A-League expansion in Canberra and Auckland for 2024-25 season, APL says

In a historic moment for soccer in the capital, the Australian Professional Leagues will announce their expansion plans for Canberra and Auckland on Wednesday as they begin the search for investors to back the team.

Canberra and Auckland have been locked in as the expansion locations, with officials to work over the next three months to secure financial backing before joining the competition in 2024-25.

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It ends a 14-year mission and two failed attempts to relaunch professional men's soccer in Canberra, and comes 22 years after the Canberra Cosmos went bust in the National Soccer League.

Michael Caggiano - the bid leader from the most recent expansion campaign in 2018 - has been engaged to help the APL find financial backers, build on the 9000 members he had signed up and tap into the sponsorship network he has been cultivating over the past five years.

APL chief executive Danny Townsend, who met ACT government officials last month, is convinced it's a recipe for success and is confident the Canberra team will have a major investor by the end of June.

Caggiano will work from Sydney with the APL to lock in the 18-month journey to the first season, as well as meeting with Canberra stakeholders to finalise plans including:

- A deal with Capital Football that will likely see the Canberra United women's team added under the one banner for the new ownership structure;

- Identifying high-performance training base options around the capital;

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- Securing sponsors and ACT government financial support, and;

- Speaking with existing National Premier League clubs in Canberra to start building a supporter base among the largest participation sport in the region.

"This is going to be a team built by Canberrans for Canberrans at the end of the day," Townsend said.

"That's an important position for us to take. It's not one that has been done in the expansion process. With all things you learn along the way and how to do things better or optimise the outcome.

"That's certainly how we're going about things in Canberra.

"If you look at the original [expansion] criteria, which was serving under-served football populations that have pent-up demands for football. We think Canberra and Auckland certainly have those on all the metrics.

"We want to ensure this next expansion phase is going to deliver two new clubs that from day one will be connected to their communities and be strong. Without a doubt, Canberra and Auckland were the standouts."

Caggiano added: "This is a significant day for Canberra and a significant day for the A-League.

"This is now not about if, or when, but with who Canberra will share football with in the region. This is one for the fans, by the fans.

"I've never stopped working on this and I never will until I see this through.

"We have been working directly with the A-Leagues, which is a change from the past experience. And they have been engaging and working in an embracing way. They are listening and deferring to our expertise, it's a credit to them that they're putting Canberra football first."

Canberra was one of 13 locations being considered as a new team location when the APL decided it was time to add more clubs to the competition.

It topped the rankings alongside Auckland when APL officials weighed up community support, infrastructure, growth opportunities and market interest.

Caggiano had previously presented attractive Canberra options to Football Federation Australia as part of the last expansion round but he was overlooked in favour of new teams in Sydney and Melbourne.

The APL - the new organisation running the A-League after splitting from the FFA - is approaching expansion with a more streamlined process to eliminate internal soccer wars by pitting different federations against each other.

"There is a lot of knowledge in the ACT and Canberra region around football," Townsend said.

"We've very committed to ensuring the new clubs are genuinely representative of all football in those areas.

"There's no better way to get that than to work with the community and work with the stakeholders, like Capital Football, like Michael and his team who have been very passionate about bringing the A-League to the ACT.

"We've seen over the years that inserting teams on top of the existing football pyramid without consultation is fraught with danger.

"That's one of the reasons we're on the ground trying to build it from the bottom up rather than trying to make decisions for ourselves from Sydney."

Townsend said there APL had already fielded investment interest from clubs around the world and hoped to have those details finalised within three months to ensure Canberra and Auckland have at least 12 months to prepare for their first season.

"We're very confident. The A-League licences today compared to what they were five years ago pre unbundling [with the FFA] is very different," Townsend said.

"They're not only investing in a club licence to participate in the competition in perpetuity, they're also investing in the league itself. It's a very unique and interesting investment opportunity and we're seeing a lot of inbound interest from overseas."

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