Since 2014, Canberra, through Capital Football, has been granted one qualification place for the round of 32 of every FFA Cup annual national tournament.

During the 2009–10 A-League season, CCM played Perth Glory in September and Adelaide United in October at Bruce Stadium in front of crowds ranging from 5,100 and 5,500.

In 2016, CCM entered into an agreement with the ACT Government to play Wellington Phoenix and Adelaide United in Canberra during the 2016–17 season.

All three clubs shared limited success in the NSL but the Arrows did attract Australian national team legend Johnny Warren as manager of the club during this period as well as giving then future Socceroo and national team manager Frank Farina his first senior soccer debut.

The Cosmos attracted the Australian national team captain at the time, Paul Wade, when they joined the NSL as well as nurturing a number of future Socceroos including Jason Polak, Robbie Hooker, John Markovski, Nik Mrdja, Lindsay Wilson and Vince Grella.

The Cosmos were also led by Sport Australia Hall of Famer and former national team manager, Rale Rasic for two seasons.

Australian internationals, Lisa Casagrande and Caitlin Munoz both won league Golden Boots in 98–99 and 01-02 respectively in Eclipse jerseys.

[11] The A-League4Canberra bid officially launched 11 December 2008 at Jerrabomberra Primary School, headed by Ivan Slavich alongside Canberra United player Ellie Brush and Member for Eden-Monaro, Mike Kelly.

[13] Former Canberra-born Australian internationals, Ned Zelic and Carl Valeri signed on to become founding members and spokespeople of the organisation.

[14] In 2009 and 2011 Canberra's bid was overlooked by FFA in its initial rounds of league expansion in favour of now defunct North Queensland Fury, Gold Coast United and Sydney Rovers.

[16][17] On 10 May 2012, after its failed attempts and FFA's announcement that expansion beyond ten teams was on hold for the foreseeable future, the A-League4Canberra bid organisation's CEO, Heather Reid, announced the organisation would cease efforts to gain an A-league licence for the Canberra region, would wind-up operations and refund founding members monies.

[18] Capital Football operates and administers all local competitions in the ACT for senior men and women and junior girls and boys.

In 1973, the Cup final between Croatia Deakin and Juventus was abandoned by the match officials after twenty minutes with the score locked at nill-nill due to crowd trouble.

[30] In 2019, it was announced the Australian men's national team would return to Canberra for the first time in four years with another world cup qualifier.

In 2019, FFA and the ACT Government announced a deal to bring the Australia women's national team back to Canberra for the first time in six years.

The following points detail this connection history:[19][38] During the 2006–07 and 2007–08 A-League seasons, Sydney FC played two Pre-Season Cup matches at Bruce Stadium in Canberra.

In 2007, Belconnen United signed a mutual benefiting relationship agreement with A-League club Central Coast Mariners.

The two clubs agreed to play an annual pre-season friendly match in Canberra at McKellar Park named The Bank of Queensland Cup.

The agreement between the two clubs established a formal pathway for Belconnen youngsters to progress and gain the possibility of an A-League contract with Sydney FC.

Finally, Sydney FC agreed to tour Canberra in 2015 pre-season to host coaching clinics and play a friendly match against the Blue Devils.

[67] Belconnen lost the friendly match against Sydney 0–3 with second half goals to Andrew Hoole, Jacob Tratt and Matt Simon in front of 1,852 fans.

[57] On 2 January 2017, Belconnen United entered into a mutual benefiting agreement with NSW NPL club Wollongong Wolves to co-host a "festival of football" in the South Coast town of Nowra.

[68] From 28 to 29 January 2017, the two clubs played a number of women's and men's junior and senior exhibition matches, ran free all-ages coaching and refereeing clinics, training drills, player sessions and family activities at Nowra's Ison Park.

The program has previously competed in the NSW and Victorian Premier Leagues and has produced a host of Australian international players.

In 2016 the academy fielded their boys squad in the NPL Capital Football but its inclusion was controversial with ACT NPL clubs threatening to form their own breakaway league[73] or boycotting matches[74] at one stage before negotiations with Capital Football avoided that scenario[75] and a compromise was reached for 2017 onwards that would see the boys CUA merge with the FFA COE, with two players selected from CUA to be included in the FFA COE squad.

[76] CUA has fielded their girls program in the Women's National Premier League Capital Football since 2016 onwards.

Talent Support Program (TSP), Which is now the Talent Development Scheme (TDS) is the official academy run by Capital football for elite NPL Footballers aged 14-16, The Academy is the pathway for the national youth championships the TDS is run by Phil Booth and Coaches Marcial Munoz, Pete Carbone, Brad Oliviera, Ian Worthington and Grant Barlow, the academy training is held at the Hawker football centre.

[1] U14s: Jacob Hately, Andreas Kaskoutas, Adam Przydacz, Joshua Lopilato, Cooper Wykes, Jacob Pratezina, Cooper San Juan, Logan Volkert, Antun Celebija, Filip Jovcic, Cameron Walsh, Oliver Juric, Orion Henry, Cristian Inacio and Dylan Bates.

U15s: (Coached by Ian Worthington) Zac Harri, Lachlan Forno, Sebastian Paragalli, Cristiano Subasic, Antonio Carbone, Daniel Turcic, Tomislav Celebija, Lemar Katawazai, Isaac Waldren, Max Naunton, Toby Mcphearson, Marc Papandrea, Jonah Briggs, Cooper Minion, Anas Elsergany, Sebastian Peric, Ashton Stojceski, Anthony Grgic, Esmail Zahir, Mohammad Zahir, Brooklyn Montana, Ewan Bellairs and Nicholas Baird U16s (Coached by Marcial Munoz) Sebastian Czoban, Nikola Celebija, Flynn Mcdonald-wilson, Marcus Lau, Zac Colson, Rory Dalhlerup, Thomas Blazevski, Charlie Rae, Valentino Ison, Sebastian Munoz, Rico Beltrami, Luka Jukic, Dario Turcic, Michael Pratezina, Seth Bonnett, Xavi Bonnett, Freddie Kushnick, Anthony Rakic, Andy Rakic, Jye Wilkes, Thomas Milnes, Carter Connell, Dallas Santalucia, Cadel Zwangobani, Kris Raad, Kristijan Aleksic, Michael Lo Pilato and Josip Jukic.