Trophy takes a trip to Town Hall

FOLLOWING their first A-League Men’s Championship win, Western United Football Club have brought their trophy to visit Ballarat.

The City hosted a civic reception at the Town Hall last week to celebrate the team’s success, welcoming WUFC director of football and former Socceroo Steve Horvat and CEO Chris Pehlivanis.

Mr Horvat said winning a championship in their first three years of operation has been a huge achievement.

“These are such rewarding days post-winning a grand final where you can come and thank the people who were there from the beginning, who supported us, believed in us, and gave us an opportunity to play in their region before we have our own stadium,” he said.

“We’re very thankful for the City of Ballarat and the region for embracing us.”

Mayor Cr Daniel Moloney was at the A-League Men’s grand final cheering United on, and said the atmosphere was “electric.”

“We wanted to bring some of that joy to Ballarat by having the civic reception today,” he said.

“We’re hoping to get the trophy back to do a tour of some local clubs later on in the year, because it’s important young people in the early stages of playing the game are exposed to the world’s best players.

“Seeing the trophy up close can really help to inspire the next generation.”

Currently WUFC’s players are on holidays, but will soon start pre-season training on Monday, 11 July.

“We’re deep in planning for next season and looking at how we can be better,” Mr Horvat said.

“We’re the titleholders, so everyone’s coming for us now. We’re the benchmark. We need to improve because everyone else will be looking to improve to catch us.

“It’s exciting, and the challenge for us now is to build on the success on the park, and off the park in our region as well.”