Capital Football goes against advisory group's advice

And when you're a public organisation like Capital Football, you need to make sure everything's above board.

When it comes to the first point, it's especially important when you go against the recommendations of one of the key groups you sought advice from.

Which is exactly what Capital Football have done in opting to cut the Monaro Panthers from the women's premier league, aka NPLW.

The premier league standing advisory committee said if Capital Football was going to reduce the number of teams from nine to eight then they should remove Canberra United Academy.

Otherwise, it should stay at nine teams until a proper review has been conducted.

Their rationale? CUA takes players from the other eight clubs in the first place.

And since the whole reason Capital Football was looking at reducing the teams was because of the "gap in standard in the competition" returning those CUA players would bolster the clubs' depth and help address the gap.

They also consulted the club presidents, with varying reports of what that meeting entailed.

Some say it resulted in a similar recommendation to PLSAC's, while others say it was just a discussion with no recommendations.

The final group consulted was the technical committee, who recommended a reduction to eight teams.

Unlike PLSAC, they didn't give any specific advice about who should go, but they did allude to it.

"The lopsided scores, in particular the bottom ranked teams from Canberra, negatively influence the league and development opportunities for players," a summary of the technical committee's recommendations reads.

This can all be found in Capital Football's document entitled 2021 League Format and Nominations Process Meeting.

Monaro finished last this year - in an extremely abridged, eight-game season due to the coronavirus - and second last the previous two seasons - when Canberra Olympic (2019) and Tuggeranong United ('18) came bottom.

The Panthers admit they've struggled in the past, but they've been working to turn that around.

They've also provided a pathway into the top flight of Canberra soccer for women and girls from the surrounding regions - Braidwood, Batemans Bay and Bega - even from Canberra itself through their alliance with the Brindabella Blues.

While CUA does provide top-level coaching and sports science, there's no reason it can't do that as purely a development program.

Which brings us to the second point: making sure everything's above board.

Capital Football decided to keep their own club, CUA, at the expense of the Panthers.

Sure, CUA had to put in a submission just like everyone else, but it was essentially Capital Football writing to themselves.

Then Capital Football assessed all of the applications - including their own - and wrote a recommendation to the Capital Football board to decide who should stay and who should go.

Any decision that didn't lead to the removal of CUA from NPLW would always been seen as biased.

It's drawn criticism from all three levels of government: Eden-Monaro member Kristy McBain, NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro and Queanbeyan-Palerang mayor Tim Overall.

Overall's already met with Capital Football, while the first two are expected to do so early next week.

ACT Sports Minister Yvette Berry will also look into the process after being contacted by The Canberra Times, but said "at the end of the day, sports organisations are responsible for organising their own competitions".

Meanwhile, Monaro are still in the dark about an appeals process.

But then, who would they be appealing to? Capital Football? Good luck with that.