WS Wanderers

Origins

The Western Sydney region was regarded as a potential location for one of the founding A-League clubs in 2005, originally intended to be the base for Sydney FC. When Sydney FC put forward their bid to participate in the inaugural A-League season, Football NSW (which backed the bid) desired for the club's home ground to be Parramatta Stadium in Western Sydney. Though after winning the A-League licence, Football Federation Australia (FFA) Chairman Frank Lowy forced a number of changes to the bid. The main of these were in moving the club to Sydney Football Stadium in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney and simultaneously reducing Football NSW's involvement from 100 to 25 percent. Frank Lowy's son, David Lowy, was also installed as a major investor. In response, Football NSW made the decision to pull out its involvement with Sydney FC amid claims the A-League club had become a "plaything" for Frank Lowy and his family. Football NSW stated its dislike of Lowy's autocratic style in establishing the club and the perceived lack of consultation on key club issues. An unsuccessful bid named "Sydney Blues", which had proposed to play at the Sydney Football Stadium was the only other Sydney-based bid. Sydney FC entered the A-League with a five-year city exclusivity deal as part of the league's "one-city, one-team" policy, preventing the establishment of another Sydney-based club until the deal expired.

By 2008, as the five-year deal wound to its conclusion, FFA announced its intention to expand the A-League, with a second Sydney-based club a favourable option. FFA received 10 expressions of interest, two of which from potential Western Sydney based teams. Despite the unsuccessful attempt to establish a Western Sydney-based team in the form of Sydney Rovers (due to financial and technical reasons), FFA were still strongly committed in pursuing a club in the region.

Foundations

The catalyst for the formation of the Western Sydney Wanderers was FFA revoking Gold Coast United's A-League licence on 29 February 2012. After a series of running battles between FFA and Clive Palmer – owner of Gold Coast United, over topics such as crowd control, stadium attendance capacities and breaches of A-League regulations. The loss of Gold Coast United brought the league down to nine clubs, one fewer than what FFA needed for their upcoming television rights negotiations.

On 4 April 2012, then FFA CEO Ben Buckley announced the creation of "New Sydney Club" based in the city's west to play in the A-League. The new club would be set up to compete in the 2012–13 season, though despite several attempts by FFA to find a backer to own and run the club no individual owner or consortium of owners decided to take on the new Sydney club. With the October deadline approaching, FFA decided to push through the club by taking on the ownership role themselves. This was helped by securing $4 million from the Australian Government in a grant for the creation and ongoing costs of the club.

As notable Australian soccer players Scott Chipperfield, Tim Cahill, Adpol and Lucas Neill expressed their support for the Western Sydney-based club, so did the local soccer community, with FFA holding supporter forums in Mount Pritchard, Parramatta, Rooty Hill, Penrith, Castle Hill, Campbelltown and Bankstown, where community members discussed such topics as the club's values and culture, playing style, home ground, and proposed names and colours. Following the community forums, FFA launched an online survey to decide on various options for the new club. It covered similar aspects of culture, location, team colour and playing style. A final survey was later launched with a specific focus on the club's colours and name. Options for team colours were black and red, black and white, and red, white and black. Options for the team name were Athletic, Wanderers, Wolves, Strikers and Rangers.

On 17 May 2012, former A-League head Lyall Gorman was appointed chairman of the as yet unnamed club. Tony Popovic was also announced as the inaugural head coach of the Western Sydney team. Popovic joined the club after requesting to be released from the final year of his contracted role as assistant coach of Crystal Palace, after ending talks with both A-League Sydney clubs and stating his desire to build a club from scratch as an opportunity he could not pass up. Popovic signed with the Western Sydney team to take the helm for four seasons. On 22 May 2012, Popovic's close friend Ante Milicic also joined the club as assistant coach.

On 25 June 2012, the official club name, logo and colours were formally announced. The name "Western Sydney Wanderers FC" was officially released, as was the club logo, the home playing strip, the home ground (Parramatta Stadium) and the first three signed players: Aaron Mooy, Tarek Elrich and Kwabena Appiah. The name 'Wanderers' had been an overwhelming favourite among fans and community groups, with it also paying homage to Wanderers F.C., the first registered soccer club in Australia, who played in the area in 1880.