Melbourne Victory Managing Director Caroline Carnegie on the club’s rebuild

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Caroline Carnegie has been leading Melbourne Victory FC through their rebuild before the start of the new A-League season as Managing Director of the club. In an exclusive interview with Soccerscene, she discusses the challenges faced so far, making a better A-League, and how clubs can re-engage lapsed fans.

What has been the biggest challenge of being Managing Director of Melbourne Victory so far?

Caroline Carnegie: There are a lot of challenges at the moment. There are the broader COVID-related challenges which everybody is experiencing, and then there’s the club-specific ones. Without sugar-coating it, we obviously had our poorest season on record last year. So coming in there were a lot of challenges that we needed to deal with and a lot of them centred around member sentiment and fan engagement. There was also making sure that across all our stakeholders we were communicating our direction and what was happening at the Club. I think our fans and members are pretty realistic. Although we certainly want to win silverware every year, we know it won’t be the case every season, which means we need to be really clear with everyone about what we want to achieve and the direction of the Club, which we have lacked a little bit certainly over the past couple of years.

Since stepping into the role, I have tried to make sure that we challenge the way we’ve been thinking about our business and how we go about delivering on and off the pitch. This means everything from the smallest to the biggest detail has been or is being stress tested, and we are all really testing ourselves as to whether we’ve been doing things in the best way or we can be a little bit more progressive, and to make sure that we put our members and partners first in everything we do moving forward. One of the things I was keen to do early was to put a true Director of Football in place, which I did first up with John Didulica. It is a role that the Club has needed for a while, and appointing JD has meant we now have a consistent whole of football approach from top to bottom with men and women.

While we can’t implement it all in 30 seconds, our planning is around making sure that all of our programs are truly elite and we progress our academy programs to be able to provide a true pathway into Melbourne Victory senior men’s and women’s over time, and also to make sure that we treat our men’s and women’s elite teams with equality. We know if you support Melbourne Victory you support our teams. Our men or women and our business is trying to make sure we promote that in all aspects of what we do.

Another example of trying to listen and deliver what our people want was the decision to return all of our home games to AAMI Park – which was so well received by our members and fans.  They had been calling out for that move for a really long time and I am glad the Club could deliver it and we cannot wait to make AAMI our fortress this season – and beyond of course. The move to do that was also important so we could show all our stakeholders that we are listening, and everybody is working very hard at the Club to position Melbourne Victory at the top of everything we do.

We are also excited that we will have a member’s forum a little closer to the start of the season – hopefully in person – to provide our people with a chance to have their thoughts and feelings about the Club heard and to share them with our team.

How much input did the A-League clubs have with the re-branding of the A-League and the W-League under one banner?

Caroline Carnegie: They had a lot to do with it.  APL is now owned by the Clubs since unbundling occurred earlier this year, and the Board of APL includes Club Chairmen.  The Board and the Clubs were involved in the decisions and it was great that we could be the first league to come out and show true equality in naming our men’s and women’s leagues consistently.

How important is it to have a dividing identity and geography between the three Melbourne teams?

Caroline Carnegie: It’s really important. It is important for all teams – not just the Melbourne clubs – to have a clear identity and target demographic, and geographically separating just helps us to be individually stronger.  It creates an environment where we can also promote the game on a broader scale and build a little ‘cross town’ rivalry at the same time.

What initiatives are Victory and the A-League taking to re-engage lapsed fans?

Caroline Carnegie: From a league level you’ll see a lot of changes to start with. We’ve just come through the unbundling process from FA which means at APL there is definitely a big focus on making sure that everything is reviewed, and a new and fresh approach is undertaken. It is really exciting to see what the team there is doing, and great that our Club can be a small part of that.

At Victory, as I said before, we are spending a lot of time trying to make sure we communicate better and in a more transparent and targeted manner with our people. We want our family to know who does what at Victory, what our plans are and the direction we are heading.  You should have started to see that so far in the off-season with the level and quality of engagement, even through our social channels.

We have made sure our player announcements are different and we are creating really exciting, dynamic content that speaks to our fans, and our membership campaign was another great example of that.

We have adopted a member-centric approach, and hopefully our fans can see that and want to jump on board and join the movement. After a couple of difficult years for everyone, we certainly continue to need their support and we are looking forward to seeing them at AAMI Park in Round 2.

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Filopoulos: Football Must Move Beyond Campaigns to Win Fans for Good

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Image Credit: Perth Glory

Global marketing and advisory firm Bastion has strengthened its leadership team with the appointment of Peter Filopoulos as Managing Director, Experience. This decision brings one of Australian football’s most influential administrators into a new phase of the sports business landscape.

Filopoulos, who has held senior roles across Football Australia, Football Victoria and Perth Glory, will lead Bastion’s experiential and partnerships division, applying a football-informed lens to brand engagement.

Drawing on his time in the game, Filopoulos emphasised the importance of cohesion in building meaningful fan connections.

“For me, the biggest lesson is that fans don’t see brand, content and experience as individual silos, they experience it all as one connected ecosystem,” he said.

“At Football Australia, the work resonated most when everything was aligned; the team, the narrative, the partners and the matchday experience all working together to feel cohesive and authentic. That’s when engagement moves beyond interaction and becomes something far more meaningful.”

He added that too many organisations still treat fan engagement as short-term.

“Where a lot of organisations fall short is treating fan engagement as a campaign. It’s not, it’s an always-on system.”

Filopoulos’ move reflects a broader shift within football, where commercial growth is increasingly driven by experience-led strategy.

“At Bastion, we put experience at the centre—because it’s where the brand comes to life, where partners integrate in a way that adds real value and where fans genuinely connect,” he said.

“Our focus is on building platforms that bring fans closer to the brand… Get that right, and you’re creating something people actively want to be part of.”

10:1 Against the World Game: Hume City Council’s Budget Is a Kick in the Guts for Football

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The numbers don’t lie. While football leads participation across the state, Hume City Council is spending ten times more on AFL infrastructure - exposing a funding imbalance that can no longer be ignored.
Image Credit: Hume City

Across Melbourne’s northern suburbs, football clubs are doing everything they can to keep up with demand.

Participation is rising. Teams are expanding. Young players inspired by the Matildas are flooding into community clubs. Training schedules are being pushed later into the night and volunteers are stretching limited facilities simply to keep pace with growth.

But behind the scenes, there is a problem quietly building and it is one that has little to do with the passion of players or the commitment of grassroots clubs.

It sits inside council budgets.

And when the numbers are examined closely, the picture becomes impossible to ignore.

The City of Hume’s current budget reveals a funding reality that should concern every football participant and every ratepayer in the municipality.

For every dollar spent on football infrastructure, Hume City Council is spending roughly ten dollars on AFL and oval-based facilities.

A 10:1 funding ratio against the world game.

For a sport that leads participation across Victoria, that figure isn’t just disappointing – it’s a kick in the guts for football communities across the municipality.

And for those watching the game grow while infrastructure continues to lag behind, it represents something even more troubling.

Ignorance hiding in plain sight.

The Numbers Inside Hume’s Budget

The City of Hume’s 2025-26 capital works program allocates roughly $1.55 million to football-specific infrastructure projects.

That includes:

$1.265 million for the renewal of the synthetic pitch and lighting upgrade at John Ilhan Memorial Reserve

$250,000 for portable change rooms supporting Upfield Soccer Club at Gibb Reserve

$35,000 for a goal cage for Roxburgh Park United Soccer Club

Important projects for the clubs involved, without question.

But when placed alongside the rest of the sports infrastructure spending in the same budget, the disparity becomes glaring.

Oval-based facilities – primarily serving AFL and cricket – receive close to $15 million in funding.

Projects include:

$4.71 million for the Willowbrook Recreation Reserve pavilion expansion

$3.45 million for the Vic Foster Reserve pavilion upgrade

$1.795 million for the redevelopment of Johnstone Street Reserve

$1.294 million for change room upgrades at Lakeside Drive Reserve

$1.207 million for the Bradford Avenue Sports Ground upgrade

Lighting upgrades, pavilion improvements and reserve master planning across additional oval facilities push the total even higher.

The bottom line is simple.

Ten dollars for AFL infrastructure.

One dollar for football.

The Participation Gap No One Wants to Acknowledge.

The imbalance we see in Hume mirrors a broader trend across Victoria.

Participation data shows football sitting comfortably at the top of the sporting ladder, yet infrastructure investment tells a very different story.

Across the state:

Football: approximately 260,000 participants, receiving around $9.31 million in infrastructure investment annually

Netball: around 100,000 participants, receiving $14.35 million

Cricket: roughly 80,000 participants, receiving $33.55 million

AFL: about 140,000 participants, receiving $39.17 million

The sport with the largest participation base receives dramatically less infrastructure funding than codes with significantly fewer players.

Football is carrying the participation numbers.

Other sports are receiving the infrastructure.

And when councils continue allocating funding based on outdated participation assumptions, the gap only widens.

The Pattern Across Melbourne

Hume’s spending decisions sit within a broader trend across metropolitan Melbourne.

In Whitehorse, $28 million has been committed to the redevelopment of Box Hill City Oval.

In neighboring City of Boroondara, significant funding is being directed toward the refurbishment of the Michael Tuck Stand.

Again, the issue is not whether these facilities deserve investment.

Community infrastructure should absolutely be maintained.

But when tens of millions are flowing into upgrades for oval venues while football clubs across Melbourne struggle to secure additional pitches, the imbalance becomes difficult to ignore.

Participation growth is happening in football.

Infrastructure investment is happening somewhere else.

The Frustration From Industry

There is another dimension to this issue that is rarely discussed.

In recent conversations I’ve had with business leaders and industry advocates working across the sports technology and recreation sector, many have openly vented their frustration about the lack of understanding from government when it comes to football’s broader ecosystem.

These are entrepreneurs and innovators working in areas such as performance data, AI scouting platforms, wearable technology, fan engagement systems and digital broadcast infrastructure.

Industries shaping the future of global sport.

Yet many say football innovation in Australia continues to be misunderstood by policymakers who still frame sport through traditional codes rather than recognising the scale of the global football industry.

The irony is clear.

While councils debate whether football deserves additional community pitches, the global football economy is expanding rapidly across technology, data, manufacturing and commercial innovation.

If Australia fails to recognise that opportunity, we risk missing out on industries that will define the future of sport.

A Growing Movement for Change

Last week, the Level the Playing Field campaign was launched at the Victorian State Parliament to raise awareness about exactly this issue.

The campaign highlights the growing gap between football participation and football infrastructure investment across the state.

It shines a light on a reality that grassroots clubs experience every week.

Football participation is surging.

Infrastructure investment is not keeping pace.

And unless that imbalance is addressed, the sport’s growth will eventually collide with the limits of available facilities.

If Not Now, When?

Australia has never had greater momentum behind football.

The Matildas have inspired a new generation of players.

Participation continues to grow across communities.

Clubs are expanding.

Demand is rising.

And yet the infrastructure conversation remains stuck in the past.

If councils cannot recognise football’s growth now – when participation is leading the state and the global opportunity around the sport continues to expand – then the question becomes unavoidable.

If not now, when?

A Civic Responsibility to Speak Up

As CEO of Australia’s leading football business magazine, Soccerscene, I believe it is our civic duty to raise awareness about these issues and help break down the barriers that continue to hold the game back.

For too long, football’s infrastructure challenges have been discussed quietly within the sport itself.

That must change.

Advocating for the growth of the game – and ensuring decision-makers understand the participation reality – is not just about football.

It is about communities, opportunity and fairness for the sport played by more Australians than any other code.

Championing that conversation is part of our responsibility to the game, to the industry that surrounds it, and to the communities that continue to drive its growth.

The Question That Cannot Be Ignored

The numbers inside the Hume City Council budget are clear.

A 10:1 funding ratio against the world game.

For the largest participation sport in the state, that statistic should prompt serious reflection.

As I’ve said before:

“When Hume City Council spends ten times more on AFL infrastructure than the world game, despite football’s participation growth, the problem isn’t demand – it’s ignorance staring us in the face as ratepayers.”

Football is not asking for special treatment.

It is asking for proportional investment that reflects participation, growth and opportunity.

Because if the sport with the largest participation base continues to receive only a fraction of infrastructure investment, the problem is no longer participation.

The problem is how decisions are being made.

And communities across Melbourne are starting to notice.

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