The Canterbury Bankstown Football Club is a

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

Bankstown Bankstown is a suburb south west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is 16 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district and is located in the local government area of the City of Canterbury-Bankstown, hav ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. The club currently plays in the

NSW League Two The NSW League Two Men is an Australian semi-professional association football league comprising teams from New South Wales. The league sits at Level 3 on the New South Wales league system (Level 4 of the overall Australian league system). The ...

after being relegated from the formerly NPL NSW 2 in 2019.(from 2022 known as

NSW League One The NSW League One Men is an Australian semi-professional association football league comprising teams from New South Wales. The league sits at Level 2 on the New South Wales league system, behind the National Premier Leagues NSW, (Level 3 of t ...

) Canterbury Bankstown hosts matches at The Crest Reserve in

Bass Hill Bass Hill, () a suburb of local government area City of Canterbury-Bankstown, is located 23 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, and is a part of the South-western Sydney ...

, Sydney.

History

They were one of the first football clubs formed in Sydney and competed in the first ever New South Wales State League as Canterbury FC, the club has also been known as Canterbury-Marrickville Olympic and West Sydney Berries; the "Berry" part of the name derives from Canter-"bury." Since that time, the club has enjoyed some years of success and also painful years of premiership droughts and grand final losses. The club played in the 1986 season of 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 ...

. Having been one of the bigger and more successful district clubs in Sydney, by the mid-1960s the club found itself in severe financial strife. A group of influential and disgruntled Pan-Hellenic (

Sydney Olympic Sydney Olympic Football Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club, based in Belmore, Sydney, New South Wales, that plays in the National Premier Leagues NSW. The Club was founded as Pan-Hellenic Soccer Club in 1957 by Greek immigrant ...

) members and supporters decided because of various disputes to leave and enquired about investing in the club. It was all agreed that Canterbury would sell a controlling stake of the club to this group of investors, who wanted to form the basis of a 2nd big Greek soccer club in Sydney to challenge Pan-Hellenic, later to be known as Canterbury-Marrickville Olympic Soccer Club. In the mid-2000s the club had changed its name from Canterbury-Marrickville Olympic to West Sydney Berries to increase its appeal across South-western Sydney. It was the first time in the club's history club played without Canterbury in its name except for the period when they were known solely as Marrickville Olympic during the late 70's early 80's. The club was chosen by

Football NSW Football NSW is the governing body for soccer in the Australian state of New South Wales, with the exception of the northern regions of NSW (the governing body for which is Northern New South Wales Football). Football NSW is a member of the nat ...

to be automatically promoted along with

Macarthur Rams Macarthur Rams Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Campbelltown, New South Wales, Australia. The club compete in Football NSW League One, situated in the third tier of Australian football. The club's home ground is the ...

to the

NSW Premier League The National Premier Leagues NSW is a semi-professional soccer competition in New South Wales, Australia. The competition is conducted by Football NSW, the organising body in New South Wales (the other being the National Premier Leagues Northe ...

for the 2008 NSWPL Season. The main reason for the club's inclusion was to strengthen football's presence in Western Sydney and also to have a starting post for a possible Western Sydney franchise in the

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

. The team had an unsuccessful return to the top-flight league in New South Wales. The team managed a lowly 10th place and narrowly escaped relegation from the NSW Premier League. In July 2008 the West Sydney Berries announced they had raised more than $32.000 for the hospital at Westmead. After finishing last in the 2010

season the club was relegated to the

NSW Super League The NSW League One Men is an Australian semi-professional association football league comprising teams from New South Wales. The league sits at Level 2 on the New South Wales league system, behind the National Premier Leagues NSW, (Level 3 of th ...

for the 2011 season, and for the 2012 NSW Super League season was known as Bankstown Berries FC and has since been renamed Canterbury Bankstown FC.

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 ...

, after whom Australian football's greatest prize, the Johnny Warren Medal is named is the best known personality of the history of the club. Alongside John Watkiss he participated in the World Cup 1974 in Germany.

Graham Arnold Graham James Arnold (born 3 August 1963) is an Australian soccer manager and former player. Arnold was appointed to work as an assistant coach of the Australian national soccer team in 2000. After head coach Frank Farina was sacked in 2005, Ar ...

Charlie Yankos Charlie Yankos (born 29 May 1961) is an Australian former footballer who played for the Australian national team 49 times and scored 7 international goals. He captained the national team on 30 occasions between 1986 and 1989. Charlie Yankos s ...

, goalkeeper Ron Corry,

Peter Katholos Peter Katholos ( el, Πέτρος Κάθολος; born 18 March 1961) is an Australian former soccer player. He was a member of the Socceroos, Australia's national soccer team, throughout the 1980s during which time he made 22 international ap ...

, John Watkiss and

Zlatko Arambasic Zlatko Arambasic (born 20 September 1969) is a former Australian football player, now residing in Australia as an educator. Club career A much-travelled striker, Arambašić, a Croatia-born Australian, played for several clubs in Europe and in ...

are also Australian internationals who originated in the ranks of the club. Austrian legend, the former

SK Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid Wien (), commonly known as Rapid Vienna, is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the first title in the season 1911–12, ...

player Leo Baumgartner belonged to the team with the Warren brothers, Watkiss and Corry that defeated Sydney FC Prague in the NSW grand-final of 1960 5–2.Ron Hay:
Leo Baumgartner – The Little Professor of Soccer
'', Goal Weekly, Vol.7 No.11, 2 May 2011.

Honours

*NSW 1st Division Champions: 1957, 1958, 1960, 1985 *NSW 2nd Division Champions: 1973 *New South Wales State Division One/NSW Super League/NSW League One Winners: 2005 *NSW State League Division two/NSW State League Division One/NSW League Two Champions: 2007 *New South Wales State League Cup (Tiger Cup) Winners: 1946, 1947 * Federation Cup Winners: 1957, 1958

References

External links

Canterbury Bankstown FC
(Official Website) {{City of Canterbury-Bankstown topics, state=collapsed New South Wales Premier League teams Soccer clubs in Sydney National Soccer League (Australia) teams Association football clubs established in 1958 1958 establishments in Australia Canterbury, New South Wales Bankstown, New South Wales