CommBank and Football Australia taking support of women’s football to new heights

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Growing Football Fund
Image credit: David Broadway

CommBank and Football Australia are extending their fruitful partnership in the form of a new community fund that aims to increase participation in women’s football across the country.

The Growing Football Fund will provide millions of dollars to help invigorate grassroots football in Australia, pledging to attract and retain 50,000 female participants over two years through the fund.

With grant recipients to be announced in February 2024, we will soon see the continuation of a legacy that the FIFA Women’s World Cup is creating.

A key part of this pledge is the provision of high-quality resources for coaches in the women’s game, ensuring that players can thrive in an inclusive and sustainable football environment.

This includes a dedicated online “coaches hub”, that will provide coaches with scholarships, resources, technical training, and state-based networking.

A key pillar of this fund, Football Australia Head of Women’s Football, Women’s World Cup Legacy & Inclusion, Sarah Walsh, believes the timing of the launch is crucial, given the high-point women’s football is experiencing in Australia right now.

“This important initiative will provide hundreds of community clubs across the country with access to funding to ensure that together we maximise the interest off the back of the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023,” Walsh stated.

“Critical to sustainable growth in participation is support for our coaches of women and girls, to create greater accessibility to training, more pathways and ongoing support to foster a positive environment where all players can thrive.”

Commonwealth Bank Group Executive of Marketing and Corporate Affairs, Monique Macleod, shared Walsh’s enthusiasm for the fund.

“As major supporters of women’s sport, we are delighted to extend our partnership with Football Australia with the launch of the Growing Football Fund which will help change the game in Australia,” Macleod added via media release.

“Grassroots sport empowers communities – it is where children grow up, family and friends come together, and dreams are realised. This should be strengthened and preserved for future generations.”

Further to this, Matildas Captain and CommBank Ambassador Sam Kerr believes the fund will play a crucial role in empowering women in football.

“We have seen what is possible when you invest in women and girls and provide them with the opportunity to fulfill their potential. We want this transformative experience for women and girls at all levels of football.”

With women’s football in Australia experiencing a boom like no other, the launch of the Growing Football Fund is an exciting moment that will help preserve and grow football to new, unprecedented levels.

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Football NSW releases $600,000 towards Grassroots Grants to meet Participation Pressure

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The Victorian State Government has announced new grants and funding for 11 new community infrastructure projects for local football clubs, totalling $3.8 million.
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Sixty-five football clubs across New South Wales have secured a combined total of nearly $600,000 in funding through the NSW Office of Sport’s Local Sports Grant Program. It follows as a result of Football NSW’s scale of demand for community sport support and the growing pressure on clubs struggling to keep pace with surging participation.

The grants, covering 69 individual projects across the Football NSW footprint, will fund facility upgrades, equipment purchases, participation programs and accessibility improvements: the unglamorous but essential infrastructure that determines whether community clubs can function at the level their members require.

The Local Sports Grant Program made up to $4.65 million available statewide in 2025, with $50,000 allocated to each electoral district and individual grants capped at $20,000. Football’s share of nearly $600,000 reflects the sport’s status as the largest participation code in NSW, and the degree to which that status has not always been matched by corresponding investment in the facilities and resources required to sustain it.

Volunteers carrying an unsustainable load

The announcement arrives against a backdrop of mounting pressure on the volunteer workforce that keeps community football operational. Across NSW, thousands of volunteers dedicate significant unpaid time each week to administration, ground preparation, canteen operation and the logistical demands of running competitive junior and senior programs. As participation numbers climb, driven in part by the sustained visibility of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup and the legacy of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, those demands have intensified without a corresponding increase in the resources available to meet them.

“As the largest participation sport in NSW it is pleasing to see almost $600,000 will be reinvested back into supporting our players, coaches, referees and volunteers to improve the football experience across our community clubs,” said Helen Armson, Football NSW’s Group Head of Strategic Partnerships and Corporate Affairs.

The equity dimension

The distribution of the grants across 65 clubs and 69 projects also speaks to the geographic breadth of football’s footprint in NSW, and to the uneven distribution of resources that has historically characterised community sport in this country. Clubs in outer metropolitan and regional areas tend to operate with smaller budgets, older facilities and thinner volunteer bases than their inner-city counterparts. Grant programs structured around electoral allocation, rather than club size or existing resource base, provide a degree of equity that market-driven funding cannot.

The kinds of projects funded under this program disproportionately benefit clubs serving communities where the barriers to participation are highest. A club that cannot offer adequate facilities or equipment is a club that turns players away, often without intending to.

Football NSW has used the announcement to call on the NSW Government to maintain and extend its investment in the sport. “We urge the government to continue to invest in football,” Armson said, in the midst for a nation-wide push for a $343 million decade-long infrastructure fund to address the facilities gap across the state.

The nearly $600,000 secured through this round is meaningful. Against the scale of what is needed, it is also a measure of how far the investment still has to go.

Victory unites with Roasting Warehouse in culture-led partnership

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Image credit: Melbourne Victory

The Melbourne-based anf family-owned business will join the Victory family, uniting two institutions which represent the city’s culture and identity.

A partnership with local roots

As the newest partner of Melbourne Victory, Roasting Warehouse joins forces with a vital part of the city’s sporting landscape.

The club’s Managing Director, Caroline Carnegie, outlined why the partnership bears so much value to both parties.

“We are excited to collaborate with Roasting Warehouse, a community-oriented destination for high-quality coffee, proud of its foundations in Melbourne,” said Carnegie via official media release.

“Football and coffee sit at the epicentre of Melbourne’s culture. The two go hand-in-hand, consistently at the centre of the conversation that stirs Melburnians, which is no different to the conversation sport and Melbourne Victory stir in the State.”

Indeed, this is a partnership which combines the identity, passions and culture of an entire city, therefore giving it the foundations required for long-term, mutual success.

Representing the best of Melbourne

Both Victory and Roasting Warehouse are hugely successful in their respective industries. They are institutions with community-oriented philosphies, who pride themselves on craft and quality.

“We’re incredibly proud to partner with Melbourne Victory, a club that represents the heart, passion, and ambition of Melbourne,” revealed Roasting Warehouse Head of Brand, Alexander Paraskevopoulos.

“As a Melbourne-founded, family-run business, supporting a team that means so much to the local community feels very natural for us.”

Furthermore, through their high-quality blends, Roasting Warehouse will look to prepare Victory’s players and staff for high performances on the pitch as the seasons nears completion.

But this is about far more than just fueling athletes.

This is a partnership which embodies and unites two of Melbourne’s greatest strengths and cultural markers – a connection forged from the city’s very own DNA.

 

For more information about Roasting Warehouse, click here.

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