Canberra United Secured: New Ownership and Path to A-League Men

Canberra United finally has what it has been crying out for: security, money, and a clear road towards the A-League Men.

After two years of doubt and dead ends, Australian Sports Group (ASG) has stepped in as the club’s first private owner, buying the licence from Capital Football and guaranteeing Canberra United’s place in the A-League Women for the 2026-27 season and beyond.

On Friday, ASG chairman Morris McAlister and chief executive Theo Fotopoulos stood on the grass at McKellar Park and confirmed what the football community had been desperate to hear – United has been saved, and the project is much bigger than just survival.

McKellar stays home – and could become much more

The new regime is wasting no time. McKellar Park, the club’s spiritual home, will remain the venue for Canberra United’s A-League Women fixtures. Fotopoulos wants it to become more than that.

ASG is exploring the creation of a dedicated training base on the six-hectare site, with an office to be established next door at Belconnen Soccer Club, which he described as a “strategic partner”.

The idea is simple: give Canberra football a true home.

“It’ll come down to what we can get approved in terms of the facility here,” Fotopoulos told The Canberra Times, pointing to McKellar’s rare status as a privately owned ground in the capital. He has already spoken to key stakeholders and says the early signs are “very positive” for what can be built on site.

Capital Football and the ACT government once had plans for a training centre at the Throsby Home of Football, but that project collapsed under financial strain. ASG is now assessing multiple options across Canberra, with McKellar clearly at the front of the queue.

“Football needs a home and it'd be great to be able to develop that here,” Fotopoulos said.

Continuity on the pitch: Jagarinec talks underway

Off the field, the ownership has changed. On the field, ASG wants as much continuity as possible.

The new bosses have already met with head coach Antoni Jagarinec, who has taken Canberra United to the finals in each of the past two seasons. Fotopoulos made it clear that securing the coaching position and locking in the playing squad is the immediate priority, with pre-season only six weeks away and the A-League Women draw due next month ahead of an October 16 kick-off.

“That is our priority to get that finalised,” he said. “We had some recent meetings with the coach. I believe the PFA are also working with all the players at the moment and we'd like to get that wrapped up quicker than later.”

The signals are encouraging. Fotopoulos spoke of confidence in the players’ response and stressed the desire for “continuity and consolidation”, adding that Jagarinec’s record “speaks for itself”. Formal announcements are expected soon.

A men’s team – finally on the clock

The bigger picture stretches beyond the women’s side. ASG has secured an option, not yet a full licence, for a Canberra A-League Men team to enter the competition in the 2028-29 season.

For a city that has spent the best part of 18 years wrestling with failed bids, shifting promises and political wrangling, another three-year wait is hardly ideal. The expectation in some quarters was that a men’s team might arrive just a year after the women’s future was settled.

Fotopoulos, though, was unequivocal about the destination.

“Well, we're here today, so that's your best guarantee,” he said. “That is part of our twin strategy. When we started speaking to the APL ... that was part of our mix. We believe the strength comes from both. It would be almost discriminatory not to work with the men. It's always been part of our plans.”

ASG now has a defined timeline: build a stable, competitive women’s club and, over the next two years, assemble the structure, capital and infrastructure required to launch a men’s side in 2028-29.

APL chair Steve Conroy welcomed the move, calling it “an exciting next step for professional football in the ACT” and a sign of the growth potential for the A-Leagues in Canberra.

United in name – and maybe something more

One thing will not change: the badge.

Fotopoulos has no interest in discarding 18 years of history. Canberra United will remain Canberra United – for both women and, when they arrive, men.

“You've got 18 years of Canberra United. Why would you change it?” he said. There is no appetite to walk away from that identity unless, as he put it, the community itself turned against it. He does not believe that to be the case.

What he does want is a nickname. A proper football moniker the city can own.

Fotopoulos floated the idea of a public campaign, potentially run through The Canberra Times, to help choose it. The options are already rolling around local conversations: Cosmos, Arrows, Greens, Lakers, the old “Green Machine”. ASG will listen – and, they say, be guided by the community.

“The name will remain the same, Canberra United,” Fotopoulos said. “If the Canberra community want a nickname for their team, Green Machine, whatever they come up with, we're happy to look at that and we'll run a public campaign.”

Who are Australian Sports Group?

Behind the takeover is a pairing steeped in both business and Australian football’s past.

ASG chairman Morris McAlister has a commerce background and is governing director of Petron Plus 7 Australian and New Zealand, a company dealing in engine and machine products such as lubricants and grease. He is also a senior consultant at MEC Team Consultants, which connects Australian businesses with Chinese markets.

Fotopoulos, ASG’s chief executive, is a marketing executive and head of FOS Group Australia. The duo have long histories in the game: they were involved with Sydney Cosmos, where Fotopoulos served as chief executive, and with the Newcastle Breakers in the old National Soccer League. Fotopoulos also previously held the chief executive role at Sydney Olympic.

Now they have two years to turn a long-discussed Canberra men’s dream into a fully fledged A-League Men club.

Money, pathways and a reset for the capital

While Fotopoulos sidestepped questions about the exact licence fee, it is understood the overall deal is worth around $15 million, including the men’s component. The immediate commitment includes underwriting Canberra United to the tune of up to $3 million over multiple years.

For Capital Football, which has carried the cost of running Canberra United since the club’s inception in 2008, the sale marks the end of an era. The financial burden had become too great, and last season was always going to be its final campaign in charge.

The urgency was real. The A-Leagues needed a new owner in place to guarantee United’s participation in the 2026-27 A-League Women season. There simply wasn’t enough time to complete all the checks and preparations required to launch a men’s side for the upcoming summer, so the focus narrowed: save the women’s team first, then build outwards.

Fotopoulos has also pledged to repair something many in Canberra’s football community still bristle about – the academy pathways. Capital Football controversially shut down United’s academy three years ago. ASG wants to re-establish those pathways and invest in infrastructure in the capital.

“We're excited to be part of growing the A-Leagues and building a strong club focused on community engagement, football excellence, commercial growth, new infrastructure and strengthening the football development pathways for boys and girls in the territory and the capital region,” Fotopoulos said.

Canberra’s long wait nears its end

For Canberra bid leader Michael Caggiano, who has pushed for a men’s A-League licence for eight years, this development may finally close the chapter on a saga that has dragged on far too long. The APL named Canberra a preferred expansion location almost three-and-a-half years ago, at the same time as Auckland. Auckland has since entered the competition and already become champion. Canberra has watched on.

Now, at last, there is a signed owner, a confirmed women’s future, a formal option for a men’s team and a clock ticking towards 2028-29.

The ACT government and Canberra’s football community have been thanked for their patience and support. They have turned up, year after year, making Canberra United one of the best-supported A-League Women clubs in the country.

They have their club back. Soon enough, they might have the full professional footprint they have always believed the capital deserves.