CEO Capital Football Talks About Canberra United

CEO Capital Football and CEO Canberra United are one in the same person - Heather Reid.

Women's Football is improving rapidly in the ACT region and that is just the way it should be. The pathway for talented female players goes all the way from the local junior club to the Matildas if you are good enough. Just one important difference - its only possible because the ACT players and W league clubs pay the players nothing! Can you see a male player at comparable level accepting that situation? No way!

So for all those "chaps" loitering on the sidelines and having a little whinge about the fact that the "girls game" is getting "all the priority" (as one unenlightened selfish father with a son playing good football said to me last week), just remind yourself - whatever is being done for women's football is long overdue and it isn't enough.

So much more can be done for boys /men, no doubt of it, but don't pull the roof down over women's football. Don't make women's football in the ACT region the target of your unhappiness. Women's football development is fragile. Our Women's Premier League is in its infancy. Its worth noting that the W League teams are just about all underwritten by the member federations and as expensive as that is, its nothing like the costs associated with running the men's equivalent.

We are not going to get an A League team people, so get over it. The FFA doesn't want Canberra and frankly, the likelihood that we can sustain the yearly operating costs for an A League and A League Youth team from public contributions, gate receipts or a benefactor with long arms and short pockets (and does that really work??) is not strong enough yet to make the business case viable.

So we (that is - the ACT Clubs and Capital Football) must find another way to develop and assist the boys/ men break into higher levels of football - John Mitchells' plan (see earlier podcast on this blog) is a very good idea. Best I have heard in ages. Campaign talented boys/mens teams in the NSW competitions. The Boomerangs FS club proved it can be done with their very successful participation in the NSW Futsal Supa League and very modest support, but lots of drive from a few smart football people.

Instead of some otherwise well intentioned football people seeing women's football as a threat - perhaps these critics may care to entertain the possibility that the women's solution is "the way ahead"!

The W League season is close to starting and our Canberra United has been in preparation under Coach Junna, since the end of the last game of the past season. Coach Junna is also the Head Coach ACTAS Womens Football and, together with club coaches, has maximised every playing opportunity for the talented female players and Canberra United / Matildas etc aspirants. Its made a huge difference to the women's game in the ACT and the development opportunities for young female players. Nothing happens without forward thinking, flexibility, hard work, modest amounts of resources at the right time, good communication, parents picking up all the pieces in the background every day and tip top football expertise. Canberra United has had two terrific seasons and another very good season is anticipated.

In this interview, Heather Reid talks about the Canberra United playing roster, who's in and who has departed and why. We branch off into a short discussion about the Capital Football Women's Premier League and the grand finals just past, the ACTAS programs, the Futsal factor, what happened to the Central Coast Mariners Women's W League team, the funding arrangements for W League teams and the terrific possibilities for our young female players in the USA. Terrific interview as always with  Heather.

Canberra United appear to have a stronger playing roster this season. They have five games at home, four will be televised and you would be nuts not to go and watch the games. I promise you, it will be top class football. The W League season can't start soon enough!

The final section of this interview is an extract from a lengthy interview the NPL did with Ed Hollis - Head Coach of Woden Valley Womens FC. WVWFC have lifted the bar considerably in Womens Premier League football in the ACT. You will enjoy the full interview and this extract nails the Woden Valley colours to the mast right from the off! It can be done and we have lots of smart people in football in the ACT that can get it done.

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CANBERRA UNITED SQUAD for Season 2010/2011

The Westfield W-League Season Three is not far away and it can't come soon enough!

The Canberra United Squad has been settled by Coach Ray Junna and is as follows:

1. Lydia Williams (gk)
2. Caitlin Cooper
3. Lyndsay Glohe
4. Michelle Heyman
5. Kahlia Hogg
6. Caitlin Munoz
7. Ellie Brush
8. Tseng Shu-O
9. Grace Gill
10. Emily Van Egmond
11. Cian Maciejewski
14. Ashleigh Sykes
15. Sally Shipard
16. Ellyse Perry
17. Nicole Sykes
19. Jennifer Bisset
20. Jocelyn Mara (gk)

Plus three to be named

CEO Capital Talks About the HPP Review, Men's State League Review, Summer 20s and Women's Football and Canberra United

This program is broadcast on 2xxfm (98.3mhz), Tuesday 27 July 2010 at 7:00PM through the Australian Community Radio Network.

In this program we have a "fireside chat" with Heather Ried, CEO Capital Football. There is always a lot going on in Football and Futsal and Capital Football has a lot of "footballs in the air"!

The subjects covered are the Review of the High Performance Program and who is going to undertake this sensitive assignment, the Review of the Men's State League Competition, forthcoming Summer 20s, and Women's Football in the ACT and Canberra United.

But that's only one half of the interview!

In the second installment, which will be made available through the Nearposl Local as a Podcast, Heather will speak on other very important matters - the broadening of the Captial Football Futsal Premier League to include youth mens and womens, together with an very innovative approach to the selection of junior age ACT Futsal teams to compete at the Nationals in 2011. There is a review in progress covering the Discipline and Disputes regulations and finally, a very interesting discussion on the key resource issue currently limiting the development of football in the ACT region - the availability of suitable grounds - all the year. No grounds, no growth and less development and a game that is expanding!

Download Pocast here: