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 The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. ...

(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 Manuka Oval is a sporting venue in Canberra, the capital of Australia. It is located in Griffith, in the area of that suburb known as Manuka. Manuka Oval has a seating capacity of 13,550 people and an overall capacity of 16,000 people, although ...

which had the honour of hosting the first ever NSL match when City were defeated 3-1 by

West Adelaide SC West Adelaide Soccer Club is an Australian soccer club currently playing in the South Australian State League 1. Traditionally named Hellas, the club was founded by members of the Greek community of Adelaide. West Adelaide became a founding memb ...

in front of a crowd of 1,550. In 1978 the club moved to the newly constructed

Bruce Stadium Canberra Stadium (GIO Stadium for commercial reasons) is a facility primarily used for rugby league and rugby union games, located adjacent to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, the capital of Australia. It is the largest sports v ...

. 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 Wollongong Wolves Football Club is an Australian semi-professional association football club based in Wollongong, in the Illawarra region of New South Wales. The club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues NSW, the second-tier of foo ...

, 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,

Pat Mills Patrick Eamon Mills (born 1949) is an English comics writer and editor who, along with John Wagner, revitalised British boys comics in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light in British comics ever since. He has been called "the godfather o ...

. Canberra City has close links with one of Canberra's largest junior organisations the

Gungahlin United FC Gungahlin United Football Club (formerly Juventus SC and Gungahlin Juventus SC) is an Australian semi-professional football club based in the Canberra district of Gungahlin, ACT. Gungahlin currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Ca ...

. After relegation from the

National Premier Leagues Capital Football The National Premier Leagues Capital Football 1 (also known as NPL ACT 1 or simply NPL1) is a soccer competition contested by clubs affiliated to Capital Football. The league is the highest level (level 1) competition in the Australian Capital Te ...

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) Harry Williams (born 1951) is a former soccer player. He was the first recognised Indigenous Australian to play for the senior Australian national football team, the Socceroos. He was part of Australia's 1974 FIFA World Cup squad. Early life ...

Frank Farina Frank Farina OAM (born 5 September 1964) is an Australian football (soccer) coach and former player who played as a forward. His playing career spanned Australia, Belgium, France, Italy and England, and was a major player for the Australian ...

Ian Callaghan Ian Robert Callaghan MBE (born 10 April 1942) is an English retired professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He holds the record for most appearances for Liverpool. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) ...

Jimmy Cant Jim Cant (born 24 September 1953) is an Australian former soccer player. Playing career Club career Cant signed for Hearts Of Midlothian in 1970, from United Crossroads Boys Club, he was farmed out by Hearts of Midlothian to play one season o ...

* Ian Gibson (footballer, born February 1956) * Ian Purdie *

Peter Marinello Peter Marinello (born 20 February 1950) is a Scottish former footballer. Career Hibernian Marinello started his career at Hibernian, and could play either as a centre forward or right winger. He was regarded as being talented enough there tha ...

Tom Sermanni Thomas Dorby Sermanni (born 1 July 1954) is a Scottish association football, football coach and former professional player, who mostly works in women's football. He has previously managed the Australia women's national soccer team, Australia wom ...

* Duncan Cole *

Richard Wilson (footballer, born 1956) Richard H. Wilson (born 8 May 1956) was a New Zealand association football player, who was a goalkeeper during the country's first successful campaign to qualify for the FIFA World Cup, in 1982. His international career spanned from 1979 to 1 ...

Tony Henderson Anthony Joseph Henderson (born 14 January 1954 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England) is a former association footballer who captained Australia five times in the early 1980s. Playing career Club career Henderson played youth football at Blackpool bef ...

Notable managers

Johnny Warren John Norman Warren, Order of the British Empire, MBE, Order of Australia, OAM (17 May 1943 – 6 November 2004) was an Australian association football, soccer player, coach, administrator, writer and broadcaster. He was known as ''Captain Soccer ...

* Pat Caggiano * Matt Moore * George Murray * Nick Palagyi */ 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