Chris Schimizzi was 13-years-old when he formed an A-League active supporter group. Twelve years later, the super-fan is still waiting for an A-League club in Canberra.
It’s incredible to think Schimizzi's A-League active support group, the aptly named "Capital Punishment”, has been going longer than the RBB.
It has spanned half of Schimizzi’s life, beginning in 2008, despite never actually having its own A-League team.
“We had a website and forum [with around 200 active forum members] and we were literally 13-years-old at the time.
“We had so much enthusiasm,” Schimizzi tells FTBL with a laugh.
From early teenage years, through high school and University to his working life in the nation’s capital, an A-League team for Canberra has been his enduring passion.
But Schimizzi and his Capital Punishment mates have not dwelled on scuppered A-League bids for Canberra over the previous decades.
Since 2008, they have supported the ACT’s other team Canberra United, traveling to away games in the W-League.
And they have backed the Socceroos, flying to Brazil in 2014 to lend their weight to the Green and Gold’s active support.
Yet in 2020, Schimizzi is still waiting for his elusive A-League dream to come true.
“The enthusiasm has sometimes waned,” he concedes, "especially when you get your hopes up.
“I’d say everyone in the Canberra community is now a little jaded by it [the A-League bid processes].
“But the support is still there.
It’s a plan that’s been brewing for a couple of years, with European investment and a facilities strategy at its core.
And if the new stadium is built in the center of Canberra, that would be the capstone project for a bid that wins for persistence alone.
“It’s tough to get your hopes. But I’m cautiously optimistic,” adds Schimizzi.
“There’s been a lot of heartache since 2008.
“I get the sense with the A-League struggling a little, investment in the game should be hard to turn down.
“Canberra has people who want to invest in the game. And has supporters invested in the game; and Canberra punches well above its weight in talent development.
"Look at Leo Mazis, who went from Belconnen to Celtic bypassing the A-League [he subsequently transferred to Italian club Triestina].
"And this is what James Johnson [FFA CEO is saying - moving away from dependence on TV money to transfer revenue in the A-League."
Schimizzi believes Canberra’s active support base could rival mid-size A-League clubs.
“There are potential active fans from all the various multicultural communities we have here… and they really mobilize when we have something to mobilize about,” he adds.
“Active support is the A-League’s biggest asset in terms of differentiating from other sports.
“And it’s something as a league we’ve struggled at times to get it right.
“This has been a by-product, I feel, of poor communication between active supporters and A-League clubs."
“I’d want to be talking to other active support groups, learning lessons from them if we get in.
“The question will be: can Canberra's supporter base be embedded in the club with a clear liaison point… when you’re actually promoting active support rather than suppress it?"
Schimizzi hopes that the fans will get to have a say in the new club's colors, if and when the decision to join the A-League gets greenlit.
“It’s always been a community-lead process around colors. You won’t get decisions fans and members aren’t supportive of.
“My personal opinion, I don’t mind green but also the ACT capital region colors of white, blue, and yellow could be really good. And something unique in the A-League.”
And in keeping with fan banter, Schimizzi has fired the first shots in what could be a tasty new A-League derby.
“There is a Canberra-Sydney feeling, it is like the smaller versus larger city tension," he says.
“So Sydney FC in particular would be our biggest derby.
“Most Canberrans when they visit Sydney say, ‘couldn’t live there’.
“Canberrans hate Sydney!"
"The Canberra community is just crying out for this A-League team," he adds.
"The momentum has built up for so long."
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