Canberra Premier League competition postponed as FFA suspends all grass-roots football

Everything from training sessions, junior competitions, and Canberra's premier leagues will be temporarily suspended from midnight Tuesday until at least April 14.

Capital Football had hoped to launch its competitions this week but those plans, as well as this weekend's Charity Shield, have had to be scrapped.

The Canberra NPL competition was scheduled to start on March 28 will be now delayed. Competitions and associated training already in operation, including the NPL Youth League, will be halted temporarily.

The nationwide FFA Cup is also in jeopardy, given preliminary rounds have already begun across the country.

It's unknown when competitions will proceed if the FFA gives the all-clear on April 14, considering players would not have trained in almost a month.

"We haven't considered that at the moment, we're just considering apply the guiding principles provided by the FFA," Capital Football chief executive Phil Brown said.

"We will look at competition structures and formats once we get a better understanding of the climate, health advice and recommendations that come from the FFA as we approach April 14."

MORE CANBERRA SPORT

The announcement comes just a day after the FFA gave the all clear for amateur competitions to continue around Australia, albeit with restrictions on who can attend.

However, subsequent discussions with State and Territory Member Federations and government advice prompted the FFA to put a temporary sanction on all organised football under the governing body.

"We place the health and well-being of all our participants at the heart of this decision and we've also tried to play a role in being a leader in the wider community," FFA boss James Johnson said.

"The Member Federations and football community has wanted a strong decision and a unified voice from top to the bottom of the game.

"As a good and responsible citizen, we recognise the sport has 1.9 million participants, the largest sport in the country and we need to have a more significant role than other sports in slowing the spread of the virus and then in turn saving lives."

The FFA is yet to discuss with Member Federations how the suspension could affect registration fees if matches cannot be replayed or if seasons are suspended.

"There are so many different components to a registration fee including the club component, ground hire, referee fees, administration, football apparel and equipment," Brown said.

"Then there's the insurance program nationally and the registration fees for the Members Federation.

"That's a conversation that's going to need to be had for all of those stakeholder groups to understand what happens with registration fees going forward.

"That's assuming there is no season, it very well could be we're able to flatten the curve as a community and as a nation. We might be able to get back on the park across all sports, that's a watch and review."

We have removed our paywall from our stories about the coronavirus. This is a rapidly changing situation and we want to make sure our readers are as informed as possible. If you would like to support our journalists you can subscribe here.