At the 2022 Annual General Meeting, it was resolved that Youcef Kabbara be awarded Life Membership of Football Canterbury.
Nominated by Ian Holmes and supported by Armando Gardiman, the motion was carried with Kabbara honoured to accept.
Involved in football from a young age, Kabbara has been instrumental for many organisations including Canterbury Referee’s Association, Football Canterbury, Punchbowl United FC, and Australian National Sports Club.
He first started in football with Australian National Sports as player in the U8s. It wasn’t long until Kabbara took up refereeing though, leading him quickly to be heavily involved in the administration of the CRA where he would spend over 20 years on their committee.
While his strong links to refereeing are obvious, Kabbara was not lost to clubland as he was elected president at Australian National Sports Club in 2014. He saw an incredible growth of 733% when the club’s player base went from just 60 players to over 500 in his three years in charge. This was followed by a stint as vice-president at Punchbowl United FC.
Kabbara recently concluded his tenure as president of the CRA and has been on the board of Football Canterbury since 2015 where he is a valuable link between referees and the governing body.
He is a life member of the CRA (2009), is a recipient of the Cec Barlow Award (2015), and received the Chairman’s Award from Western Sydney Wanderers (2016) for his work in diverse communities.
Kabbara said the life membership nomination was a complete surprise
“I'm stoked to get life membership of Football Canterbury: I wasn't expecting to be nominated for life membership at all, not least at the age of 41. I'm very grateful and appreciative of Ian Holmes and Armando Gardiman who supported this nomination, I can't thank them enough,” said Kabbara.
“I'm just an average bloke who loves our sport, just contributing in whatever way I can. I have it instilled in me just to help in any aspect, whether it's sport or just community level in general: Dad's the same, I think took a leaf or two out of his book.
“I want to thank everyone that supported the nomination tonight: it's a huge honour and something I'll cherish for a very long time.”
