Tonight, we'll hear from Lawrie McKinna on the Nearpost tonight and discuss Asia Champions League and the upcoming Socceroos game.br /br /Locally Anita Cole, and her sixteen year old son, Woden Valley's Lukas Cole talk about their hopes and thoughts as they head to England as Lukas is set to trial with Blackburn Rovers.

It's July. Will Canberra get the nod this month?
Can we dare to dream, or will the journey end in tears?
One thing for sure is we haven't died wondering, we're in there fighting for our lives.
Will Canberra be taking the field in twelve months time, three weeks after the World Cup.

Now no-one would wish ill of other Canberra teams....some of my best friends are Raiders fans..and of course anyone who knows me knows me I'm a one-eyed sports fan...and it's football and nothing else...not even Aussie swimming!br /br /But I noted the Raiders drew a crowd of 13,000 for their first home game of the League season.

Gary van Egmond has already had to take a Public Service funded job and he's only been in Canberra a week.
The FFA has seemingly backed down on their Under 17 AIS/FFA Funded job....so now it's just an AIS position. A Public Servant!
And that means he must be a target for the Canberra A-League team.

The next time someone in Canberra tells you we've a huge junior base with 20,000 kids/registrations tell them they are dreaming, same goes for 260,000 registrations across NSW or the paltry 50,000 in Victoria.
What we have is a lot of people playing independently in their own clubs, maximum community in Canberra is Woden Valley 1800.

I'm hearing the FFA are saying we're the front runner and we may get the nod.
Well no better time to announce it than tomorrow in my view.
No suggestion of that but it's time for the FFA to decide on Canberra's fate.
Frank Farina gives us a big plug on the SBS site, Fox Sports mention every player whoever played for Canberra on tonights game.

FFA Ben Buckley will meet the a-league4canberra consortium this week.
Speaking on ABC Grandstand today FFA CEO Ben Buckley said 15,000-20,000 will show a stong level of support for football in the region.
With ticket sales at 13,500 on Friday evening you'd think we'd go to the upper end, at least, of that target.

When was the last time football got a Canberra Times Editorial. Soccer turnout puts A-League on front foot
FFA impressed by A-League bid front page of sport on Saturday's Canberra Times
And football magazine 442: Canberra Bid Boys thrilled.

As April 1st approaches the football media seems to be getting in early. Pumping out garbage at in increasing rate.br /br /Firstly perhaps one of importance: A Greek newspaper in Melbourne, remember South Melbourne were ditched from the A-League bid just last year, even with Les Murray supporting the return of an ethnic bid:).

Ebbsfleet. taken over by a href="http://www.myfootballclub.co.uk/"myfootballclub/a have 35,000 members who pay $100 a year.br /br /The members are from 70 countries across the World. Ebbsfleet play in Division 5 have no chance really of making the top league, never mind the Champions League.br /br /Canberra on the other hand would play in the top league in Australia, have an opportunity to play in the Asian Champions League and a chance to play in the World Club Championship.

blockquoteWe've got many more Wallabies from Canberra than Socceroos. Our Private Schools just produce better Rugby players./blockquotebr /br /Well what a crock. This came from a Canberra Sports Journalist I met recently.br /br /First of all the Private Schools in Canberra..... span id="fullpost"br /have a long proud history of producing Rugby players but ask Marist, Radford, Grammar, St Eddies and co and they'd all talk about the huge switch to football in recent years.

Maybe.....div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='http://res1.blogblog.com/tracker/2491370939713746836-2963774845255184152?l=nearpost.blogspot.com'//divimg src="http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~r/FootballInTheCapital/~4/ove1pYNGULo" height="1" width="1"/

West Sydney: Is that the best you've got?
In a sort of Mike Cockerill inspired way West Sydney are ready to go, they've got the "vague" amount of money..but no doubt they won't need as much as Canberra to get over the line..will they?
Read all about Western Sydney's latest bid here but don't be fooled by the French/Chinese investors nor the dilapidated stadium posing as West Sydney's alternative to the Canberra's Australian Institute of Sport
Me?

ACT FAVOURITES?
With Wollongong and Western Sydney A-League bids struggling with stadiums and finance, is Canberra now in top spot to become the competition's newest team? The ace in harsh economic times is the ACT government's proposed $2.5 million investment that would make Canberra truly the "people's team".

Appeared on a business forum today apparently. Seems like they are really on track..and gotta love the bit about getting the GBP 2-5 million pounds quick. (ahem hurry up lads the your meetings tomorrow.)
If this was from Nigeria you'd spam it wouldn't you.
Guess a load of guys are out there handing over their GBP 2 million pounds as I type.

Lyall Gorman, Mariners Chairman said,

"It also gives the A-League for Canberra bid supporters the perfect chance to get behind the game, and further strengthen our support of a truly national competition, with the imminent announcement of the Hyundai A-League's successful 12th franchise.

The news that Melbourne Victory are set to bid for a Super 15 Rugby Union licence makes so much sense to me.
AFL and Football should create two teams, one club in West Sydney, and of course the Brumbies one of the countries smartest business teams are missing a huge opportunity by not bidding for the A-League4Canberra licence.

Adam Griffiths is reputed to be heading to the Gold Coast.
Transfer fee: $1.4 million
Nice bit of business for Australian football, for the Gold Coast and of course his Agent.
Ned Zelic is in Canberra looking at what he describes as a largely untapped talent pool of juniors see the Offsider at www.

The FFA: How's your World Cup bid process going in Canberra?
No A-League Licence, no World Cup bid from Canberra. That's what the ACT Government are saying...and that's what I say.
Yeah, take that FFA.
Who would want a few World Cup games in Canberra in ten years time, a hefty taxpayer bill for us poor sods, more Mariners stale crumbs in the coming years, and no legacy for football in the region.

FFA: Show us your plan for elite football in the capital region.....
you do have a plan don't you and what part of the strategic plan covers the Capital Region...do tell!

div align="center"strongMost watched PAY TV program ever! /strong/divstrong/strongdiv align="left"br /So the Socceroos are off to another World Cup...and Canberra's A-League bid can only benefit...br /span id="fullpost"br /There have been a few doubters, naysayers and general moaners when it comes to the prospect of an A-League side in Canberra.

Below you can read all about the impact of today's Season 5 A-League draw on Canberra....it won't take long...although a few of our Ref's called Ben might disagree.
Draw for the A-League is out today and here's what impact it could have on Canberra..at an initial BIG stretch.
North Queensland play Sydney in their first ever game in August.

Canberra's chances of an A-League side in the immediate future should be decided in the next week or so. Although many suspect we've already been marked.
As many Canberrans have suspected if West Sydney are developed, and the word is they aren't to a level that the FFA would like to see, then they will be in.

We've waited along time.
Decision is now imminent. More to follow.
Well Western Sydney, the three bids, meet the FFA this week, so given the passion of the FFA for a team from the West you can be assured if ANY model is strong and financial they'll be pushed ahead...and quickly.

Great to see a plan for a 26,5000 stadium, a football stadium, one with real atmosphere, close to the pitch, built for the future here in little old Canberra
And isn't it great to see a World Cup bid, unlike the 2000 Sydney Olympics, which will leave a legacy for football.
From the Canberra Times:

The second rectangular stadium would be purpose-built for soccer, rugby league and rugby union.

And then there was one...from Western Sydney.
ABC Sport Tim Gavel asked Ben Buckley if Canberra was a realistic chance for the A-League's 12th spot at the National Press Club today.
FFA CEO Ben Buckley said, "We gave Melbourne (Heart) the 11th licence on Friday (last week) and the 12th spot is between Western Sydney and Canberra and we expect to make an annoncement soon.

Fox Sports Mike Cockerill mentioned the other night that the A-League might expand to 13 teams.
Now Mike hasn't just dreamed that up has he? Someone from you know where has clearly leaked this in my view. Or else where could it have come from.
So August FFA Board meeting could mean:
1.

Monday 24th of August.
The most important day in Canberra football history for sometime.
Will the FFA grant Canberra a licence at the highest football table in the country and indeed across Asia.
I think Canberra and West Sydney will both be given a provisional licence with the need to convince the FFA of their finances and other items by November.

If Frank Lowy knows anything then Canberra are "unlikely," to get an A-League spot on Monday. But Canberrans shouldn't panic just yet.
And you know Frank isn't always in tune with his CEO and his team and Mike Cockerill is hardly renowned for getting to the bottom of a story is he?
He still thinks it's Wollongong or no-one or maybe he's looking for a job in West Sydney, either way coming from Mike.

Football Federation Australia has delayed making a final decision about a potential 12th A-League club following the national governing body's board meeting last night.
FFA's board met to decide on the fate of a 12th potential A-League team. However, the decision to defer was taken to allow bidders more time to work on ".

In the SMH today: Canberra handed inside running as Meissner pulls out of FFA race for new team
Western Sydney have pulled out the day before the A-League game in Canberra. Make of that what you will, but Buckle-up Ben has hardly given us any encouragment has he. Ever?
Read his comments once more!

Socceroo Carl Valeri takes time out from his short break from Italy's Serie B to show support for the Canberra A-League bid.
Fitsum Habtemariam, myself, and Jono MaClaren are just some of the volunteers who took time out for a photo with Carl.

The Canberra Times understands a decision on the location for the first game could be made in the next two weeks.
Barr said the opportunity came about because of discussions with the FFA about Canberra's bid for an A-League team.

http://www.canberratimes.

Watching the Australia Indonesia game on Wednesday night 11.30pm our time? Watch out for the above banner in the Australian end. A Canberran studying in Indonesia had the banner made by locals, and she will take it to the game on Wednesday.
Absolutely awesome....more details as I find out more:)

Watching the Australia Indonesia game on Wednesday night 11.30pm our time? Watch out for the above banner in the Australian end. A Canberran studying in Indonesia had the banner made by locals, and she will take it to the game on Wednesday.
Absolutely awesome....more details as I find out more:)

The Canberra Times understands a decision on the location for the first game could be made in the next two weeks.
Barr said the opportunity came about because of discussions with the FFA about Canberra's bid for an A-League team.

http://www.canberratimes.

FFA Ben Buckley will meet the a-league4canberra consortium this week.
Speaking on ABC Grandstand today FFA CEO Ben Buckley said 15,000-20,000 will show a stong level of support for football in the region.
With ticket sales at 13,500 on Friday evening you'd think we'd go to the upper end, at least, of that target.

Watching the Australia Indonesia game on Wednesday night 11.30pm our time? Watch out for the above banner in the Australian end. A Canberran studying in Indonesia had the banner made by locals, and she will take it to the game on Wednesday.
Absolutely awesome....more details as I find out more:)

A-League4Canberra has investors, sponsors, a great ground, training facilities, foundation members 1700, 13,000 grassroots signatures but the FFA are pushing hard to get West Sydney.
Stories continue to be in my view "made up" around the West Sydney bid as the FFA and others attempt to stoke the fires.

FFA are drawing up plans for a Second Division. Read the SMH article below.
The move into Asia means if we want more teams in the Asian Champions League we need a second division.
So an A-League team for Canberra AND a second division team, maybe Belconnen United or Canberra Vikings, or Canberra FC, although ground, shirt and dressing room issues remain there in the eyes of the FFA and their brand.