Canberra soccer players and referees will save almost $700,000 in fees after Capital Football decided to cut its portion of registration costs in half.
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The Capital Football board has reduced the federation's component of registrations fees by 50 per cent to account for a shortened season of 11 weeks.
Players and referees who registered and paid their fees before the season's temporary suspension will be refunded a portion of the cost.
The top National Premier League grades will receive a discount of $85.46, while State League and Masters players will save $83.07.
Junior players will be discounted between $17.32 and $33.36 depending on their age. Altogether, the local football community will have a financial relief of $685,000.
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Capital Football boss Phil Brown said the governing body wants to make sure the sport remains affordable for all participants as the community copes with the financial impact of COVID-19.
"It's about appreciating it's a tough time for everyone; for clubs, players, referees and the community in general," Brown said.
"We had the ability to review the fees we set to align with the premise of 'half season equals half fee.'
"We've done a bit of work to adjust our operations to be able to accommodate those financial challenges. We think it's fair we share the path forward with the community.
"All decisions are hard at the moment but reducing our portion of the fee was the right one."
Player registrations are comprised of four separate fees, two of which are set by Capital Football: the Capital Football registration fee and Facilities Infrastructure Levy.
The other two are set by individual clubs and Football Federation Australia, who charges the National Registration Fee at $33 per adult and $14 per junior player.
Brown hopes the discount of Capital Football's portion of registration fees will aid clubs who are not in the financial position to reduce their own.
Club fees typically cover training and match ground hire, referee fees, equipment and apparel.
The ACT government has waived ground-hiring fees until the end of September to help sporting organisations and clubs cope with reduced sponsorships and revenue opportunities.
"There will be some costs clubs have already undertaken while preparing for the season, like purchasing apparel and equipment," Brown said.
"Hopefully these other measures will help them remain in a strong financial position and continue to offer participation opportunities for players, not just this year but for many years to come.
"We have to think about the longer term and how we bounce back to where we were before."
Capital Football outlined its plan for a return to action last week, with Canberra's NPL seasons and other competitions to start from July 18.
The MiniRoos program for the under five to under nine age groups will commence from this weekend, with Tuggeranong United starting their in-house competition on Saturday.
"Some clubs are looking forward to taking advantage of the opportunity to play this weekend, while others will get back on the park later this month for their MiniRoos," Brown said
"It's a mixed approach depending on the club and stakeholder groups."