Fund Football Fairly founder Nick Houston, left, has been playing football almost his whole life. Photo: Supplied.
Nick Houston is sick of hearing the same question every time interstate teams arrive in Canberra for the Kanga Cup.
“Is this all you’ve got?”
The long-time footballer says visiting players are routinely underwhelmed by the ACT’s football facilities – from worn-out pitches to ageing clubrooms – and it’s why he has launched a campaign calling for a major funding overhaul.
Mr Houston, founder of the new ‘Fund Football Fairly’ movement, is pushing for an extra $120 million investment in football infrastructure, a moratorium on sportsground hire fees, and the installation of synthetic turf at key football hubs across Canberra.
He argues football has been left behind while other sports have received modern facilities, despite participation rates remaining among the highest in the Territory.
“If you look at participation rates, there are far more people playing football every weekend and participating in football than any of these other sports,” Mr Houston said.
The Canberra-born footballer, who started playing in Belconnen under-6s in 1972 and now plays for ANU, says football infrastructure has suffered decades of neglect.
“Other sports have magnificent facilities, whether it’s Manuka Oval or Phillip Oval … Rugby league has excellent facilities. Hockey has excellent facilities. Rowing has facilities. Rugby union has facilities. Netball has facilities. But there’s just not been an equivalent amount spent on football.”
Mr Houston went further, arguing that historic prejudice against football as an “ethnically coded sport” has contributed to underinvestment.
“During the great post-war migration of the 1950s and the 1960s … all of these people coming into Australia played football,” he said.
“There was a lot of racism back then directed at those new Australians … and I think that prejudice has existed in the way that governments have funded the sport.”
Capital Football is the governing body for football in Canberra and the surrounding region. Photo: Yoogali Football.
Among the group’s biggest asks is a moratorium on ACT Government sportsground hire fees until facilities improve.
Mr Houston said community clubs were paying significant sums to use grounds many considered unsafe, with referees increasingly calling off matches due to poor conditions.
“These are community clubs, raising money through sausage sizzles,” he said.
“A certain proportion goes off to the ACT Government in ground hire fees, so the subsidy is going in the wrong direction.”
He pointed to the collapse of Gungahlin United in October 2025, claiming the club’s biggest debt was about $184,000 owed in sportsground hire fees.
Fund Football Fairly is also pushing for synthetic pitches at Canberra’s major football hubs, including Dickson, Mawson and Tuggeranong.
Mr Houston said synthetic turf would reduce pressure on heavily used grass fields, allowing them time to recover and improving safety.
“If you have a synthetic pitch, then it immediately takes the pressure off the grass pitch,” he said.
“It means that the grass pitches are not flogged like they are at the moment.”
The campaign also wants two “modest” football venues, northside and southside, capable of hosting between 5000 and 6000 spectators for grand finals, Canberra United matches and Australia Cup fixtures.
An artist’s impression of the ill-fated Throsby Home of Football. Photo: ACT YourSay Conversations.
The ACT’s closest attempt at a football headquarters – the proposed Throsby Home of Football – was abandoned after Capital Football withdrew its financial contribution in 2024.
Announced in 2019, the facility was set to include outdoor football fields, futsal courts and office space, but the ACT Government instead pivoted to district playing fields after Capital Football stepped away.
Mr Houston said the project “was constructed to never go ahead” because the code was unlikely to secure the required co-investment.
In a speech on 26 May, Sport Minister Yvette Berry said today the ACT Government manages more than 100 community sporting fields and 884 hireable sportsgrounds, supporting more than 300 user groups annually.
More than 47,000 booked hours have been recorded this year – a 9 per cent increase on the same period last year – putting more pressure on turf, particularly during warmer seasons and extended sporting calendars.
ACT Sports Minister Yvette Berry will meet with Fund Football Fairly soon. Photo: Region.
Ms Berry said the government was undertaking ongoing maintenance and remediation works while working with clubs to balance competing demands.
“I acknowledge that this system is not perfect, but it is a system that is willing to learn and adapt,” she told the Legislative Assembly.
The Canberra Liberals’ James Milligan largely blamed a “sub-standard” maintenance schedule for the degradation of facilities designed about 10 years ago.
“Perhaps it’s time that the government develop a new approach to how it maintains these community assets.”
The Opposition also announced a roundtable of sporting clubs and organisations at the Woden Southern Cross Club on Thursday, 4 June, to “give representatives the chance to air their concerns”.
Mr Houston said he had been invited to meet with the minister in the coming weeks and was very clear in what he’d be asking for.
“Honestly, we’re going to be saying, ‘Look, we need $120 million. We don’t just want another sportsground made available at Stromlo. It’s time for a significant investment in football.’”
