# Tigers FC (Australia)

Tigers Football Club is an Australian semi-professional association football club previously based in Cooma, New South Wales. Now based in Canberra (ACT) The club is affiliated with Capital Football and currently competes in the National Premier Leagues 1 ACT and the Community State Leagues Capital Football in the ACT. Cooma's home venue is AIS Field 2 Oval.

## History

Cooma Football Club was formed in 1952 by the workforce of the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme which attracted people from all over the world to the Australian Alps. Cooma FC is one of the oldest continuous football clubs in Australia with a very proud tradition considering the small region in which it resides.
In 2014, Cooma won the league premiership for the first time in the club's sixty-three-year history. The Tigers defeated title rivals Belconnen United 3–0 at home to clinch the title.
In 2015, Cooma FC announced a partnership with club Brindabella Blues FC. The partnership saw Brindabella Blues administer and run the U12, U14, U16 and U18 NPL programs out of Brindabella's home at Calwell District Playing Fields while the U20 and senior NPL programs remain based in Cooma with Cooma FC. At the time the NPL games were split between Calwell playing fields and Nijong, with U12, U14 and U16 playing at Calwell and U18, U20 and first grade playing at Nijong Oval Cooma, Capital Football Board insisted that the two clubs must form a new entity, the two clubs agreed to form Tigers FC as their NPL club.
In 2016, the Tigers fell short of winning the league title by three points as Canberra Olympic claimed the premiership. In the finals series Cooma lost the major semi-final to Olympic 5–3 on penalties after the two sides drew 2–2 after 120 minutes. The Tigers had looked certain to advance to the grand final as they headed into the final minutes of the match 2–1 up but a late goal by Colombian striker Phillippe Bernabo-Madrid sent the match into extra time. Cooma advanced to the preliminary final against Canberra FC but a number of injuries in the lead up to the match saw a depleted Tigers lose the match 1–5 and end the club's season. Cooma also missed out on reaching the round of 32 of the FFA Cup in 2016 when they lost the Capital Football Federation Cup final to Olympic 1–3 at Deakin Stadium on 18 June 2016.
Tigers won the NPL ACT mens title twice in 2019 and 2021, as well as reaching the australia cup knockout stage against APIA.
In 2022 Cooma Tigers FC rebranded itself as Canberra Tigers, then Tigers FC, they relocated to canberra under a new logo, and jersey colour going from yellow to orange to better fit the name tigers.

## Current squad

    As of 6th January 2025
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 1 | GK | AUS | Gabe Taurasi |
| — | DF | AUS | Nikola Taneski |
| — | DF | AUS | Sam Whitehear |
| 7 | FW | AUS | Josh Millicević |
| — | DF | AUS | Marko Miluntovic |
| 11 | FW | AUS | Archie McGregor |
| — | DF | AUS | Nikolas Popovich |
| 13 | DF | AUS | Shandon Whitehead |
| — | DF | AUS | Nathen Megic |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| — | MF | AUS | Bailey Dickinson |
| — | MF | AUS | Angus Pitkin |
| 12 | GK | AUS | Jakob Cole |
| — | MF | CHI | Alessandro Pena |
| 9 | DF | ALB | Jack Bitani |
| — | MF | AUS | Hamish Wales |
| — | MF | JPN | Tomohiro Ogowa |
| — | MF | AUS | Nicholas Pulciani |
| — | MF | GRE | Nikos Kalfas |
| 10 | FW | ITA | Cristian Barresi |
| — | DF | AUS | Noah Steinacker |

## Staff
### Club management

    As of 4th of February 2022
Club Management :
| Position | Name |
| Club President | Gerard Rampal |
| Vice President | Ian Worthington |
| Director | Ali Efe |
| Treasurer | Nicolas Alcaazar |
| Youth Technical Director | Ian Worthington |
| Head Coach | Hatef Biegi |

## Club identity
### Club colours

Cooma FC has traditionally used yellow and black, including at a community level. But is now Orange and Black following their club rebrand in 2022 to just Tigers FC after relocating to Canberra. Tigers remains one of the top contenders in the ACT MENS NPL 1, having won 2 titles in 2019 and 2021, as well as reaching the australia cup knockout stages facing APIA in 2021, Tigers made the 2024 NPL1 Grand Final narrowly losing to canberra croatia.
Having recruited Capital Football Representative coaches Ali Efe, Hatef Biegi and Ian Worthington the squad has seen major improvements getting some of the best young players in Canberra to play for the Tigers as well as bringing home canberra players who went to play interstate at teams such as the central coast mariners.

### Club Grounds

Their home previous home ground in cooma was Nijong Oval, located in the middle of Cooma. Now having relocated to Canberra they play at the AIS, whilst juniors play at Ainslie Enclosed oval

## Honours

* Womens State League 2
    Premiers (1): 2014
* Womens State League 3
    Premiers (1): 2021
    Champions (1):2021 (finals cancelled due to COVID pandemic)
* Mens State League 1
    Premiers (1): 2018
* Mens State League 2
    Premiers (1): 2016
* NPL Mens ACT
    Premiers (2): 20192021
* Capital Football Federation Cup
    Runner-up (5): 2005, 2006, 2012, 2013, 2016 Winners 2019 Federation Cup