Capital Football chief executive Heather Reid says she is determined to co-operate with clubs to stamp out a small "rogue element" of Canberra soccer fans, revealing she has become a target of harassment, abuse and threats.
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Reid said the sustained "personal attack" on her reached a flashpoint at this year's National Premier League grand final – Reid avoided the contest – and at least two of her staff are fearful of attending matches at Canberra FC's home ground, Deakin Stadium.
Reid marked her 10th anniversary in the top job this year and has outlined Capital Football's vision for the sport in an extensive and frank interview with Fairfax Media, addressing Canberra's hopes of an A-League club, accusations of favouritism towards the female game, and how the expanding code – particularly in junior ranks – has outgrown its grassroots facilities.
But Reid admitted the job had taken a personal toll, especially in the past three years, revealing an underbelly of abuse she has experienced – in person and on social media.
Canberra FC has identified and punished 15 spectators who were involved in anti-social behaviour during the NPL finals, including derogatory chants about Reid during the grand final, even targeting her sexuality. The investigation also covered an incident of verbal abuse against a lineswoman at the preliminary final and a threat made against a Capital Football staff member at the grand final.
There is a history of tension between Capital Football and elements of Canberra FC's supporter base after the club was heavily fined following crowd disturbances and flares at their 2011 grand final win.
Reid did not attend this year's NPL grand final between Canberra FC and Belconnen United at Deakin Stadium, admitting she felt a level of intimidation at the venue.
"Personally I did not really want to be in that space," she said. "I wasn't even there and this rogue element were singing and saying nasty things about me.
"I don't feel comfortable and I don't feel safe. And what's really drilled home to me in the last few weeks is that two of my male staff are in the same situation.
"Let's face it, some of the challenges at Deakin over the last three years have been massive for me and other staff because of the environment we enter to do our job ... nobody should expect to be abused, harassed, threatened in an environment where they do their job, and that's what's happened in some cases at that venue.
"I've now got two other [male] staff that will not go back to Deakin unless we improve the environment in which they can carry out their jobs, and the Canberra FC people know that and they've apologised."
Reid, however, was encouraged that Canberra FC had been proactive and launched its own disciplinary investigation, issuing total bans of 13 years to seven fans and putting eight more on notice.
Despite what she described as "little hotspots", Reid was adamant the political environment between Canberra clubs had "incredibly changed for the better" in the past decade.
"Passion is no excuse for bad behaviour, vulgarity, abuse and disrespect," she said.
"We have cleaned up those political things and I think there's been a focus from clubs to become more community-focused."
Asked why she continues to stay in the role, Reid said: "It's something I often think about, but I think all the good things outweigh that ... I think it's exciting and great to be part of this sport.
"My performance hasn't slipped. If anything we've grown the business ... people need to understand the breadth and complexity of the business and the fact that there's never a dull moment.
"People can't distinguish that professional side of what I have to do from the personal side ... it is a personal attack. People attack Capital Football and Heather Reid at the same time.
"It does take its toll, so I have to try and not let that get to me ... There is a certain amount of hatred that's projected at me, but I'd like to think for those 10 to 15, there's 100 times more that recognise my job."
FEMALE FOCUS
Reid admitted a common accusation she and Capital Football confront is a perceived bias towards the female game.
She said the criticism is unfair and unfounded, generally based on the fact Canberra has a team in the W-League and claims that Capital Football had not been proactive enough in the push for an A-League club.
Reid said Canberra United operated in the W-League on an annual budget of about $300,000, compared with an estimated $8 million required to fund an A-League team.
She also pointed out that no registered player in Canberra was slugged with extra fees to sustain Canberra United, which is funded entirely by sponsorship, a $90,000 ACT government grant, gate takings and merchandise.
"To say I'm only interested in women's football because we've got a W-League team and not an A-League team, they don't understand the difference ... FFA owns the Canberra United licence, they gave us the team name and the colours," Reid said.
"I'm proud of what Capital Football and the community does for Canberra United because it's a team effort and we set the benchmark ... it's a family effort and I'm proud. [But] it does kind of upset me that there are people in the community that call me very nasty names, are very rude, disrespectful and very hurtful.
"I don't think people understand the complexity of the business and how much resourcing goes into the [men's] Premier League environment ... What they see is me being a woman and my background a long time ago in the women's game. I've been in this job 10 years, Some people would say it's 10 years too long, others would say there's still a lot to do. There's never a dull moment, there's never enough time."
A-LEAGUE AMBITION
Reid said Canberra's fans could justifiably feel let down by the last expansion process in the A-League, when Canberra's bid was overlooked for the Football Federation Australia-supported franchise in western Sydney. But Reid said Capital Football does not deserve blame.
The A-League4Canberra bid, led by businessman Ivan Slavich, fell short of the $6 million required – the FFA instead stepping in to financially prop up a foundation team in western Sydney.
"I don't think you can argue with that choice and the success of Western Sydney," Reid said. "The disappointing thing was [Canberra] people were led to believe the more we did, the more we would have a chance of getting [the] licence.
"I think there were elements in the community that sat back and waited to see if he [Slavich] would get a licence before putting money forward, and it didn't happen. I think we got pretty annoyed with FFA continuing to dangle some carrots in front of our faces."
Reid said new FFA boss David Gallop had been completely upfront. Capital Football met with Gallop in Canberra on September 2 and the message was clear – there are no plans for A-League expansion until at least 2017-18 and FFA will then look more favourably on metropolitan areas that have populations in the millions to enhance broadcast potential.
Reid said it would realistically cost upwards of $8 million to start an A-League franchise in Canberra, and Capital Football was in no position to foot the bill.
"The heart wants an A-League team in Canberra but the cash is not here in the town at the moment, or it hasn't been coming forward. You can talk to Ivan Slavich about his challenges, he'll never do that again. The time and effort he and his wife put into that A-League bid was enormous, and it was a fruitless exercise. He probably feels like he was lied to by people within the FFA at the time and people within the community who promised money that wasn't forthcoming.
"If the A-League expands in 2017-18 then whatever group in Canberra wants a licence has to be ready with the money and the wherewithal. It can't be Capital Football, we are the member federation. No other member federation – Queensland, NSW, Victoria – has an A-League licence. It's a private consortium or its an individual owner. In some cases the member federation works closely with the A-League owners; in other cases they have nothing to do with them.
"We were actively supporting Ivan as much as we could, and we were meeting with the [ACT] sports minister as much as we could. We know the ACT government had set aside $2.5 million for the licence.
"People probably criticise me for not doing enough to get an A-League team, but it's not about shifting the blame to the FFA – it is the reality that FFA makes the decisions."
NATIONAL YOUTH LEAGUE
Reid, however, said Capital Football's achievable goal is a men's team in the National Youth League, hopefully within two years.
Capital Football is lobbying the FFA for the NYL to be restructured. NYL teams now are aligned with A-League clubs, but Capital Football wants the two competitions de-coupled to allow for a Canberra entry.
Reid said many A-League clubs viewed NYL teams as a financial burden. But she said it would address the development gap for Canberra's aspiring male players and could also be a foot in the door for future A-League bids from the capital.
About $150,000 was carried over from the failed A-League4Canberra bid, which has been invested in elite men's football.
"That's our push for a National Youth League team, probably at a cost of $300 to 400 thousand. We believe we can raise the money for that ... that's our reality," Reid said.
"We want to see a model from FFA that de-couples A-League and Youth League and secondly opens it up to expressions of interest to other areas.
"Hopefully within two years. The FFA has talked about restructuring the National Youth League so it's not a home and away; maybe it's played on a regional basis."
Capital Football has moved away from direct partnerships with A-League clubs, instead encouraging Canberra clubs to forge their own relationships with franchises and bring A-League teams to Canberra.
As well as the cost of hosting A-League teams, Reid said Capital Football had traditionally struggled to get players released from their clubs to train and play.
Canberra FC has hosted the Western Sydney Wanderers and Sydney FC this year. Tuggeranong United has proposed a festival of football involving A-League teams next year, keen to ride momentum after more than 5000 fans turned up to its FFA Cup match against Melbourne Victory last month.
Reid said Capital Football supported the initiatives.
"I've written to [Tuggeranong] saying there's no need to lobby us, just tell us what your proposal is, we'll put it to the FFA and try to get support for it."
NATIONAL PREMIER LEAGUE
Capital Football announced a restructured nine-team NPL men's competition on Friday. Canberra City has been cut, replaced by Gungahlin United.
While the move was based on a strict selection criteria, it aids Capital Football's strategic direction. It is the first NPL team based in Gungahlin, Canberra's fastest growing region, and allows for a better spread of the region's talent geographically.
There are stringent requirements on NPL clubs, including being able to field junior teams from under-12s to 18s and having coaching and technical staff with good credentials.
Reid said Capital Football's enthusiasm to adopt the tough FFA criteria had enabled more opportunity, including Tuggeranong United's entry into this year's FFA Cup.
"We could have easily said we don't want to be in the National Premier League, we're not ready, but we were one of the first to jump in last year and say we'll be ready. It was important for our clubs to be in that National Premier League environment right from he start, even though it had its headaches and the compliance required was quite daunting for a lot of the clubs.
"No club is forced to be in the NPL. They put their hand up to be in the NPL and they have to match the requirements."
ASIAN CUP
The ACT government has paid $3.5 million to host seven games of next year's Asian Cup, the largest soccer tournament ever held in Australia with a television audience in excess of 1 billion. But Canberra fans have been slow to engage and low ticket sales are concerning organisers.
Reid acknowledged the challenges of attracting big crowds to Canberra in January, with seven games in 14 days.
Capital Football is expanding its promotional reach to the regional areas around Canberra and will also reach into Sydney to try to attract large population bases such as Chinese supporters.
Qatar and Oman will base themselves in Canberra in preparation for the tournament. The two teams will play a warm-up match in Canberra and Reid hopes their presence could push ticket sales.
Asked if Canberra risked being embarrassed, Reid said: "I think it'll come good.
"Ticket sales are very slow. I'm concerned and I'm particularly concerned when [FFA chairman] Mr [Frank] Lowy says we're counting on you, Heather, to get tickets sales up.
"Time will tell, the venue packs are reasonable, the quality of teams is very reasonable ... Herein lies the dilemma: people want an A-League team for Canberra but they've got to be prepared to go and support that A-League team. We've got high quality men's football coming to Canberra, they've got to be prepared to support that."
RESOURCES AND JUNIOR GROWTH
In her first three years in the job from 2004, Reid was charged with bringing the four separate entities of Canberra soccer – Soccer Canberra, Women's Soccer Canberra, futsal and the referees association – under the one umbrella, Capital Football.
Capital Football now has 18,000 registered players in the ACT district, including 12,000 juniors. It runs all competitions – from juniors to masters, summer and winter – with a full-time staff of 17 and an annual budget of $4 million. The annual Kanga Cup junior tournament has grown from 65 teams to more than 280.
"An organisation that was in the red when I started and owed about $120,000 in overdraft to a organisation that's quite healthy and runs a diversity of programs," Reid said of the change.
"We are very much stretched; in fact every federation is stretched. The [state and territory] CEOs recently wrote [a joint letter] to David Gallop expressing concern about the stretch. The more we do, the more we're expected to do ... we're all feeling the pressure, there is no time off."
The lack of facilities is also a headache. "We're pretty much running out of places to play and clubs are at capacity," Reid said.
Capital Football has an in-principle agreement to work with the University of Canberra in developing stage two of its sporting complex, which is aiming for an indoor stadium that could host futsal and a boutique outdoor stadium that could seat up to 5000.
