Above: Canberra United celebrates a goal this past season. Now, they have many more to look forward to. Image: Canberra United.
By Ryan Miller-Woods (19/4/24).
The media heard from Capital Football CEO Samantha Farrow and Save Canberra United’s Sue Read on Thursday in regard to the future of Canberra United being secured thanks to a one-off payment of $200,000 of funding from the ACT Government on top of the annual subsidy that they provide of $250,000 for the club that will see United contest the 2024/25 A-League Women’s season.
The announcement of Canberra’s future being secured at least until the end of next season is very welcome news for fans, the club, and most importantly the players and staff currently at United. Furthermore, given there was a lot of uncertainty as to whether Canberra would even still exist beyond this season, while there’s a fair bit to go in terms of United’s long-term future, it’s a promising start, nevertheless.
Also, what the ‘Save Canberra United’ campaign has already shown with over $75,000 being donated is that the demand to keep the club around is most definitely apparent by a vast array of people.
When asked about her reaction to seeing the support with the way that the ‘Save Canberra United’ group has come together and how it has all happened, Farrow said, “one thing that its cemented (is that) this is a really supportive community, a tight-knit community. There’s a lot of support for football out there and I’ve actually been blown away by the level of support to be fair. It’s been really quite humbling and I’m proud to be a part of an organisation that can pull that kind of community support.”
With the budget that has been provided for next season, Farrow was asked how big the shortfall is for the club, to which she said, “the budget that we’ve put together is quite minimalistic. It absolutely has a full salary cap, the travel costs, and everything like that in there. There’s not a lot of room for additional services outside the bare minimum, so right now we’re still looking at a shortfall of a couple of hundred thousand and if we are successful in getting that covered and a bit more, then I’m looking forward to being able to provide some extra services to further professionalise this team, in every way.
Club captain and all-time leading goalscorer for both United and in the A-League Women Michelle Heyman has been very vocal about the club’s future, and understandably wants to have her future secured as well as her fellow teammates, whether it’s remaining at Canberra or going elsewhere.
When asked whether she’s confident in Heyman remaining at Canberra United for the 2024/25 season, Farrow said, “absolutely! That’s one of those next steps…securing who our players are and what our team looks like for Season 17. I really hope she’ll be a part of it. She’s been a big part of Canberra United for the last few years and I certainly would welcome her to continue.”
It really can’t be understated how much Sue Read must be commended for the ‘Save Canberra United’ campaign and just how significant it has been since it was launched. What it has shown alongside there being a demand from the amount already donated to save the club, is the initiative to go to this extent to ensure the future of Canberra United.
When asked if she was always confident that the club would have a team for next season, Read said, “I was, maybe, slightly delusional but I think confident because I know at least from ‘Save Canberra United’s’ perspective we just weren’t going to stop until either we got the $300,000 ourselves or a big part of what we’ve been doing is trying to lobby government, talk to government and really give reasons for why they need to invest more in Women’s sport across the board and Canberra United as a part of that. So we were pretty confident that it was somehow going to come together.”
When asked Michelle Heyman and trying to make sure that she is with Canberra United for next season, Read said, “we had chats with her at the end of this season. Her heart like so many of the players is in Canberra, this is where she’s been. I think she wants to stay here, she wants to win, she wants to have a team and support around her that can be at the top of the table. So we as a community all need to make sure we’ve got enough money to secure one of the best, most dedicated, loyal people to the sport.”
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