Canberra maintain hope

Canberra maintain hope

27 August 2009 | 11:05 - SBS EXCLUSIVE: Matthew Hall

Impressive.. Canberra's home ground would be one of the best in the A-League (Getty Images)

Canberra’s bid for an A-League team is alive and well and Western Sydney is not guaranteed the next expansion licence.

That’s the view of Canberra bid boss Ivan Slavich after speaking with Football Federation Australia officials following Monday’s board meeting on A-League expansion.

Slavich revealed he’d been contacted by FFA after the A-League summit and told his bid remained on track, despite reports the competition’s 12th and next team was already destined to be a second Sydney franchise.

“There is absolutely no white flag,” Slavich declared.

“FFA has not communicated to me that the 12th licence will go to western Sydney. I think Canberra is still very much a chance of having a team. Absolutely. I am certainly not pessimistic.

“I know the main competition is western Sydney but we have worked bloody hard on putting together the best bid possible from Canberra.

“We are the nation’s capital. We have the capital of New Zealand represented in the national competition and not the capital of Australia. That seems a bit strange to me.”

Slavich told The World Game all feedback on Canberra’s impressive bid from the national governing body had been positive.

Unlike Sydney proposals, Canberra’s bid has financial backing from local government and will use Australian Institute of Sport resources.

“We have put in several submissions to FFA,” Slavich said. “Most recently we put one in a month ago.

"They indicated to me they are impressed with the bid from Canberra and we are under active consideration.

“We are representing an area with a population base of some 700,000 people. We are the capital of this fine nation. We have a sensational stadium. We have the Australian Institute of Sport where we will be training. We have absolute popular support for a team in Canberra.

“If FFA come back and say the 12th licence is going to western Sydney, it is not going to stop Canberra insisting on having a team in the A-League.”

source: theworldgame.com.au

love that last line.

other than that it's good to see that he's maintaining a sense of hope, reading between the lines though he doesn't sound too confident.

sort of sounds like he's chucking a tantrum saying "why can't we have a team??"

good article...

Keeps my hopes up

aleague4canberra wrote:
other than that it's good to see that he's maintaining a sense of hope, reading between the lines though he doesn't sound too confident.

He sounds far from not confident. That is one of the most confident articles I have read from him.

Sounds quite confident there, does Slavich. Good on him I say.

yeah I think he thinks we have a good chance..

I reckon we're still in with a chance...