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Western Sydney Wanderers FC
Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (colloquially known as Western Sydney, Wanderers, or simply as WSW) is an Australian professional soccer club based in the Western Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier competition, the A-League, under licence from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL). formerly under licence by the Football Federation Australia (FFA).
Formed in April 2012 by FFA, Wanderers was established with a strong community focus. A series of community forums across Western Sydney helped choose the club's name and colours, as well as its culture and playing style. The club's record-breaking inaugural season won them an A-League premiership and saw the club reach the 2013 A-League Grand Final. The club followed that up by contesting the 2014 A-League Grand Final and securing second place in their second season of the league. The club was also crowned Asian champions in their Champions League debut season.
The club is run from a facility based in Blacktown, and currently plays matches at Western Sydney Stadium. Their foundation home ground of Parramatta Stadium was closed & demolished in 2017 as part of process for building the new stadium. An academy youth team competes in the National Youth League and the National Premier Leagues NSW. A women's team competes in the A-League Women. The youth and women's matches are played at various locations across Western Sydney, including Marconi Stadium, Campbelltown Stadium and Cook Park. The club also has a Powerchair Football team which competes in the NSW Western Division Powerchair Football League, with matches played at Football NSW Headquarters.
Western Sydney continues to be an important region for FFA. It is the heartland of football in NSW, it is one of the most popular football regions in the country, and we've always said we've wanted to have an A-League team to represent the Western Sydney region.
The Western Sydney region was regarded as a potential location for one of the founding A-League clubs in 2005, originally intended to be the base for Sydney FC. When Sydney FC put forward their bid to participate in the inaugural A-League season, Football NSW (which backed the bid) desired for the club's home ground to be Parramatta Stadium in Western Sydney. Though after winning the A-League licence, Football Federation Australia (FFA) Chairman Frank Lowy forced a number of changes to the bid. The main of these were in moving the club to Sydney Football Stadium in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney and simultaneously reducing Football NSW's involvement from 100 to 25 percent. Frank Lowy's son, David Lowy, was also installed as a major investor. In response, Football NSW made the decision to pull out its involvement with Sydney FC amid claims the A-League club had become a "plaything" for Frank Lowy and his family. Football NSW stated its dislike of Lowy's autocratic style in establishing the club and the perceived lack of consultation on key club issues. An unsuccessful bid named "Sydney Blues", which had proposed to play at the Sydney Football Stadium was the only other Sydney-based bid. Sydney FC entered the A-League with a five-year city exclusivity deal as part of the league's "one-city, one-team" policy, preventing the establishment of another Sydney-based club until the deal expired.
By 2008, as the five-year deal wound to its conclusion, FFA announced its intention to expand the A-League, with a second Sydney-based club a favourable option. FFA received 10 expressions of interest, two of which from potential Western Sydney based teams. Despite the unsuccessful attempt to establish a Western Sydney-based team in the form of Sydney Rovers (due to financial and technical reasons), FFA were still strongly committed in pursuing a club in the region.
The catalyst for the formation of the Western Sydney Wanderers was FFA revoking Gold Coast United's A-League licence on 29 February 2012. After a series of running battles between FFA and Clive Palmer – owner of Gold Coast United, over topics such as crowd control, stadium attendance capacities and breaches of A-League regulations. The loss of Gold Coast United brought the league down to nine clubs, one fewer than what FFA needed for their upcoming television rights negotiations.
On 4 April 2012, then FFA CEO Ben Buckley announced the creation of "New Sydney Club" based in the city's west to play in the A-League. The new club would be set up to compete in the 2012–13 season, though despite several attempts by FFA to find a backer to own and run the club no individual owner or consortium of owners decided to take on the new Sydney club. With the October deadline approaching, FFA decided to push through the club by taking on the ownership role themselves. This was helped by securing $4 million from the Australian Government in a grant for the creation and ongoing costs of the club.
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Western Sydney Wanderers FC
Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (colloquially known as Western Sydney, Wanderers, or simply as WSW) is an Australian professional soccer club based in the Western Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier competition, the A-League, under licence from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL). formerly under licence by the Football Federation Australia (FFA).
Formed in April 2012 by FFA, Wanderers was established with a strong community focus. A series of community forums across Western Sydney helped choose the club's name and colours, as well as its culture and playing style. The club's record-breaking inaugural season won them an A-League premiership and saw the club reach the 2013 A-League Grand Final. The club followed that up by contesting the 2014 A-League Grand Final and securing second place in their second season of the league. The club was also crowned Asian champions in their Champions League debut season.
The club is run from a facility based in Blacktown, and currently plays matches at Western Sydney Stadium. Their foundation home ground of Parramatta Stadium was closed & demolished in 2017 as part of process for building the new stadium. An academy youth team competes in the National Youth League and the National Premier Leagues NSW. A women's team competes in the A-League Women. The youth and women's matches are played at various locations across Western Sydney, including Marconi Stadium, Campbelltown Stadium and Cook Park. The club also has a Powerchair Football team which competes in the NSW Western Division Powerchair Football League, with matches played at Football NSW Headquarters.
Western Sydney continues to be an important region for FFA. It is the heartland of football in NSW, it is one of the most popular football regions in the country, and we've always said we've wanted to have an A-League team to represent the Western Sydney region.
The Western Sydney region was regarded as a potential location for one of the founding A-League clubs in 2005, originally intended to be the base for Sydney FC. When Sydney FC put forward their bid to participate in the inaugural A-League season, Football NSW (which backed the bid) desired for the club's home ground to be Parramatta Stadium in Western Sydney. Though after winning the A-League licence, Football Federation Australia (FFA) Chairman Frank Lowy forced a number of changes to the bid. The main of these were in moving the club to Sydney Football Stadium in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney and simultaneously reducing Football NSW's involvement from 100 to 25 percent. Frank Lowy's son, David Lowy, was also installed as a major investor. In response, Football NSW made the decision to pull out its involvement with Sydney FC amid claims the A-League club had become a "plaything" for Frank Lowy and his family. Football NSW stated its dislike of Lowy's autocratic style in establishing the club and the perceived lack of consultation on key club issues. An unsuccessful bid named "Sydney Blues", which had proposed to play at the Sydney Football Stadium was the only other Sydney-based bid. Sydney FC entered the A-League with a five-year city exclusivity deal as part of the league's "one-city, one-team" policy, preventing the establishment of another Sydney-based club until the deal expired.
By 2008, as the five-year deal wound to its conclusion, FFA announced its intention to expand the A-League, with a second Sydney-based club a favourable option. FFA received 10 expressions of interest, two of which from potential Western Sydney based teams. Despite the unsuccessful attempt to establish a Western Sydney-based team in the form of Sydney Rovers (due to financial and technical reasons), FFA were still strongly committed in pursuing a club in the region.
The catalyst for the formation of the Western Sydney Wanderers was FFA revoking Gold Coast United's A-League licence on 29 February 2012. After a series of running battles between FFA and Clive Palmer – owner of Gold Coast United, over topics such as crowd control, stadium attendance capacities and breaches of A-League regulations. The loss of Gold Coast United brought the league down to nine clubs, one fewer than what FFA needed for their upcoming television rights negotiations.
On 4 April 2012, then FFA CEO Ben Buckley announced the creation of "New Sydney Club" based in the city's west to play in the A-League. The new club would be set up to compete in the 2012–13 season, though despite several attempts by FFA to find a backer to own and run the club no individual owner or consortium of owners decided to take on the new Sydney club. With the October deadline approaching, FFA decided to push through the club by taking on the ownership role themselves. This was helped by securing $4 million from the Australian Government in a grant for the creation and ongoing costs of the club.