Canberra City Football Club, also known for some time as the Canberra Arrows, is a semi-professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

club based in

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). It currently participates in the

Capital Football 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 affili ...

s Division One competition and competed in the

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its d ...

from 1977 to 1986.

National Soccer League

Canberra City entered the new national competition for the inaugural season in 1977 as the only team representing the ACT. In its first season, home games were played at Manuka Oval which had the honour of hosting the first ever NSL match when City were defeated 3-1 by West Adelaide SC in front of a crowd of 1,550. In 1978 the club moved to the newly constructed Bruce Stadium. Canberra remained competitive throughout its tenure in the league, but had limited success being unable to reach the finals series in any season. The most successful seasons were in 1981 with a fifth-placed finish, and in 1985 finishing sixth in the Northern Conference, missing out on the finals series on goal difference to

St George Saint George (Greek language, Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin language, Latin: Georgius, Arabic language, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christians, Christian who is venerated as a sa ...

. A restructure of the national league for the 1987 season saw Canberra relegated to the NSW State League. Statistics by Season The Australian National Soccer League
(Pld)=Games Played, (W)=Wins, (D)=Draws, (L)=Losses, (GF)=Goals For, (GA)=Goals Against, (Pts)=Points, (Nth)=Northern Conference

Back to the ACT Premier League

Canberra City dropped into the NSW State League Division One for the 1987 season, and finished runners-up to Wollongong Wolves FC, they also then lost the Finals Series 2-1 to the Wolves. The Wolves returned to the NSL, whilst City withdrew to join ACT football. In the early 1990s Canberra City men achieved considerable Premiership success and more recently won the

Federation Cup Federation Cup or Fed Cup is the former name of the premier world team competition in women's tennis. Federation Cup may also refer to: * Capital Football Federation Cup, an Australian territory-based association football tournament *Federation Cup ...

in 2005 under the coaching guidance of an ex player from the 1980s era, Steve Bryant. Also in 2005, Canberra City Premier League Women won just about everything on offer under the guidance of 2005

Women's Coach of the Year A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

, Pat Mills. Canberra City has close links with one of Canberra's largest junior organisations the Gungahlin United FC. After relegation from the National Premier Leagues Capital Football in 2014, Canberra City currently find themselves in the

s Division One, the third level of football in the ACT.

Notable players

:'' :Canberra City FC players'' * Steve Hogg * Harry Williams (Australian soccer player) * Frank Farina * Ian Callaghan * Jimmy Cant *

Ian Gibson (footballer, born February 1956) Ian Gibson is a Scottish former footballer, who played as a striker. Football career Gibson began his professional career at the Scottish Highland League club Nairn County. He then moved to Aberdeen in 1975, making his debut in the 2–0 win ...

Ian Purdie Ian Purdie (born 7 March 1953 in Bellshill) is a Scottish former footballer who played as a winger. He started his professional career at Aberdeen before moving on to Dundee and then Motherwell. Following a disagreement with his manager at Mot ...

* Peter Marinello * Tom Sermanni *

Duncan Cole Duncan Edward Cole (12 July 1958 – 21 May 2014) was a New Zealand association football player who represented New Zealand at the 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain. His senior career began with North Shore United before he moved to Australia to jo ...

* Richard Wilson (footballer, born 1956) * Tony Henderson

Notable managers

* Johnny Warren * Pat Caggiano * Matt Moore * George Murray *

Nick Palagyi Nick may refer to: * Nick (given name) * A cricket term for a slight deviation of the ball off the edge of the bat * British slang for being arrested * British slang for a police station * British slang for stealing * Short for nickname Plac ...

*/ Nick Tsakiris

References

{{AUS fb state ACT Association football clubs established in 1977 National Soccer League (Australia) teams National Premier Leagues clubs Soccer clubs in Canberra 1977 establishments in Australia