With or without a men's A-League team, other soccer clubs are circling Canberra hunting "untapped" talent they can lure from the capital.
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During recent school holidays, Manchester City and Barcelona football clubs held junior camps for Canberra kids.
For the City Football Group that owns Manchester City in the English Premier League and Melbourne City in the A-League, as well as 10 other clubs internationally, Canberra was an area it wanted to explore for youth talent in its soccer school's first visit to Australia.
The capital might be on the verge of securing a men's A-League team to join the established women's team Canberra United, but City aren't letting that stop the soccer giants from scouting the region.
"Canberra is an untapped market for us," City youth coach Tom Penny said.
"You never ever know. We could find that little diamond in that player, female or male, and if we feel that we can develop them further, and they fit the requirements, then anything is possible.
"We've got Melbourne City in Australia, so if we do find really good players we can guide them to Melbourne, but of course if they are on another level then Manchester is always there too."
The City youth camps in Canberra have taught skills to kids by modelling their training program on the club's biggest names such as Phil Foden, Erling Haaland, and Matildas duo Mary Fowler and Alanna Kennedy.
Along the way they're also leaving Canberra with more kids supporting City, wearing its sky blue kit.
"For us it's about seeing what the market is like here, assessing it and then seeing what comes off the back of this - whether it's more holiday camps in the future or more full-time programs," Penny said.
"We currently have five full-time Manchester City coaches in schools in Australia delivering the program inside the school curriculum - one in Melbourne, two in Sydney, one in Brisbane and one in Adelaide.
"We really wanted to make sure we hit the Australian capital because soccer is the most-participated sport in the country."
In lieu of an A-League men's team of its own, Canberra boys have in recent years been plucked by other sides in the top domestic league, such as the Central Coast Mariners, but that could soon change if the capital gets the expansion green light.
Capital Football are the current owners of Canberra United and had anticipated a successful Canberra A-League Men bid to the Australian Professional Leagues - complete with a $20 million backer - to also take over running the women's team after securing a men's licence.
However, the announcement on a new men's team ownership group, expected in June, has faced lengthy delays, and still 10 months on there remains no certainty when the situation will progress.
"I'm still expecting an announcement [on a successful men's bid]," Capital Football chief executive Samantha Farrow said.
"I don't know when that will be made. I believe it's all still going through the processes that the A-League and the investment team need to go through.
"I would imagine it's going to be very hard to stand up an entire men's [team] for 2024-25, but I don't rule out the ability of this investment team to pull things together if they need to, when they get the go-ahead."