Western United FC

In August 2018, the Western Melbourne Group was part of the eight teams that the FFA had accepted in the official bidding phase, as part of the new expansion process.[3] Four months later, the bid's success was announced, along with the bid from Macarthur FC.[4] Western Melbourne will play its home games at Kardinia Park in Geelong for its first two seasons, while it builds its stadium and training centre in Tarneit, with completion expected in 2021.

On 11 January 2019, Western Melbourne Group announced John Anastasiadis as senior assistant coach for the club's debut season.[5] On 24 January 2019, the consortium announced that John Hutchinson would also join the club as an assistant coach.[6]

On 31 January 2019, Western Melbourne made its first player and marquee signing Panagiotis Kone ahead of its inaugural season.[7] On 12 February 2019, Socceroos defender Josh Risdon became Western Melbourne's first Australian signing.[8]

On 13 February 2019, it was announced that the club would be called Western United Football Club after a public vote was held through the Herald Sun newspaper.[9][10] The club's colours and identity were set to confirm the club's name and colours as it was announced as their inaugural name as "Western United Football Club" also wearing a green and black strip on their kits.[11] In mid-May, Western United announced partnership with sports brand Kappa.[12] Two months later, the club unveiled their inaugural jerseys for their first season in the A-League, featuring green and black stripes.[13]

On 2 June 2019 the Director of Football for Western United, Steve Horvat presented Geelong representative players with their kits for the 2019 Country Championships. Horvat additionally announced the club would set up a Geelong-based academy by 2021.

Western United Women will also join the A-League Women for the 2022–23 season,[14] which, with the return of Central Coast Mariners, will expand that league to 12 teams.

The club has proposed building a 15,000 seated stadium in Tarneit, Victoria. The stadium would be the first major venue in the country to be exclusively owned and operated by an A-League club.[28] The proposal, to be funded entirely privately, has received planning approval from the Victorian Government, and the club has stated it expects construction to commence in mid-2021 with a view to completion by mid-2023.[29]

On 6 December 2019, Western United announced that site investigations had been completed and that construction is expected to commence in mid-2020.[30] On 18 September 2020, Western United announced that a training facility would be built adjacent to the new stadium development.[31] The training facility is planned to have two grass and one artificial football pitch, along with seating for 5,000 spectators. The main grass pitch, with the 5,000 seat stand would be used as the training base by Western United, while the other two pitches would have shared community use. The press release also revealed that the club has completed all of the site investigations required to develop a concept masterplan for the new stadium and that planning submission has been submitted to the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) for approval. The release also states that construction on the new precinct will commence in early 2021, to be completed by early 2023. On 22 September 2021 Western Melbourne Group, the football club's parent company, announced that "in the week commencing 25 October 2021, early works on the site at Leakes Road, Tarneit will commence" which would create access roads to the construction site.[32] The announcement also advised that planning approval for the stadium had not yet been received and that timelines for completion had been refreshed in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Melbourne Victory (The Westgate Derby[38][39][40][41] / The Battle of the Bridge[42][43][44][45]) - Upon joining the A-League in the 2019–20 season as the 3rd club in Melbourne, Western United has developed a rivalry with Melbourne Victory. Despite the rivalry's short existence, it has garnered a reputation for producing talking points, controversy, tension, goals and drama.[46] In the team's first meeting, in November 2019 at Marvel Stadium, Western United won 3-2 despite going 2-0 down within the first 7 minutes. In February 2021 at Marvel Stadium, despite conceding the first goal of the match and despite being reduced to 10 men for the final half-hour of the match, Western United won 4–3, with Victor Sanchez scoring in the final minute of stoppage time. After keeping the Victory winless for the first 5 matches of the rivalry (4 wins, 1 draw), Melbourne Victory ended their losing run in emphatic fashion on 28 May 2021, beating Western United 6–1 at AAMI Park. Currently six former Victory players have played for Western United (four have played for the Victory senior team, two have represented the Victory's youth or NPL teams without making an appearance for the senior team).

As of 16 November 2021

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  ENG Jamie Young 4 DF   SUI Léo Lacroix 5 DF  AUS Dylan Pierias 6 DF  JPN Tomoki Imai 8 FW  AUS Lachlan Wales 9 FW  AUS Dylan Wenzel-Halls 10 MF  AUS Steven Lustica 11 FW  AUS Connor Pain 12 DF  AUS Dalibor Markovic 13 DF  AUS Ivan Vujica 16 MF  SVN Rene Krhin 17 DF  AUS Ben Garuccio 19 DF  AUS Josh Risdon (vice-captain) 21 MF  AUS Sebastian Pasquali

No. Pos. Nation Player 23 MF  ITA Alessandro Diamanti (captain) 25 MF  AUS Luke Duzel (scholarship) 26 MF  AUS Nicolas Milanovic (scholarship) 27 MF  AUS Jerry Skotadis 31 MF  AUS Adisu Bayew (scholarship) 33 DF  AUS Ben Collins (scholarship) 34 MF  AUS Christian Theoharous (scholarship) 36 DF  AUS Ajak Deu (scholarship) 37 GK  AUS Ryan Scott 38 FW  AUS Noah Botic 42 MF  AUS Rhys Bozinovski (scholarship) 44 DF  AUS Nikolai Topor-Stanley 88 MF  AUS Neil Kilkenny 99 FW  SRB Aleksandar Prijović

Players to have been featured in a first-team matchday squad for Western United.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 30 GK  AUS Ryan Mudaliar 39 FW  AUS Sabit James 40 DF  AUS James Doyle 41 MF  AUS Noah Holmes

No. Pos. Nation Player 51 MF  AUS Zac Kocankovski 52 MF  AUS Jake Najdovski 55 DF  AUS Daniel Di Francesco