Football Australia to implement FIFA’s Talent Development Scheme

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With the Subway Socceroos competing at the men’s World Cup in under a month and the CommBank Matildas poised to co-host a Women’s World Cup in mid-2023, Football Australia and FIFA have teamed up to uncover the next generation of local youth talent.

A visit from FIFA’s High Performance Department to Australia last week reaffirmed Football Australia’s emphasis on unearthing and producing future Matildas and Socceroos players.

FIFA High Performance Specialist April Hendrichs and FIFA High Performance Specialist Richard Allen spent a week in Sydney with members of Football Australia’s Technical Department to discuss FIFA’s Talent Development Scheme (TDS), their assessment of Football Australia’s Ecosystem and Performance Gap Report as produced by FIFA’s High Performance Department, and evaluate Football Australia’s own TDS strategy prior to its implementation next year.

The TDS aims to create a sustainable legacy for long-term talent development by maximising each Member Association’s opportunities and address the unique barriers and challenges to talent identification by respective Member Associations.

Speaking on Football Australia proposed TDS Strategy, Football Australia Chief Football Officer Ernie Merrick said via press release:

“Through our Talent Development Scheme we want to ensure we are giving every talent a chance to be identified and reach their potential irrespective of their circumstance, which will ultimately develop more CommBank Matildas and Subway Socceroos in the next five to ten years,” Merrick stated.

“To achieve this, Football Australia aims to solve challenges as identified in the FIFA Ecosystem and Performance Gap Report by creating monitoring lists and depth charts of more players aged 15 – 20 years in both men’s and women’s football, increase the frequency of elite matches and invitational camps across all parts of the country, and play more representative matches against international opposition.

“By using purpose-built technology and engaging a wider scouting pool to evaluate Australian talent both in Australia and abroad, we believe we can identify more talent in each age group than we ever have and support their development. This in turn will allow national team coaches to improve squad selection and create more competition for spots in our youth national teams, which will feed into the senior national teams.”

Geography is Australia’s number one challenge when it comes to talent identification, where Football Australia has developed a Talent ID App which will enable technical staff, coaches, and scouts to provide real time feedback on talent covering a range of key attributes.

As part of the market visit Football Australia – with the strong support of Football NSW – hosted two elite matches at Valentine Sports Park featuring a girls’ match and a boys’ match, where over 50 technical directors and qualified coaches from across Greater Sydney attended to provide their real time feedback using Football Australia’s Talent ID App, enabling FIFA staff to see the cornerstone of Football Australia’s proposed TDS strategy in action.

April Heinrichs – the globally revered FIFA Women’s World Cup winner as a player, coach, and technical director – said the week in Sydney was hugely beneficial and she was impressed with the vision Football Australia has to tackle the unique challenges it faces in the area of talent identification.

“I’ve been thoroughly impressed with Football Australia’s approach to the development of its own Talent Development Scheme,” Heinrichs added via press release.

“Over a five-day period, I’ve been able to meet with a range of people within Football Australia and the wider Australian football community to better understand the association’s challenges around the development of talent and witnessed first-hand the exciting opportunities that lie ahead for Australian football.

“FIFA will continue to work closely with Football Australia to support their endeavours in this space, and we look forward to seeing the roll-out of the association’s Talent Development Scheme and the positive outcomes which should stem from this over the next decade and beyond.”

Football Australia is aiming to launch its Technical Development Scheme in early 2023.

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Project ACL: The initiative leading the way on injury research

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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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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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