Macarthur FC

Formation

On 1 December 2017, Campbelltown City Council informed the Football Federation Australia (FFA) of their plans to be part of an expanded A-League by gaining entry into the competition in two years. Initially called the South West Sydney Football Bid, the bid was intended, by the 2019–2020 season, to have a men, women and youth team playing in a national competition with games hosted at Campbelltown Sports Stadium. It was also proposed to grow the football community in the region and ensure young players a pathway into the professional league for both boys and girls. The proposal by the council soon gained support from other committees in the ensuing months, namely Camden and Wollondilly Shire, and from the Macarthur Football Association, which represented dozens of community clubs and over 10,000 registered players in the region. Brett Emerton, who was raised in Macquarie Fields, Campbelltown, became the bid ambassador and Lang Walker, billionaire and executive chairman of Walker Corporation, was named business ambassador in April 2018. Walker pledged to financially invest in the club if the bid succeeded, including upgrades towards Campbelltown Sports Stadium and its facilities. The bid was dubbed "United for Macarthur" and launched that month to allow local businesses and people to support a community-based and owned team proposal.

By the deadline date for expression of interest on 25 May 2018, 15 were submitted with three Sydney-based proposals being introduced. The "United for Macarthur" campaign gained further support from A-League club Sydney FC and its chairman, Scott Barlow, who also issued criticism towards the Southern Expansion (Sutherland-St George Illawarra regions) proposal that he stated was "deeply flawed". On 29 June 2018, Macarthur was accepted into the reduced ten-bid shortlist to compete for two new places in the expanded A-League from 2019 to 2020. Macarthur merged with South West Sydney Football Club to increase their chances of being selected, following an agreement between South West Sydney director Gino Marra and Macarthur bid chairman Chris Redman, who would act as co-chairmen from there. The merger was announced on 21 August 2018 and was named "Macarthur South West Sydney". On 17 October 2018, The FFA again accepted the Macarthur South West Sydney bid into another reduced shortlist of six proposals with now only one other New South Wales bid remaining: Southern Expansion. Prior to the final decision, the Southern Expansion bid attempted a merger with Macarthur which included $20 million in the offer that was rejected by Gino Marra. The FFA announced on 13 December 2018 that Macarthur South West Sydney alongside Western Melbourne were confirmed to be the two new expansion clubs in the next two A-League seasons.

While the Melbourne side was set to start in the 2019–20 season, Macarthur South West Sydney was given 12 months to prepare before their inaugural season in the 2020–21 season. It wasn't until April 2019 that the club registered their first potential name, which was initially thought to be "Dharawal Bulls Football Club". Two other draft names under the moniker of Dharawal were found, such as Dharawal Football Club or Dharawal, linking to the original custodians of their land, the Dharawal. In spite of this, the club announced on 15 May 2019 in a function at Campbelltown Catholic Club, revealing the official name to be "Macarthur FC", with its official colours to be black, gold and white, a notion to the diverse cultures of the area, and their logo to signify a bull in its centre, a sign of the club's physical power. Macarthur also announced their home ground to be Campbelltown Sports Stadium and its training headquarters to be based at a new Centre of Excellence, which was under construction at the time. The facilities at the University of Western Sydney in Campbelltown were instead used temporarily as the training headquarters. On the same day as their unveiling, Ante Milicic was announced as the inaugural head coach of Macarthur and was set to start in the club's first season. A week prior, Milicic signed an extension with the Matildas for the Summer Olympic in Tokyo. He was also rumoured to have rejected the contract by Macarthur due to this.

Milicic era (2020–2022)

Ante Milicic officially joined Macarthur as the inaugural head coach on 22 January 2020; Ivan Jolić was the inaugural assistant coach under Milicic and was hired in October 2019 prior. Macarthur also secured the signing of their first player with Central Coast Mariners' winger Tommy Oar. The club announced his signing on 4 February 2020, alongside the appointment of former Socceroos striker Mile Sterjovski as second assistant coach. Macarthur went through significant changes in the next month. Lang Walker sold his 50% ownership stake in the club to a consortium of two local Sydney businessmen. Michael Gerace, who owns Sydney Trucks and Machinery, and Roy Mammone, a Sydney property developer, bought the 50% stake for an undisclosed fee of over $7 million. The departure of Lang followed with chairman Rabieh Krayem resigning from his position and football director Ken Stead, who had been leading Macarthur's football department, was made redundant from the club. Gino Marra soon took over as chairman of Macarthur. On 2 June 2020, Macarthur was taken to court after being sued by former employees at the club, who are accusing them of having suffered mental health damage during their employment. Due to the change in ownership in February, both Ken Stead and Neil Favager, who was a chief executive at the club, took legal action in accusing the club of inconsideration of their mental health and positions at the club, with Favager stating that it caused "significant health and safety issues" for him and heightened stress and anxiety for his spouse, which was aggravated by a pre-existing medical issue. Macarthur later denied these allegations.