Ballon d’Or cancelled for 2020 due to coronavirus

Daniel Foley22/07/2020 8:00 am22/07/2020

For the first time in its history, the Ballon d’Or will not be awarded in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It has been awarded every year since 1956, however France Football, the organisation who awards the Ballon d’Or, said that 2020 was not an ordinary year due to the interruptions. Some league seasons were cut short and meant that there could not be a fair comparison between players for this year.

The trophies for the best women’s player, best goalkeeper and best young player will also not be awarded.

A France Football Dream Team will take the awards place for this year. The usual juries will be asked to choose 11 players for a dream team.

“Because the history of soundtrack is too precious to take the risk of damaging it with a wobbly exercise,” Pascal Ferré said, editor-in-chief of France Football.

“In these hectic times, taking a break is a luxury as well as an inestimable necessity. So that football, as a whole, regains momentum and momentum, passion and emotion.

“We did not want to place an indelible asterisk on the style ‘Trophy won in exceptional circumstances due to the Covid-19 health crisis’. We will always prefer a small sprain (to our story) to a big scar. It was the first time since 1956 that the Ballon d’Or had taken a break.

“The parenthesis does not enchant us but seems to us the most responsible and logical. Protecting the credibility and legitimacy of such an award also means ensuring that it is irreproachable over time.”

Coronavirus is still affecting soccer leagues across the world, although in the last week both the English Premier League and Major League Soccer have had zero positive results in their tests of players and club staff. Both leagues tested more than a thousand people.

Earlier this month MLS teams FC Dallas and Nashville SC had to withdraw from the ‘MLS is Back’ tournament after a high number of players in their squads tested positive to COVID-19.

On Tuesday it was also announced that a La Liga2 game between RC Deportivo and CF Fuenlabrada had to be postponed after some members of CF Fuenlabrada tested positive to the virus.

Previous ArticleFootball Queensland announces independent governance review of the sportNext ArticleFootball Queensland launches new school partnership

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

Declan Chan30/04/2026 6:15 am29/04/2026

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.

Football NSW announces 2026 First Nations Scholarships as pathway access program enters new phase

Declan Chan29/04/2026 2:22 pm29/04/2026

Image Credit: Football NSW

Football NSW has announced the recipients of its 2026 First Nations Scholarships, with ten emerging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander players from metropolitan and regional NSW receiving support designed to reduce the financial and structural barriers that have historically limited First Nations participation across the football pathway.

The scholarship program, developed and assessed in collaboration with the Football NSW Indigenous Advisory Group, targets players across both elite and development environments – recognising that talent identification alone is insufficient without the resources to support progression once players are identified.

Co-Chair of the Indigenous Advisory Group Bianca Dufty said the calibre of this year’s recipients reflected the depth of First Nations football talent across the state, and the importance of structured support in converting that talent into long-term participation.

“Their dedication to football and the desire to be role models for younger Aboriginal footballers in their communities is to be celebrated,” Dufty said. “I’m confident we will see some of these talented footballers in the A-League and national teams in the future.”

Beyond the pitch and into the pipeline

The 2026 cohort spans both metropolitan clubs and regional associations, an intentional distribution that acknowledges the particular barriers facing First Nations players outside major population centres, where access to development programs, qualified coaching and pathway competitions is more limited and the cost of participation more prohibitive.

The next phase of the program will introduce First Nations coaching scholarships, extending the initiative’s reach beyond playing pathways and into the coaching and administration pipeline – areas where Indigenous representation remains among the lowest in the game.

The structural logic is clear. Scholarships that reduce financial barriers at the entry point of elite pathways matter most when they are part of a sustained ecosystem of support rather than isolated gestures. Football NSW’s collaboration with the Indigenous Advisory Group provides that continuity, ensuring the program is shaped by the communities it is designed to serve.