More than football. A community in motion.
Samsara Group Canberra exists to unite, uplift, and celebrate the Nepalese and Bhutanese communities of the ACT through sport, culture, and shared purpose.
Samsara Group Canberra
Founded by members of the Nepalese and Bhutanese diaspora in the ACT, Samsara Group Canberra is a volunteer-run community organisation with a single conviction: that belonging is built through shared experience.
The name Samsara reflects the cycle of life and renewal central to our cultures. We carry that spirit into everything we do, from organising competitive football to hosting cultural celebrations that connect generations.
A community that plays, celebrates, and grows together
We envision an ACT where every Nepalese and Bhutanese family has a place to belong, a team to support, and a league to be proud of.
Sport as a Bridge
Football breaks barriers. We use it to connect newcomers with established community members, and our community with wider Canberra.
Culture First
Our roots in Nepal and Bhutan shape everything we do. We celebrate language, tradition, and identity, not despite our new home, but within it.
Youth Development
We invest in the next generation. Every season produces young players, referees, and leaders who gain confidence through sport.
Inclusive by Design
Mixed-heritage clubs are welcome. We build a competition that reflects the full diversity of our community, not just one group within it.
Samsara Premier League
The SPL is Canberra's premier community football competition for the Nepalese and Bhutanese diaspora. Now entering Season 3, it has grown from a grassroots idea into a structured, professionally run league with up to 12 clubs competing across a full round-robin season and finals.
Each club registers a squad, pays a modest levy, and competes under SPL rules aligned with Football Australia standards. Matches are officiated by registered referees, results tracked publicly, and champions recognised with trophies and community celebration.
Nepalese New Year Cup
Held annually to mark Nepali New Year (Baisakh), the NNYC is our flagship cultural football event. It brings together SPL clubs, open community teams, and invited sides in a festive two-day knockout tournament that doubles as a community celebration.
The Cup is more than a trophy. It is a gathering point where food stalls, music, and family fill the sidelines. It is the moment the community comes together in full colour, and it reflects exactly why we started Samsara Group Canberra.
A home away from home is built, not found
When our founders arrived in Canberra, they brought with them a love of football and a longing for the kind of vibrant community life they had known in Nepal and Bhutan. What they found was a growing diaspora that lacked a shared sporting stage.
Samsara Group Canberra was the answer. Not a formal institution, but a gathering of people who believed that a well-run competition could do what years of waiting could not: give the community an identity, a schedule, and a reason to show up every weekend.
Three seasons later, we have refereed over a hundred matches, registered hundreds of players, and watched children grow up watching their parents play. We have seen friendships form between clubs that started as rivals.
That is what we are building. Not just a league table. A community record. A living proof that when you create space for people to play, they will show up and build something remarkable around it.
Be part of what we are building
Whether you represent a club ready to compete, a volunteer ready to help run the league, or simply a supporter who wants to follow the action, there is a place for you here.