Penrith City Council waive field hire costs

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Penrith

For a third winter season in a row, Penrith City Council have waived all ground hire costs in a fantastic show of support for community football in the area.

Football NSW acknowledged the decision taken by Penrith City Council, who are led by Tricia Hitchen, to waive ground hire costs for sporting clubs and associations with seasonal bookings at Council managed sports grounds and facilities for the 2022 winter season.

“We know that after two years of disruptions from the pandemic, our City’s club representatives and players were eager to get outdoors again but unfortunately it has been a rough start to the season due to issues beyond our control,” Hitchen said via Football NSW.

“While we are getting to as many grass fields as we can as fast as we can, the poor weather conditions have saturated many grounds making it impossible for our equipment to be safely placed on fields.

“Whilst every effort is being made to restore the condition of our sportsgrounds to allow them to be playable and safe, the surface at some grounds is still too wet.

“We thank our community for being patient and we hope that by waiving these fees it’s one less stress for our clubs and associations to think about as they continue to reschedule fixtures and plan for their next playable games.”

Football NSW CEO Stuart Hodge highlighted his support for this great move delivered by Penrith City Council, whilst urging other councils to also do all they can to support football clubs.

“Well done to Penrith City Council for pushing its valued support behind our code in what have been challenging times for the sport,” Hodge said in a statement.

“Decisions such as this from Penrith City Council go a very long way to assuring our clubs and players are well supported and will continue to provide a positive and significant benefit to the community.”

The ongoing rainfall has disrupted the start of the 2022 winter season, with some clubs having their games postponed due to the poor weather conditions – while others are yet to take the field as a result of ground closures.

This move is set to benefit more than 60 local sporting clubs and associations from 13 different sporting codes who have registered for the winter 2022 season.

The latest decision to waive sportsground hire fees follows Council’s well-received move to allow free use of the City’s sportsgrounds in the 2020 and 2021 winter and summer seasons, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Project ACL: The initiative leading the way on injury research

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Image credit: FiledIMAGE / Shutterstock.com

Launched in 2024, the research project recently welcomed two US-based organisations: the National Women’s Soccer League Players Association (NWSLPA) and National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL).

 

About Project ACL

Led by FIFPRO, PFA England, Nike and Leeds Beckett University, Project ACL aims to research ACL injuries and understand more about multifactorial risk factors.

After piloting in England’s Women’s Super League (WSL), Project ACL will expand to the NWSL in the US, reflecting the global importance of the project’s research and outcome.

“We are incredibly excited to bring the NWSLPA and NWSL to Project ACL,” said Director of Women’s Football at FIFPRO, Dr. Alex Culvin, via official press release.

“Overall, we believe that player-centricity and collaboration with key stakeholders are central to establishing meaningful change in the soccer ecosystem and that players, competition organisers and stakeholdersaround the world will benefit from Project ACL’s outputs and outcomes.”

Interviews with over 30 players and team surveys across all 12 WSL clubs provided the project’s research team with valuable information about current prevention strategies and available resources.

Furthermore, the project tracks player workload and busy schedule periods during the season through the FIFPRO Player Workload Monitoring tool, therefore gaining insights into the link between scheduling and injury risks.

 

Looking to the data

Project ACL’s partnerships with the WSL – and now the NWSL – are immensely valuable for the future of player welfare in women’s football.

Although ACL injuries affect both male and female athletes, they are twice as likely to occur in women than men. However, according to the NWSL, as little as 8% of sports science research focuses on female athletes.

In Australia, several CommBank Matildas suffered ACL injuries in recent years: Sam Kerr was sidelined from January 2024 to September 2025, Ellie Carpenter for 8 months after suffering the injury while playing for Olympique Lyonnais, and Holly McNamara came back from three ACL’s aged 15, 18 and 20.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. The 2025/26 ALW season saw several ACL incidents, including four in just two weeks.

 

Research, prevent, protect

Injury prevention and research are vital to sport – whether professional or amateur.

But when the numbers are so shocking – and incidents are so common – governing bodies must remember that player welfare comes above all else. Research can inform prevention strategies. Prevention means players can enjoy the game they love.

The work of Project ACL, continuing until 2027, will hopefully protect countless players across women’s football from suffering long-term or recurring injuries.

South Canberra FC Breaks the Mold: Equity-Driven Model Earns ‘Club Changer’ Honour

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Image Credit: SCFC

South Canberra Football Club has been named Club Changer of the Month for April, in a recognition that reflects a broader shift across Australian football toward rewarding clubs that are actively dismantling the structural barriers limiting women’s access to the game.

The AFC Women’s Asian Cup has just delivered record crowds and unprecedented visibility for women’s football in Australia, and the Club Changer program is now asking what comes next. Its decision to name South Canberra Football Club as Club Changer of the Month for April signals a clear shift in how the program defines contribution: away from participation numbers alone, and toward the equity frameworks that determine whether women stay in the game once they arrive.

South Canberra FC built that framework from the ground up. Established in 2021, the club set out to give women and female-identifying players a safe, inclusive environment to play football at any level. It runs entirely on volunteers, operates as a not-for-profit, and is governed by an all-female committee with 13 of its 14 coaches identifying as female.

 

Building the infrastructure of inclusion

In 2026, the club secured grant funding and put it to work immediately. Two coaches are completing their C Licence qualification, and ten coaches, players and community members have undertaken the Foundations of Football course, which directly tackles the cost and accessibility barriers that exclude women out of coaching pathways.

The club also commissioned a female-specific strength and conditioning program with sports physiotherapists ahead of the 2026 season, targeting injury prevention and explicitly supporting players returning after childbirth.

SCFC’s leadership team draws from LGBTIQ+ individuals, First Nations people and veterans, strengthening the club’s connection to the communities it was built to represent.

The Club Changer program is backing clubs that do this work- clubs that treat equity as infrastructure rather than aspiration. At a moment when Australian football is under pressure to turn its biggest-ever surge of women’s interest into something lasting, SCFC’s model offers a clear answer to the question of how.

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