Western United

Western United Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club. Based in the western Melbourne suburb of Truganina, the club aims to represent western Victoria, incorporating the western suburbs of Melbourne; the regional cities of Geelong, Ballarat, and Bendigo; and regional and country towns in western Victoria.

The club was first established as part of an expansion process in the country's premier soccer competition, the A-League. It began playing in the 2019–20 A-League season, under licence from Football Federation Australia (FFA).

Western United play home matches at GMHBA Stadium in Geelong and Mars Stadium in Ballarat, though plan to permanently relocate matches to a proposed soccer-specific stadium in Tarneit, Wyndham.

History

Origins

In August 2018, the Western Melbourne Group was part of the eight teams that the FFA had accepted in the official bidding phase, as part of the new expansion process. Four months later, the bid's success was announced, along with the bid from Macarthur FC. Western Melbourne will play its home games at Kardinia Park in Geelong for its first two seasons, while it builds its stadium and training centre in Tarneit, with completion expected in 2021.

On 11 January 2019, Western Melbourne Group announced John Anastasiadis as senior assistant coach for the club's debut season. On 24 January 2019, the consortium announced that John Hutchinson would also join the club as an assistant coach.

On 31 January 2019, Western Melbourne made its first player and marquee signing Panagiotis Kone ahead of its inaugural season. On 12 February 2019, Socceroos defender Josh Risdon became Western Melbourne's first Australian signing.

On 13 February 2019, it was announced that the club would be called Western United Football Club after a public vote was held through the Herald Sun newspaper. The club's colours and identity were set to confirm the club's name and colours as it was announced as their inaugural name a

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