Football Queensland’s 2022 annual report highlights progress towards One Football Strategic Plan

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Football Queensland Annual Report
Image credit: Football Queensland

With over 78,000 games played throughout the state-wide linked football pyramid in 2022, Football Queensland continued to revolutionise football in the state, being an inspirational year for the sport.

Implementing the Future of Football 2020+ competition changes took up a substantial amount of 2022 as Football Queensland strengthened the linked football pyramid that had been created in 2021 to link tournaments and enhance routes for clubs and players around the state.

Accordingly, and as a thrilling addition for local clubs, FQ introduced the FQPL Champions League in 2022. The FQPL Champions League was created to provide aspiring players brand-new chances as they fought against the best of the best from both their conference and the rest of the state. The first FQPL Champions League brought together the top teams from the Northern, Central, and South East Queensland conferences. It was a successful campaign and a great addition to the 2022 competitive schedule.

Participation

Women and girls saw a nine percent growth from 2021 and a total of of 28,912 players participating, making promising signs for the women’s football. The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 and beyond will be played in more inclusive environments thanks to the efforts of the Our Game Network Queensland, which was introduced during FQ’s Super September.

The youth saw an increase in numbers as well, with a total of 38,876 young boys and girls participating in MiniRoos programs across Queensland in 2022. This saw a 7.6% increase in female MiniRoos registrations compared to 2021.

FQ partnered with Brisbane Roar and local clubs to deliver MiniRoos Kick-Off After School programs for girls in 2022. The initiative focused on engaging girls enrolled in Prep to Year 3 in the MiniRoos program, developing their love for football and supporting their transition from school to club football. This program was the key factor in increasing youth and in particular girls participation in the game.

Futsal

A record number of teams from across Queensland participated in the 2022 FQ Futsal State Titles, held in September at the Nissan Arena in Brisbane. The State Titles provided an opportunity for teams from across Queensland to come together to compete to become champions within their age group, and the overall champion club.

Sunshine Coast Wave were crowned the inaugural FQ Futsal Club champions in 2022, with points awarded across FQ’s major futsal tournaments and leagues including the Futsal State Titles, the F-League and the SEQ Futsal Premier League.

Inclusive

Football Queensland offer a variety of ways to ensure everyone can be involved in the sport, a great way to promote different types of soccer for all ages and skill levels. This includes walking football, beach soccer, Q-League and the National Para Football Championships.

Referees

The Protect Our Game project was introduced in April by FQ. Its goal is to prevent bad behaviour both on and off the field while fostering a healthy atmosphere and supporting behaviour within Queensland football. A state-wide Protect Our Game campaign was put in place, and implemented a three-strike regulation to fight referee abuse.

In line with FQ’s commitment to growing the number of referees within our game, 25 referee staff were appointed across each of the nine regions in Referee Coach and Development, Support, Mentoring and Training roles to strengthen the development of match officials in Queensland.

Referees are a crucial part of the game, with Football Queensland knowing how important they are and investing in referee development is a step in the right direction to produce more referees in the future.

Coaches

Football Queensland launched the FQ Coaches Club pilot program across South East Queensland, designed to provide additional support and development opportunities for community coaches.

With 7,763 registered coaches within the state and a six percent increase in female coaches, the FQ Coaches Club pilot program was beneficial in helping more coaches receive their licences.

Promoting the game

2022 was another hugely successful year of growth in Football Queensland’s digital broadcast reach as more than 820,000 unique viewers tuned in to the FQTV Match Centre launched this year.

Total unique viewers increased by 113% in 2022, demonstrating the huge level of interest and appetite for Queensland football content.

Football Queensland continues to work on developing all aspects of the game and increasing their numbers throughout the year.

To see the report in full, you can click here.

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Northern NSW Football Launches Female Referee Mentor Program to Strengthen Officiating Pathway

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Image Credit: Football NNSW

Northern NSW Football has launched a Female Referee Mentor Program, backed by NSW Office of Sport funding, as the federation moves to address one of the game’s most persistent development gaps: retaining and advancing women in officiating.

The program pairs emerging referees with experienced female officials and coaches, and has already been introduced in match conditions during the 2026 Northern NSW Women’s State Cup under the oversight of NNSWF high-performance referee coach and FIFA referee Casey Reibelt.

Northern NSW says the initiative is designed to improve progression into representative appointments and leadership roles while building the support networks often cited as critical to referee retention.

Tournament rollout offers first test of model

NNSWF said 25 female referees officiated during the Women’s State Cup as part of the program’s initial phase.

The federation also released a number of key appointments linked to the rollout. Sophie Whale and Jamie Mills-Cove were appointed assistant referees for the Community Plate final. Lilli Skaines and Kaitlyn Digby were appointed to the under-13 and under-15 Premier Youth League Girls Cup finals, with Indi Charlesworth named assistant referee for both fixtures.

Reibelt said the initiative was intended to support younger and less-experienced referees in a practical environment and to reduce the sense of isolation that can come with early officiating experience. NNSWF general manager participation and women’s football Allana Neeve said the federation viewed refereeing as a critical part of women’s football and described the funded program as a pathway investment aimed at long-term sustainability.

From participation goal to workforce strategy

Over the past years, women’s player participation has boomed, but officiating pathways have not always expanded at the same pace, particularly in regional systems where access to experienced coaching and consistent appointments can be uneven.

That has consequences beyond referee numbers. Match officials are a core workforce input for competition quality, scheduling and player development. If attrition is high in early officiating years, federations are forced into constant replacement cycles rather than building depth.

In that context, mentor programs are increasingly treated as operational infrastructure, not supplementary participation projects. What matters is not only recruitment, but conversion: whether referees remain in the system long enough to progress into advanced appointments and eventually into coaching and leadership roles.

Northern NSW’s decision to embed mentoring in live competition rather than classroom-only delivery is a practical strength. Development feedback linked to real matches is generally more actionable for emerging referees than abstract technical sessions.

The next phase, however, will determine whether the program produces structural change. Initiatives launched around major events often generate strong short-term engagement but weaken across regular-season demands, especially where travel, study and work pressures are high.

Over time, the federation will need to show progress in second- and third-season retention, advancement into higher-grade appointments, and sustained mentor participation beyond flagship tournaments. Consistency across metropolitan and regional cohorts will also be central to any claim of pathway equity.

Public funding raises reporting expectations

Office of Sport support gives the program early stability, but it also raises the bar on transparency. Publicly supported pathway programs are typically expected to report outcomes, not just participation stories.

For this initiative, that means publishing practical indicators: cohort continuity, appointment progression and evidence that mentoring remains active throughout the season cycle. Without that reporting architecture, it is difficult to distinguish between a successful event and a durable reform.

For now, Northern NSW has delivered a credible first step: a defined mentor structure, named participants and immediate implementation inside a representative competition. The next challenge is to convert that start into a repeatable officiating pipeline.

Regional carnival puts Football West’s Country Pathway in Focus

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Image Credit: Football West. Photo by Football West/Oli Hustwick

Football West’s first State Regional Carnival has done what many federation pathway initiatives promise but do not always deliver: it brought regional players into a central high-performance environment and made them visible on equal terms, at least for a weekend.

Almost 160 players from six Football West Regional Academy zones: South West, Goldfields, Great Southern, Mid West/Gascoyne, Pilbara and Kimberley, were brought to the Sam Kerr Football Centre in Queens Park for the three-day event last week. For the governing body, the carnival is now being positioned as a formal part of its talent identification and development pathway.

Football West general manager of football David Lewis said the carnival had highlighted the standard of regional football and the role country programs continue to play in the state game’s future. He described the event as an “important part” of the development pathway and thanked players, staff, volunteers and families who travelled from around WA to attend.

From event success to system performance

Western Australia’s structural constraint is distance. Regional players face layered costs that metropolitan players usually do not: long-haul travel into Perth, additional accommodation, time away from school and work, and repeated trips if selected into subsequent camps. Those costs are not incidental. They influence who can stay in the system.

That is why the next stage of this initiative matters more than the launch optics. If identified players cannot progress because the second and third steps of the pathway carry prohibitive financial or logistical burdens, then early identification becomes a limited intervention.

In governance terms, the carnival has shifted Football West’s accountability point. The federation has now demonstrated it can convene regional talent at scale. The policy obligation is to show what proportion of those players can be retained and advanced across the following 12 to 24 months, and on what support settings.

Infrastructure is in Place; Distribution as the Issue

The use of the Sam Kerr Football Centre means WA now has a purpose-built football base capable of hosting large-format pathway activity in one location. That removes one of the traditional constraints often cited in state development systems. Once infrastructure is available, attention moves to distribution: who accesses the environment, how often, and under what conditions.

If Football West wants this carnival to function as a durable pathway mechanism rather than a showcase event, several design questions become central. What are the progression criteria after carnival selection? What travel and accommodation support is available for players invited back into metro-based programs? How is regional representation balanced across age groups and cohorts? What protections exist to prevent early dropout linked to cost rather than capability?

A broader shift in Australian pathway policy

The Football West carnival also reflects a wider trend in Australian football administration. Federations are increasingly moving from ad hoc regional scouting to more formal, event-based talent aggregation tied to defined development structures. The logic is straightforward: centralised assessment improves comparability, increases selector confidence, and reduces the chance that players are missed because of location alone.

Yet national and state systems alike continue to confront the same bottleneck. Identification has improved faster than inclusion in later stages. The policy challenge is less about finding players than funding continuity for players whose families absorb higher participation burdens.

Football West does not need to prove that regional football has quality; that case has already been made repeatedly by player outcomes and now by event scale. It needs to publish evidence that regional players can convert recognition into progression at rates that are not materially depressed by geography or household income.

That means performance should be measured against more than attendance and event satisfaction. Over time, the federation will likely be judged on transition rates from regional carnival cohorts into advanced programs, retention across seasons, gender balance in progression outcomes, and the level of practical support delivered to remote participants.

For now, the inaugural carnival can be read as a constructive step with genuine strategic value. It created a focal point for regional talent and signalled administrative intent. Whether it becomes consequential policy will depend on what Football West builds around it next: transparent progression settings, repeatable support, and a funding model that does not turn distance into exclusion.

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