberra football community and is a study in the lack of government support for football in Canberra.

According to newspaper reports, Gungahlin United collapsed with debts exceeding $550,000. Of this, the club owed $180,042 in unpaid sports grounds hire fees to the ACT Government, and of that figure, $99,899.03 related specifically to the 2025 soccer season.

Stop to think about the nature of this debt.

Gungahlin United, a community organisation run by volunteers servicing the needs of 2000 families in north Canberra, must raise at least $100,000 each year to pay the ACT Government ground hires.

In fact, the ground hire fee is higher; this was just the amount Gungahlin still owing for 2025.

The inability to make this payment has effectively driven the club into bankruptcy.

Where does the money to pay the ACT Government come from? It comes from player registrations, sausage sales, and a thousand other volunteer led fund-raising contributions each year.

All clubs in in Canberra are in the same position and must pay fees to the ACT Government to even exist.

The ground hire fees represent an unfair tax on football, because you can bet your bottom dollar junior rugby league, AFL, and union pay barely anything like this amount for ground hire fee. It is football through our numbers that is subsiding the other codes once again.

ACT Minister for Sport Yvette Berry has acknowledged that what happened with Gungahlin United is big blow to the community. The ACT Government also says it values community sport. We do not believe it.

This is not the time for platitudes.

This gets back to the matters that Fund Football Fairly put to the Government and the parties and candidates at the last ACT election.

Fund Football Fairly specifically called for a moratorium on ground hire fees. If this has been agreed to, Gungahlin United would not have collapsed.

Football is the largest participation sport in Canberra but receives a fraction of the funding allocated to other sports. Put simply, this is not fair.

There are 43,116 people who play football regularly in Canberra, twice as many as those who play Rugby League, AFL, and Rugby Union combined, and significantly more than the combined number who play Cricket and Netball. Source: AusPlay October 2023

Despite the number of people participating in football the code has never been properly funded in Canberra or at the federal level. The historic lack of funding of football is reflected in the paucity of facilities available to the football community.

Gungahlin United and the 2000 families that participate in football through that club and the entire Canberra football community are a victim of these discriminatory policies.

Funding requests before the 2024 election

Fund Football Fairly made three funding requests to the ACT Government before the last election. None of these have been agreed to. Instead, funds have continued to flow to the other sports.

The three funding requests are as follows:

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 changerooms are up to an acceptable standard.
- Construction of all-weather synthetic pitches at 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 dedicated football complexes, one northside and one southside

- To replace the failed Home of Football project at Throsby, we are seeking the development of two regional football complexes, one northside and one southside.
- The two complexes are to be on a level with the new Regional Sports Complex at Jerrabomberra built by the Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council and are to include function, office, café, and meeting facilities.
- 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.
- 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 cost of playing sport.

We specifically reiterate the call for a moratorium on ground hire fees to avoid the spectacle of the collapse of other struggling community based football clubs in Canberra.

19/10/2024

🛑 ⏩ at the ACT Election 2024 👇
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Get involved with us ✍️
‼️ Add your name to the calling on the ACT Government to fund fairly.
👉 https://chng.it/qwHBFVm9CL
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17/10/2024

🟠 at the ACT Election 2024 ➡️ Independents For Canberra👇

1️⃣ The Independents for Canberra $200 voucher program aligns with the Fund Football Fairly - ACT request for a voucher program to assist football with the of registration.

2️⃣ While we support the idea of a peak community body, we are concerned a peak body will become an forum blocking expenditure on unless investment decisions are made on the basis of rates and address the historic underfunding of football.

3️⃣ After the we would welcome the opportunity to meet with the Independents For Canberra to put the case for full in the Fund Football Fairly - ACT including the two regional sporting complexes, improved grounds, new synthetics fields at each football sporting hub, the on ground hire fees, and new or upgraded for ten football clubs.

17/10/2024

🔴 at the ACT Election 2024 ➡️ The ACT Labor Party has outlined its to community sport in “Labor’s Ambition for Canberra Sports”. We have also considered recurrent and one-off funding of other sports by the ACT Government. 👇

1️⃣ The ALP is proposing to spend billions of dollars on the new , a new centre, and state of the art indoor sports facilities for , and . This is in addition to on-going funding of AFL, NRL, RUGBY UNION and Horse Racing.

2️⃣ At best, for grass roots , there is a commitment for routine new improved lighting at Waramanga and new general playing fields in Taylor, Throsby, Mount Stromlo and Stirling that may or may not be for football.

3️⃣ Given football is the biggest community sport in with numbers far in excess of any of the other sports this is neither fair nor equitable. More particularly, there is no commitment to any of the funding requests identified by Fund Football Fairly - ACT.

⏩⏭Moving forward

After the election we would welcome the opportunity to meet with the ACT Australian Labor Party to put the case for full in the Fund Football Fairly (ACT) infrastructure including the two sporting complexes, improved grounds, new synthetics fields at each football hub, the moratorium on ground hire fees, and new or upgraded clubhouses for ten local football clubs.

Our position to both major political parties is that of the billion-dollar should not come at the cost of critical investment in grass roots football .

16/10/2024

🔵 at the ACT Election 2024 ➡️ Liberal Party of Australia - The Liberals have outlined the following funding to . 👇

1️⃣ While the Liberal Party has not released its community sports policy, its program aligns with the Fund Football Fairly - ACT request for a voucher program to assist with the cost of registration.

2️⃣ We also support long overdue upgrades to facilities at Tuggeranong United Football Club and Brindabella Blues Football Club (BBFC), noting there are another ten clubs with in the thousands who are also seeking upgrades of club facilities.

3️⃣ After the election we would welcome the opportunity to meet with the Liberal Party to put the case for full in the Fund Football Fairly (ACT) including the two regional sporting complexes, improved grounds, new synthetics fields at each football hub, the moratorium on ground hire fees, and new or upgraded for ten local football clubs.

Our position to both major political parties is that construction of the billion-dollar should not come at the cost of critical investment in grass roots football infrastructure.