Brisbane Roar Reunites with Luxury Paints

Avatar
Image credit: Brisbane Roar

Brisbane Roar has confirmed that Luxury Paints will renew its partnership with the club for the rest of the 2025/26 Isuzu UTE A-League Men season.

Luxury Paints, one of Australia’s leading privately owned paint manufacturers, has earned a reputation for quality, innovation, and craftsmanship. With a comprehensive range of decorative, industrial, specialty, and texture coatings available through company-owned stores and stockists nationwide, the brand remains a benchmark for Australian manufacturing excellence.

Under the renewed collaboration, Luxury Paints will appear on the back of Brisbane Roar’s playing shorts for the 2025/26 Isuzu UTE A-League Men season, highlighting a proud reunion between two Queensland icons.

Brisbane Roar Chief Operations Officer Zac Anderson welcomed the connection back, emphasising the brand’s longstanding connection to the club.

“We are excited to welcome back such a renowned brand in Luxury Paints, but more importantly, people deeply connected with the football club,” he said via press release.

“The Baradel family is synonymous with Brisbane Roar, having played an integral role in the club’s history. We are deeply grateful for their continued support. As an industry leader, Luxury Paints’ commitment to the football club is another example of the positive direction in which we are moving.

“We thank the Baradel family and the entire Luxury Paints team for their belief through this partnership.”

Managing Director of Luxury Paints, Claude Baradel highlighted the brand’s 20-year history with the club.

“Our connection with Brisbane Roar goes back over 20 years and it’s great to return as a partner again,” he said via press release.

“We believe in the club and what they are building.”

The agreement ensures Luxury Paints receives prominent exposure for the rest of the season, celebrating the collaboration between two established Queensland institutions. It also gives the club added commercial stability as it continues its campaign in the current A-League season.

Previous ArticleNext Article

Capital Football Introduces Pink Armband to Protect Junior Referees

Avatar
Image Credit: Marist Canberra FC

Capital Football has launched a visible identification program for referees under 18, requiring them to wear a pink armband during matches. It’s intended to build awareness surrounding the concern across Australian football about the abuse driving young officials out of the game.

The Pink Armband Initiative, effective immediately across Capital Football’s competitions in the ACT and surrounding region, makes junior referees identifiable to players, coaches and spectators. The federation says the marker is designed to set clear behavioural expectations and signal that many match officials are minors still developing their skills.

Capital Football acknowledged a referee crisis as far back as 2022, at which point it restructured its entire referee department in partnership with Football Australia. The pink armband program is the latest layer of that response; this time by targeting the cultural conditions on match day rather than systems of recruitment and pay.

A problem that spans codes and states

Research has consistently linked referee abuse to declining retention rates, with officials quitting in growing numbers due to sustained mistreatment, a trend researchers warn will reduce the pool of skilled match officials available at all levels of the game. Studies also show that young, less experienced referees are disproportionately likely to be subject to abuse.

Capital Football is not alone in reaching for a visible solution. Similar programs operate across Football Queensland, Football South Australia, Football South Coast and several other federations, while Basketball Victoria and Basketball South Australia have adopted comparable measures through the Green Whistle initiative. The spread of these programs across codes and states reflects a shared administrative problem: many grassroots referees are teenagers and volunteers who do not officiate for money but because they love the game, and abuse is eroding that foundation.

For a federation overseeing nearly 29,000 registered players, fewer referees means fewer matches. Fewer matches means reduced participation. The pink armband is a low-cost intervention with structural consequences if it works.

Compliance and competition: Everton ordered to pay compensation following major verdict

Avatar
Image credit: JSvideos / Shutterstock.com

In a landmark decision by the Premier League Independent Disciplinary Commission, Everton must now pay Burnley upwards of AUD 66 million (£35 million) after breaching financial rules in the 2021-22 season.

Behind the verdict

Playing in the Premier League is, in itself, one of the most lucrative positions for a club to be in. This year’s Championship Play-off final – a contest deemed ‘the richest match in football’ – guaranteed winners Hull City a revenue uplift of AUD 389 million (£205 million) according to Deloitte’s Sports Business Group.

It is no wonder, therefore, why teams are so desperate to stay at the top of the pyramid, especially given that relegation can lead to heavy financial hits in revenue, wage reduction and transfer spending power.

Competition is certain – and the football is all the better for it. But when this competitive edge overtakes compliance, what happens off the field is just as impactful.

In 2023, the Premier League charged Everton with breaching financial rules during the 2021-22 season – the same season which saw the Toffees finish just four points above relegated Burnley. Everton received an initial 10-point deduction, which ultimately decreased to six points on appeal.

That season, Everton stayed up. But for Burnley, had the points deduction come at an earlier date, their survival in the top-flight may have been secured.

 

What did the ruling find?

In its verdict, the Premier League’s Independent Disciplinary Commission deemed that Everton gained a competitive advantage over Burnley as a result of financial breaches.

Burnley will now receive AUD 66 million (£35 million) in compensation from Everton, although the Merseyside club will appeal the  commission’s decision.

“This ruling sets a dangerous and unworkable precedent for English football, given it is constructed on a principle that a club can be in breach of financial rules at any point in a financial year,” Everton said via an official club statement.

Burnley, on the other hand, reaffirmed its position that the case was a question of fair play and ensuring a level playing field.

“Our action has always been about making football fair,” the club said via an official statement.

“Clubs that comply with the rules deserve to compete on a level playing field. Fans deserve it. The sport demands it.”

 

The impact of the case

This is a landmark decision which may have profound effects on the future of financial compliance in English football.

In the past, financial breaches remained within the realm of just that – finances. But with the ruling between Everton and Burnley, it now opens up further questions on what compliance is actually worth in the game.

And whether future investigations may lead to similar – or even higher – compensation packages to affected clubs.

Most Popular Topics

Editor Picks

Send this to a friend