Football Australia release collaborative One Football Strategy with Member Federations

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Following several months of collaborative development alongside the nine member federations, Football Australia has announced the release of their One Football Strategy document.

Having procured the strategy through a number of in-person working group meetings around the country over the past 18 months, this document serves as both a commitment from Football Australia and each Member Federation around the direction for the game, and as an expression of a common desire to work collectively to take Australian football to new heights by 2026.

A first of its kind for Australian football, the One Football Strategy establishes a framework with targets for Australian football that each Member Federation will align and contribute to.

It acknowledges the diversity of football in Australia, and the different local contexts that can be seen across the continent, by providing Member Federations the opportunity to localise responses and approaches while still working towards a consistent vision for the future of the game.

The Strategy opens with 12 different targets for Australian football by 2026, to be achieved by FA working together with Member Federations and the broader Australian football community.

These targets will be achieved via work through four distinct pillars, representing different ways that members of the Australian football family engage with the game:

  • Participants and Clubs
  • Elite Teams & Pathways
  • Fans
  • Unifying Football

Each of the four pillars includes a specific ambition for the future of Australian football, as well as several focus areas, initiatives and results that will see football move closer to realising that ambition.

The Pillars are underpinned by three enablers:

  • Reshape the game for Women & Girls
  • Leverage the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup
  • Align digital and data strategies

According to Football Australia’s statement, these enablers will guide thinking and contribute to the success of all four pillars.

Over the past 20 years, football has been the fastest growing sport in Australia, and it remains the largest club-based participation sport in the country today.

This scale provides opportunities for the game to come together collaboratively, using a fifth consecutive FIFA World Cup qualification for the Subway Socceroos and a home 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup for the CommBank Matildas to kick off an exciting period for Australian football.

The Member Federations, in various stages of the strategic planning cycle, will develop or release strategic plans that are inspired by this collaboratively developed strategy for the game.

Football Australia envision the document’s release as a critical step to progressing Principle VII of the XI Principles, ensuring that the game moves towards a more connected and united Australian football family – working together to deliver the best possible experience for all those who live and love football.

The FA One Football Strategy 2022 – 2026 can be read here.

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

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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

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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.

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