Max Hatzoglou
Western United will be without a home ground until after the 2023 Women’s World Cup as the club waits for its new privately funded stadium Wyndham City Stadium to be built.
Despite this challenge the club is striving for success and believe they are in a promising position heading into the 2021-22 A-League men’s season.
“We have got some lofty goals this year,” United chief executive Chris Pehlivanis said.
“We want to make sure we play finals. We want to make sure we grow our membership base to 10,000. We want to make sure we increase our commercial revenue substantially by 30 per cent on last year.”
Pehlivanis and the club are urging the community to understand that it will take time to build something special as it confirmed the stadium is doubtful to be ready before the Women’s World Cup in July 2023.
“I just hope the football community really understands what we are doing,” he said.
“We are shifting the dial in this country. It is not easy. It is going to be a journey and it is going to be something that is challenging but when we get it, we will hopefully be the pinnacle.
“For all people out there that are questioning and all that. That’s fine but when it does happen I hope you are the first people to say ‘wow’ and jump on board at Western United.
“The reality is no one has ever embarked on a project like this. It is easy to fire shots but when you know the detail and volume of work that is happening and what we are building, your opinion will change quickly.”
In the current circumstances with no home ground, the club has used the opportunity to build its brand playing games in regional Victoria and Tasmania.
Pehlivanis said it was something they had embraced.
“It takes a while to build stadiums, to build communities, we are building a brand new suburb [Tarneit] out there so these things take time but ultimately I think it’s exciting the journey we are on because we are taking football to Geelong, to Ballarat, to Tassie, to AAMI
Park, to the people of the west.
“That’s exciting. Ultimately, it is challenging but it’s something that were ready for and we are using it as an opportunity to build our brand.”
In the off-season, United secured Socceroos legend and experienced A-League men’s manager John Aloisi as head coach.
Aloisi took Brisbane Roar to two top four finishers while coach.
The club will boost its line up led by Alessandro Diamanti with 300-game A-League centre back Nikolai Topor-Stanley, who comes over from the Newcastle Jets.
The club has also filled the hole left behind by the departure of A-League goal scoring machine Besart Berisha with Serbian international forward Aleksandar Prijović.
The 31-year-old striker, Prijović, most recently played in the Saudi Pro League and has won two league titles in Poland with Legia Warsaw and a Greek Super League title, a golden boot and two Greek Cups with PAOK.
“We are really excited by the players we have brought in,” Pehlivanis said.
“Our own striker, Aleksandar Prijović is someone we think will be one of the marquee strikers of the league and someone that will add a lot of depth to our squad.”
The club have also brought in some familiar A-League players in Dylan Wenzel-Halls from Brisbane Roar, Ben Garuccio from Melbourne City and Neil Kilkenny from Perth Glory.
United kicked off their 2021-22 campaign against Melbourne Victory on Saturday.
