Western Sydney Wanderers FC

Western Sydney Wanderers FC is an Australian club founded in 2012 to represent the western region of Sydney in the A-League. In its second year of existence, it became the first Australian club to win the AFC Champions League.

History

Western Sydney Wanderers was created in April 2012 by Football Federation Australia as the tenth A-League club, after the federation failed to find an adequate private investor and decided to found the club directly, with strong community appeal in the western region of Sydney. Already in its debut season (2012-13), the club surprised by winning the A-League Premiership after a record streak of ten consecutive victories, also reaching the league final, in which it was defeated by Central Coast Mariners. The most notable achievement in the club's recent history came in 2014, when Wanderers qualified for the AFC Champions League as regular season champions and won the continental title by defeating Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia in the final — becoming the first Australian club to win the competition. Since 2019, the club plays its matches at CommBank Stadium in Parramatta, an arena built especially for the team, and maintains one of the most passionate fan bases in Australian football, united in the organized group Red and Black Bloc.