Football West Belt Up partnership strives for road safety awareness

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Football West Belt Up

Football West has celebrated the renewal of its longstanding partnership with the Insurance Commission of Western Australia.

Together, the two organisations have committed to a new agreement which will see the Commision support Football West for the next three years, until the end of 2027.

As a part of the deal, the Commision’s Belt Up campaign will feature prominently across West Australian football leagues to help spread road safety awareness, and will become a name partner for the following key competitions:

  • Belt Up Amateur Night Series
  • Belt Up Men’s Amateur, Metro, and Masters leagues
  • Belt Up Men’s Amateur, Metro, and Masters cup finals
  • Belt Up Amateur, Metro and Masters Awards

Additionally, the yearly Regional Festival of Football will be rebranded to the Belt Up Regional Festival of Football.

The Insurance Commision of West Australia will also become a pivotal backer of a range of important initiatives across Football West, including the Belt Up NAIDOC Ball Design Competition and Belt Up Round.

Through their previous work with Football West over the last seven years, the Insurance Commision of West Australia has delivered over 16,000 footballs to clubs across West Australia with Belt Up advertising. Their new renewed partnership will see the Commision continue to provide over 2,000 balls a year.

Football West CEO Jamie Harnwell expressed the importance of the collaboration for the organisation and West Australian football.

“It is fantastic that the Insurance Commission is committed to extending its support for grassroots football in Western Australia through the Belt Up campaign, helping us share the important road safety message in metro and regional WA,” he said via press release.

“We have seen how our clubs have benefited from our agreement, with the Belt Up ball distribution providing them with thousands of footballs each year.

“It is also exciting to have the Belt Up campaign across the Regional Festival of Football, giving further exposure to the campaign.”

Insurance Commission General Manager Governance and Stakeholder Relations, Alison Wilson, outlined how the deal would help improve the delivery of the Belt Up campaign’s messaging.

“The Belt Up campaign is an important initiative to encourage the use of seatbelts every time you get into a car to reduce preventable injuries and fatalities resulting from crashes. Each year, around 100 people are killed or seriously injured in crashes as a result of not wearing a seatbelt.” she said in a press release.

“Our partnership with Football West helps share the important Belt Up message across the football community, and we’re pleased to continue our sponsorship of Football West with an additional focus on regional areas. We’d much rather see you on the pitch than end up as a statistic. Play it safe and Belt Up!”

Through their collaboration, Football West and the Insurance Commission of West Australia will continue to support community football and preach road safety.

 

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Nike and FA reveal Socceroos kit ahead of 2026 FIFA World Cup

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Image credit: Football Australia

As the lastest collaboration between Football Australia and Nike, the 2026 National Team collection is testament to a partnership spanning over two decades.

 

New threads, old partners

Built on the balanced principles of heritage, culture and progression, Nike have designed two kits which reflect the very DNA within Australia’s men’s national team.

“The CommBank Socceroos are set to perform on the world stage with a clear intent to compete and succeed against the world’s best, and this new kit reflects that ambition,” said Football Australia CEO, Martin Kugeler, via official press release.

“Socceroo kits become part of Australian football history, forever tied to defining moments and performances and we look forward to seeing the Socceroos represent the country with pride in this jersey on the global stage.”

Honouring the twenty-year partnership with Nike, this year’s kit draws inspiration from the iconic 2006 jersey. The hope, therefore, is that performances on the pitch will mirror this sense of pride, passion and ambition.

Innovation on the biggest stage

Furthermore, football kits represent innovation and ambition. Materials, fit and finer details must all come together in a perfect combination to allow for optimal performance.

The Socceroos collection features Nike’s Aero-FIT performance cooling technology, thus increasing airflow and ensuring players stay cool while playing in high temperatures.

But beyond the inner workings and technology of the kits, a sense of authenticity and intention continue to shine through.

“I really love the new home kit, it has a great traditional feel with the colours and the style and it feels unmistakably Australian,” outlined Nike athlete and Socceroos star, Jordan Bos.

Although kits appear as little more than a squad number and a badge, the international stage demands a jersey which represents something far greater. The World Cup is about national pride, passion and ambition, and Australia’s 2026 kit collection unites all of them.

Football West mourns passing of women’s football pioneer Barbara Gibson, aged 95

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Football West has acknowledged the death of Barbara Gibson, an Honorary Life Member of the organisation whose administrative career across five decades fundamentally shaped the landscape of women’s football in Western Australia. She was 95.

Gibson’s contribution belongs to a period in Australian sport when women’s participation existed largely outside formal structures and was tolerated at the margins of a game whose governing bodies were built by and for men. That she spent decades building those structures anyway, and that the game in Western Australia is materially different because she did, is the measure of her legacy.

She did not begin playing football until her 40s, turning out for Inglewood Kiev before redirecting her energy almost entirely into administration. In 1975 she became Secretary of the Western Australian Women’s Soccer Association, a role she held for a decade alongside the position of Treasurer. As long-standing Manager of the Senior State Women’s Team, she oversaw international tours to Malaysia in 1977 and India in 1980.

Gibson was elected President of the WAWSA in 1986, the same year she joined the broader administration of the game as Assistant Secretary of the Soccer Federation of WA: a dual role that positioned her as a bridge between the women’s competition and the wider governing structure at a moment when that connection was neither guaranteed nor assumed.

Her influence extended beyond Western Australia. As the WAWSA’s representative at all Australian Women’s Soccer Association delegate meetings, she helped shape national policy at a time when the decisions made in those rooms determined whether women’s football in this country had a future at all.

Gibson was inducted into the Football Hall of Fame WA in 1996 and received the Australian Sports Medal in 2000.

“She gave decades of service to our game and to female football in particular,” said Football West CEO Jamie Harnwell. “When we marvel at the incredible spectacle of over 70,000 fans turning out to cheer on the Matildas in a major international final, we should also remember the pioneers of the women’s game, such as Barbara, who helped lay the foundation stones.”

The cultural legacy Gibson leaves is one of institutional persistence. The willingness to build, advocate and administer within systems that were not designed to accommodate the work she was doing. The women currently playing in Football West competitions, coaching junior teams, sitting on club boards and representing Western Australia at national level do so within structures that people like Gibson constructed from the outside in.

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