Football Australia 2022 Annual Review details bounce back from COVID

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FA Annual Review
Images via Football Australia

The way the Australian football community has responded to the post-COVID-normal life this year has been extraordinary and the 2022 participation figures are to be credited to the efforts of Member Federations, A-League Clubs, Associations, Zones, Community Clubs and the large number of volunteers.

The last three years has been a period of significant changes in football and also in the wider society of Australia and around the world, with 2022 being another year of taking the necessary steps to improving the game in the country by taking transformative measures towards the continued evolution and growth of the game.

In December of last year, Football Australia approved the successful completion of a transaction that saw 33.33% of the economic and voting interests within Australian Professional Leagues (APL) be provided to global private equity firm, Silver Lake.

Silver Lake is a leading global technology investment firm, with combined assets of more than $90 billion under management and committed capital along with a team of professionals based in North America, Europe and Asia.

The investment will propel technology enhancements and innovation targeted at improving the fan experience and driving the development of Australia’s premier professional men’s and women’s football competitions, the A-Leagues, along with providing Football Australia to deliver an exciting agenda for improvement of Australian football, as part of the aspiring 15-year vision.

Financial report:

The period for the year ending on 30 June 2022 (FY2022) saw Football Australia operations gradually saw resuming to the levels of the pre-COVID arrangement, the positive news that the restrictions of international travel and the ability to host the Socceroos match in round 3 of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Asian Qualifiers, and also the Matildas being able to host their matches in preparation for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand 2023 – all were well received.

With the unbundling of the professional leagues officially occurring in July 2021, FY2022 was the first year of Football Australia’s operations with the A-Leagues entirely excluded.

The following results were achieved for Football Australia:

  • Operating deficit before grants and distributions for the
    year ended 30 June 2022 of $2.4 million
  • Grants and distributions for the year ended 30 June 2022
    totalling $1.3 million.
  • Net deficit before discontinued operations and
    extraordinary items for the year ended 30 June 2022 is
    $3.7 million.
  • Net surplus after discontinued operations and
    extraordinary items for the year ended 30 June 2022 is
    $3.6 million.
  • Net Members’ Equity at 30 June 2022 is $21.0 million.

Activity report:

A noteworthy grant revenue is linked to Football Australia’s blueprint of its Legacy ’23 plan to invest in the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023 – it has allowed the funding of $12 million over two years from the Australian Government.

This has provided the means of opportunity for an increased expenditure into the seniors of Australian Football and the Youth Women’s National Teams, as well as the original vigour of Football Australia’s national Club Development Program (Game Plan).

In relation to the technical development, a web application form was created to implement to assist coaches and technical directors to manage live scouting together with reports on the players potential and performances after the matches, which will support Member Federations technical staff to build resources to allow education for coaches in the future.

The five pillars of Legacy ’23 are participation, facilities, leadership and development, tourism and international engagement as well as high performance.

Participation:

As at 2021:

  • 356,607 female participants
  • 26.67% female participants

Facilities:

As at October 2022, the National Facilities Audit has identified that nationally, 40% of existing football facilities are classified as female friendly.

Leadership & development:

Currently, females represent:

  • 20% of active coaches
  • 13% of active referees
  • 50% of Football Australia Board members

Tourism and international engagement:

In August 2022, the federal government committed funding to the Pacific Women’s Player Pathway Program. This program is aimed at giving elite women footballers from Pacific regions the opportunity to participate in and benefit from Australian high-performance infrastructure, expertise, and competition.

High performance:

In 2022, Football Australia has provided our women’s National Teams as follows:

Generally speaking, football’s engagement from a political perspective and an electorate level through to the national office level secured $141.3 million in funding towards infrastructure projects into the sport, the highest of any sport, of which it included $47.4 million from the ALP.

MiniRoos is the foundational program of grassroots football in Australia, encompassing both the MiniRoos Club Football and MiniRoos Kick-Off programs for all participants in football aged 11 and under.

The MiniRoos Kick-Off saw participant numbers hit over 13,000, the highest number of participants in the program since 2019 (prior to COVID-19 disruption).

National teams:

The national stage for Australia’s Women’s team, CommBank Matildas, have turned their attention to building a squad full of depth ahead of the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023, while falling short in the continental championships earlier in the year with a quarter-final exit.

The following months that followed saw a list of highlights, counting the long-awaited homecoming in front of over 15,000 fans at CommBank Stadium in a well-deserved 3-1 win against Brazil, the excitement of new talent and the large turnout of crowds for home international matches.

With five players reaching a century of international appearances for the Matildas, four players were welcomed to the national team giving the platform to recognise their potential and gift for years to come.

Meanwhile for the Subway Socceroos, after a strong and persistent qualification of matches played away from home due to travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, they had not hosted a game on home soil since October 2019 playing against Saudi Arabia in a tough and tight affair that finished goalless.

Playing two rounds of qualification against the UAE and Peru, the Men’s national team persevered in the end by qualifying for a fifth successful World Cup that will be remembered as one of the great Australian sporting moments in the country’s history.

Competitions:

Formerly known as the FFA Cup, the Australia Cup, broke records that saw A-League Men side Macarthur FC defeating NSW National Premier Leagues Sydney United 58 2-0 at CommBank Stadium almost breaking the record Cup attendance playing in front of 16,461 passionate fans.

The highlights of the Australia Cup 2022 were known for various reasons such as a record of 742 club entries across the country, achieving record crowds and breaking broadcast audiences, along with a highly successful tournament capturing the heart and minds of the Australian football community throughout 2022.

The Magic of the Cup displayed fairy tale moments such as Sydney United 58 triumphing over A-League sides Western United and Brisbane Roar, with Oakleigh Cannons also claiming a hard-fought win against Sydney FC.

However, when Oakleigh Cannon’s 13-year-old reserve goalkeeper Ymer Abili was subbed on late for his side against Macarthur FC, attracting worldwide attention was arguably the highlight of the tournament and undoubtedly for years to come.

The Annual Review can be viewed in full here.

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Mizuno’s Australian gamble: can a 120-year-old brand break through?

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Image Credit: Mizuno

When Mizuno unveiled a mural of Socceroos captain Harry Souttar on a Richmond wall during the 2026 World Cup, the company’s name did not appear on the artwork. The artist, Rory Ledge, painted Souttar as the “Minister of Defence” behind a brick wall. Channel 7 and Channel 9 turned up. The Herald Sun ran it in their Saturday edition. Mizuno’s brand director called it “mainstream awareness” without paid media.

The mural sat within a broader push by the Osaka-based company to expand in Oceania. For the fiscal year ending March 2026, Mizuno reported sales of ¥259 billion, up 7.8 per cent year-on-year, with net income of ¥18.4 billion representing 20.5 per cent growth . Operating profit rose to ¥22.6 billion. The Asia and Oceania segment is central to the company’s medium-term plan, which targets net sales of ¥290 billion by fiscal 2027.

The growth imperative

Australian football has not historically been kind to specialist boot brands. Nike, Adidas and Puma dominate retail shelves. A-Leagues collective bargaining agreements and club deals have locked in incumbents. For a brand without the marketing budgets of its competitors, the path to relevance runs through the players.

Mizuno has grown its Australian ambassador base from one athlete to around 20 across the A-Leagues in recent seasons. Melbourne City’s Tolgay Arslan, who played in the Bundesliga and Serie A before arriving in Australia, told Front Page Football: “If I discovered these boots ten years ago, I would wear these boots overseas in my career.” Western United midfielder Angus Thurgate called them “the comfiest boots I’ve ever worn”.

The mural moment

Richmond was chosen for the mural because of its location. The suburb sits at the centre of Melbourne’s sporting precinct, five minutes’ walk from the MCG and AAMI Park. It is already home to murals of AFL players. Rowena Corner Store owner Con, who agreed to host the artwork, had previously welcomed murals of Dusty Martin and an AFLW player.

“We didn’t have access to Harry because he was in the US competing,” brand director Rishi said. “We couldn’t do a photoshoot. So we had to be clever. The best ideas come from real time, aligned with what the public discourse looks like. Once we saw his Wikipedia page updated to refer to him as the Minister of Defence, we knew we could play into this.”

Ledge incorporated an existing window into the design to create a net behind Souttar’s figure. The mural appeared the morning of the Paraguay match, when Australia’s clean sheet sent them into the knockout phase.

The World Cup provided a massive backdrop. The Socceroos’ run captivated the nation: 4.84 million Australians tuned in to the Paraguay match, making it the most-watched World Cup match in SBS history at the time, with an average audience of 3.086 million . The final reached 5.26 million viewers, and cumulative tournament reach hit 18.04 million— 64 per cent of Australia’s population. SBS director of sport Ken Shipp said: “We’ve never seen engagement at this level.” Mizuno spent comparatively little and had Channel 7 and Channel 9 on site.

The commercial question

For a brand with limited marketing firepower, organic PR coverage is the prize. The question for the company’s Oceania division, still in growth mode, is whether a mural and a handful of player endorsements can convert into sustained commercial traction. Retail partnerships with Ultra Football, which has created a dedicated Mizuno space at its Melbourne store, suggest the company is thinking beyond campaigns.

Mizuno’s European expansion has taken a different path. The company signed a five-year deal to become AS Monaco’s technical equipment partner from the 2025-26 season, its first entry into Ligue 1. It already has a presence in Germany’s Bundesliga and Italy’s Serie A. In Australia, institutional partnerships are harder to secure. The approach has been slower: build through athletes, then through community, then through culture.

The Queensland government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Mizuno in March 2026 to explore the Japan-Australia Sports & Health Innovation Exchange (JASHIE), a two-year partnership focused on sport and health innovation . The agreement supports Queensland’s preparations for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The mural campaign reflected a broader trend in sporting brand marketing, where IP restrictions and athlete availability increasingly demand creative solutions. “I love what Levi’s did because they were able to lean into their brand codes and tell what I believe to be the most memorable advertising story from the World Cup,” Rishi said. “This is a different page out of fundamentally the same playbook.”

Mizuno’s boots are not cheap. The Made-in-Japan models retail well above competitors’ offerings. The brand’s pitch rests on quality and heritage, not price or volume. That is a harder sell in a country where discounting dominates and cost-of-living pressures are squeezing households.

The Souttar mural will eventually fade or be painted over. Mizuno is betting that by the time it does, enough Australian football fans will have noticed the three stripes’ quieter rival.

Governance, guidelines and game integrity: Did the 2026 FIFA World Cup uphold all three?

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Image Credit: AHCPF/Shutterstock.com

The FIFA World Cup 2026 is now over. Aside from the action and drama on the pitch, it is how FIFA performed off it which will dictate its lasting legacy.

 

Money talks

Projections for this year’s tournament placed total revenue at an eye-watering figure of AUD 16 billion (USD 11 billion); in the end, the number reached AUD 21 billion (USD 15 billion).

The newly-introduced hydration breaks – much bemoaned by fans accustomed to a more traditional 45 minute half – generated further income. Fox Sports was expected to earn more than AUD 356 million (USD 250 million) from these breaks alone, taking global revenue upwards of AUD 1.4 billion (USD 1 billion).

Four minutes and 20 seconds per match, worth more than 1 billion dollars. For FIFA, therefore, time truly is money.

As the most profitable World Cup in history, it also raises further questions (and potential ideas) for how to continue the success. FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, is already considering ways to “unleash the commercial potential and opportunity that FIFA has” going forward.

“I think I can say that this FIFA World Cup here in particular has opened a lot of doors, a lot of opportunities, a lot of possibilities,” Infantino said.

“This will have an impact on what we can do all over the world, but the revenues and the financial economic success come only if the sporting side is right.”

Expanded participation – marking the first time a World Cup features 48 teams compared to the previous 32 – was a major factor in increasing revenue. More teams, more games, more sponsorship and advertising opportunities.

“There are discussions about whether we should increase more (from 48) to 64 (teams), but this will be debated and this will be discussed,” Infantino affirmed.

More revenue for FIFA should also mean its 211 Member Associations also benefit from further investment, although details regarding this remain unknown.

Record-breaking attendance

Going into the tournament, the issue surrounding ticket prices was widespread. Many fans accused the governing body of pricing fans out of the game they love – and the numbers justified it.

While tickets opened at AUD 85 (USD 60), the dynamic pricing led to resales worth tens of thousands of dollars. For the final between Spain and Argentina, fans seeking last-minute tickets needed closer to AUD 3 million (USD 2 million).

But despite the criticism aimed at the dynamic pricing system, FIFA’s resolve paid off. Attendances smashed previous records, with total attendance double the figure seen in Qatar 2022.

FIFA reported that 6,810,966 fans packed into stadiums across the 104 matches, reaching an average crowd of 65,490. With higher attendances also comes more revenue generated from hospitality within the stadium itself.

Clearly, the price of a ticket to the world’s biggest sporting tournament does not affect demand. If FIFA sets the price, people will pay.

Or rather, people who can afford these prices will.

 

Red card, rescinded

As USA and Bosnia & Herzegovina went toe-to-toe in their round-of-32 clash, few could have known the drama would continue far beyond the referee’s whistle after 90 minutes.

A red card for star-striker, Folarin Balogun, in the 64th minute prompted concerns among US fans not only for the remaining half-an-hour of play, but for the following round of the tournament: as per FIFA rules, a player who receives a red card automatically misses the subsequent match.

This was the case for Balogun, until external pressure entered the field. And for football’s global governing body, external pressure arrived in the form of the President of the United States of America.

The legality over the rescinded red card is irrelevant to the wider issue. People will dispute the various articles outlined in the FIFA Disciplinary Code, but the incident itself sets a problematic precedent for football’s global governing body: if FIFA compromises its rules and political neutrality for one nation, where does it draw the line in future tournaments?

The tournament’s integrity had already come under pressure before a match had kicked-off, following the first ever FIFA Peace Prize awarded to President Trump in December 2025. The rescinded red card ultimately added fuel to the fire.

 

A game of two halves

The FIFA World Cup 2026 was as entertaining on the pitch as it was controversial off it.

It featured some incredible individual performances from stars like Mbappe and Kane, as well as Cabo Verde’s Vozinha – the 40 year-old overnight sensation who became a tournament icon.

308 goals were scored, surpassing with flying colours the previous record of 172 in 2022. A goal-per-game ratio fo 2.96 was the highest in recorded history since 1970.

Celebrations like Norway’s ‘Viking Row’ took the world by storm, and several brands including Levi’s, Gillette and Under Armour (the latter being the tournament-winning boot sponsorship) enjoyed huge public attention online for their unique marketing approaches.

These are the stories which represent the World Cup at its very best and the side of football fans want to see: action-packed matches, world-class talent, inspirational underdog stories and moments which generate discussions between fans from all over the world.

Beyond the pitch, however, memories of this year’s tournament will be comprised of financial success marred by a failure to govern and uphold the game’s integrity throughout.

It is a disappointing contradiction, that the cost of the most entertaining and economically successful World Cup in history, is the growing concern whether we can believe in those delivering the game to us at all.

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