Poletti 
Western United celebrating Matt Grimaldi's goal against Sydney FC in Round 28 of the 2024/25 A-League Men season at Ironbark Fields. Photo: Marcus Robertson/Round Ball Australia
Western United has been hit with an 18-month player registration ban by the game’s governing body.
The ban, effective from April 30, 2025, will see Western United’s mens side unable to register new players for the next three transfer windows.
The next window they will be allowed to register players will be the mid-season window of the 2026/27 season.
On its website, FIFA describes the potential reasons clubs can be banned, which includes financial disputes or regulatory breaches.
No reason has been given by FIFA for the ban, but it continues a period of bad news which has rocked the A-Leagues club based in Tarneit.
Western United have appeared on FIFA's official registration ban list. pic.twitter.com/WdJEnc2Ul3
— Round Ball Australia (@RoundBallAus) May 1, 2025
In March, the Australian Financial Review published an article detailing that wind-up applications were filed to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission for both the entity that runs the professional soccer team, WMG Football Club, and the related party that is planning the property development, WMG Holdings Co.
That article also noted that both entities had been issued with notices of default by creditors in the past two months and that WMG Holdings had a $50,000 bill outstanding to civil engineering company Lanco Group since September 2022 and Lanco filed a notice of default in March, while commercial cleaning company Gravitas Commercial has been owed $5098 by WMG Football since September and filed a notice of default in February.
A second article in the Australian Financial Review, published in late April, painted a rather bleak picture of further financial issues at the club.
The article stated that club founder, director, and shareholder Steve Horvat was to face a creditors meeting on Monday afternoon for nearly $11 million in unpaid debts, amongst other things related to several companies.
The Western United bid during the expansion process was centered around an 15000 seat stadium in Tarneit and feature a bubbling hospitality and housing precinct on 62 hectares of land surrounding it, gifted to the club by Wyndham City Council when certain financial and fundraising targets were met.
With nine players out of contract at the end of the current season, which include the likes of Riku Danzaki and Noah Botic, and a further 13 out of contract at the end of the 2025/26 season, the inability to replace those players could have massive ramifications on the club.
It is possible for the ban to be rescinded at any point.