Dear Football Community,

I want to extend a sincere thanks for everyone’s efforts to deliver football this season.

From the time football was suspended in March, to the resumption of isolated practice, non-contact training, contact training, and matches, we have seen an enormous amount of effort put in by people across our game.

I would like to acknowledge the club committees who took on extra work and responsibilities communicating with their communities, and preparing for and delivering a range of activities as we moved through the staged return of football. The help provided as we developed the amended competition models, refund process and preparation of COVID-Safe plans was significant, and I am sure very much appreciated by the players who, because of that work, were able to get back on the park.

Our referees adapted to the interrupted preparation to the football season, engaged in online learning and trained in isolation in readiness to serve the game once it returned.

From March to July, we held an unprecedented number of meetings with our Board, Committees and Club Presidents. The extra time spent by volunteers to engage and contribute to ensure football not only survived the challenges in front of it but overcame them was amazing.

Then as we approached the season’s end, all of our clubs, players, referees, and parents supported each other as we rescheduled matches for the Wagga City Wanderers, Yoogali SC and Griffith FC due to the NSW Health recommendations. I would like to thank all of the teams that accommodated a reschedule of their home matches to Cootamundra to ensure the teams from Wagga and Griffith were able to continue in the competitions.

Finally, I would like to thank and acknowledge the staff at Capital Football. They showed the utmost commitment and professionalism when we closed the office and moved to remote working, adjusted to part-time hours while football was postponed, then put in an enormous amount of effort over a short space of time to get the competitions up and running again. I am extremely proud of the work they delivered and honoured to work beside them.

That said, things are not yet normal, and while restrictions have eased further we are not yet at the end of the journey. I encourage everyone to remain vigilant and aware of the COVID-Safe plans as you play summer football and futsal, and I look forward to seeing as many people as possible out supporting our Canberra United teams once the season kicks off.

Kind regards,

Phil Brown
Capital Football CEO