Football Australia reveals record participation in 2024

Football Australia has presented the 2024 National Participation Report, revealing record growth for the sport across the country.

The report found that football is in a healthy state in the country, once again being Australia’s most popular sport. With an 11 percent increase in participation from 2023 to 2024, total participation now sits at over 1.9 million active participants.

However, total participation was not the only success uncovered via the report, as a number of key areas saw substantial increases in participation.

Key Findings from the 2024 National Participation Report: 

  • Total Participation: Climbed 11% to 1,911,539 participants.
  • Women and Girls’ Participation: Grew by 16% to 221,436 participants.
  • Registered Coaches: Rose by 19%.
  • Registered Volunteers: Increased by 26%.
  • Outdoor football participation: Increased by 10% to 640,170 participants.
  • Social Football Engagement: Grew by 13% to 174,846 participants.
  • Schools and Community Football Programs Participation: Rose by 13%.
  • Football Australia Sporting Schools Program Participation: Increased by 21% to 158,700 participants.

Football Australia has lauded the hard work of each Member Federation and the role out of key grassroots strategies such as the Club Changer: Club Development Program in attaining these positive outcomes.

Launched in February 2023, and aided by the Australian Sports Commission, the Club Changer initiative has assisted over 1,000 grassroots clubs across Australia. Through providing unique support for each club, the program aimed to develop club operations, increase volunteer numbers and retention, as well as improve women and girls’ participation.

For its efforts, the Club Changer Program won the AFC President’s Recognition Grassroots Award for the second year in a row.

Football Australia CEO, James Johnson, outlined how important initiatives such as Club Changer are for community football.

“The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ inspired a generation, and we are determined to harness that momentum to unite and grow football across the country. Through programs like Club Changer, we are empowering community clubs to deliver quality football experiences while ensuring inclusivity and sustainability remain at the heart of our mission,” he said via press release.

“Our success is a shared achievement with our Member Federations, local associations, grassroots clubs and community volunteers. Programs like the Growing Football Fund supported by CommBank, have provided vital resources to over 200 community clubs, fostering opportunities for women and girls in football and enabling the next generation of coaches, referees and players to thrive.”

One of the core focuses of Football Australia’s grassroots development plans has been on diversity and inclusion. In collaboration with the National Volunteer Focus Group and 28 clubs, Football Australia has developed a series of action plans that strive to increase women and girls’ participation by aiming for 40% women, 40% men and 20% flexible roles’ structure.

Through 2025, Football Australia will continue to support grassroots and community football via valuable programs such as Club Changer and the Growing Football Fund to build off of the immense success of 2024’s participation records.

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The Spreadsheet Is Dead: Majestri’s Fix for How Clubs Actually Assess Players

If you’ve ever sat through a club’s end-of-season review, you’ll know the drill. A coach pulls out a folder of notes, someone half-remembers what a player was like back in Round 3 and a parent quietly wonders what they actually got for their rego fees beyond a team photo. Football club platform Majestri says it has a fix for that, and it’s built directly into its Player Assessment module.

Why clubs bother assessing players in the first place

According to Majestri, clubs run player assessments for one of three reasons – usually more than one at once. Some are chasing genuine development, using the data to lift the level across their high-performance squads. Others are after a fairer way to pick teams, putting every player on the same measurable scale so selection is based on evidence rather than a coach’s gut feel about who “looks the part.” And for clubs operating under a Football Australia or state federation licence, assessments at set intervals often aren’t optional – they’re a compliance requirement, with the paperwork to prove it when asked.

Whatever the motivation, Majestri’s pitch is the same: don’t let that assessment data die in a spreadsheet on someone’s laptop.

Build your own assessment, your way

There’s no one-size-fits-all template here. The Assessment Designer lets technical directors set their own criteria, sort them into whatever categories their coaching staff already use – think core skills, possession, defending, attacking – and decide what each point on the rating scale actually means. Crucially, every criterion also gets a comment field, because a bare number rarely tells the full story of a player’s development.

The Assessment Module Builder for an NPL Juniors assessment
The Assessment Module Builder, showing an NPL Juniors assessment with a 1-10 rating scale banded from under performing through to excelling and role-specific criteria grouped into core skills, possession, defending and attacking. Source: Majestri.

Build it once and it’s reusable every time that assessment cycle comes around, so every player and every coach – is working off the same yardstick.

Something for the parents to actually take home

One of the more relatable pain points Majestri is targeting: most families never see much tangible return from a season of fees beyond a team photo. Player Assessment addresses that with report cards – colour-coded against the same scale coaches used, grouped by category with averages calculated automatically, and delivered as a PDF or an interactive web page a parent can read without needing a coaching badge themselves.

A player report card for an under-15 player
A report card for an under-15 player, colour-coded from under performing to excelling, with a score for every criterion and a group average across core skills, possession, defending and attacking. Source: Majestri.

 

Turning the numbers into something useful

The real value, though, sits in what Majestri calls the Player Analysis Lab. This is where clubs can plot a player against their team-mates or an entire age group across two categories at once, spotting clusters and outliers at a glance. Every score gets read against the group average – so a “7” actually means something in context – and clubs can report at the broad category level or drill into individual fields underneath. The results can be filtered down and exported for selection meetings or grading purposes.

The Player Analysis Lab comparing players in an under-15 and under-16 squad
The Player Analysis Lab comparing seven players across under-15 and under-16 squads, with a scatter plot, a sortable table of scores against the player average, and controls for choosing which categories and fields to report on. Source: Majestri.

The admin side nobody enjoys, made easier

Beyond the flashy analytics, there’s a practical layer built for the volunteers actually running the process:

  • Sweep monitoring – a quick view of which assessments are done and which are still outstanding, organised into defined assessment periods so progress can be tracked against peers.
  • Individual development plans – every player gets a personalised plan, and clubs can group common improvement areas to run cross-team training sessions that lift the whole club rather than just one squad.
  • Access control – coaches and technical staff can only see assessments for the teams they’re responsible for, and completed assessments are only visible to people linked to that player’s registration.
“Hard numbers to draw on when you review coaching staff and curriculum – and something tangible for the players and parents who pay the fees.” – Majestri

 

The bigger picture

Majestri frames all of this as sitting on top of the club’s own data – assessment results live on each player’s profile inside the platform rather than in a spreadsheet that walks out the door when a technical director moves on. For committees, it also means hard numbers to lean on when reviewing coaching staff or curriculum, rather than relying on anecdote.

It’s a fairly clear read on where club administration software is heading: less about digitising paperwork for its own sake, and more about making the data clubs already collect actually work for player development, team selection and compliance  without adding to the workload of the volunteers who run the show.

For more information on Majestri’s Player Assessment module, visit majestri.com.au/player-assessment.

West Ham ownership battle intensifies as deal faces fresh challenge 

West Ham’s ownership battle has taken another turn. Amanda Staveley’s consortium reached an agreement to buy the Gold family’s 25.1 per cent stake in the club. The deal was confirmed in July, that Staveley would purchase the shares from Vanessa Gold, who is the current co-chair at West Ham. The club’s valuation stands at $1.1 billion (600 million pounds).

Gold’s shares in the club have come under intense speculation. Daniel Kretinsky originally agreed to take on Gold’s shares in June; this would have made him majority stakeholder with 43%. Kretinsky already owns 27 per cent of West Ham. He became a shareholder in 2021 after acquiring his stake from the club’s existing ownership group.

Gold now says the latest developments have turned, with Staveley set to purchase that stake in the club. Staveley is no stranger to Premier League ownership. She was part of the consortium that completed the takeover of Newcastle United in 2021. She later left her position at Newcastle after selling her stake in the club.

Her West Ham consortium has now targeted the shares held by the Gold family. The 25.1 per cent stake belonged to the family of the late David Gold. Gold co-owned West Ham alongside David Sullivan for many years. The pair acquired a controlling stake in the club in 2010. Their involvement began with a 50 per cent shareholding. They increased that position to 60 per cent later that year.

Sullivan subsequently became the club’s largest individual shareholder. Kretinsky’s arrival changed the balance of power. The Czech businessman bought 27 per cent of West Ham in November 2021. David Gold died in January 2023. His daughter, Vanessa, later became joint-chair alongside Sullivan.

Staveley’s consortium agreed a deal worth about $282 million (150 million pounds) for the 25.1 per cent holding, according to reports. It would instead give Staveley and her backers a major minority position. The club’s ownership structure remains divided between several significant shareholders.

Kretinsky already holds a larger shareholding than the stake Staveley is seeking to acquire. He has also been linked with ambitions to increase his control of the club. Existing stakeholders, including Kretinsky, have 30 days to implement a right of refusal. There is also an opportunity to purchase those shares instead. The deadline to block Staveley’s agreement expires this week.

The timing is also significant. West Ham were relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 2025-26 season. The club had spent more than a decade in the top flight before dropping into the Championship. That relegation came only three years after West Ham won the Europa Conference League.

The club is now attempting to rebuild on and off the pitch. Staveley’s presence adds another layer to that transition. She was also in attendance for West Ham’s Championship match against Wolves on the 1st of September.

Away from the pitch, however, the club remains at the centre of an ownership battle. The Gold family sale was expected to provide Staveley with a route into the club. Kretinsky’s potential challenge has now complicated that process.

The next stage will determine whether Staveley’s consortium completes its purchase or whether Kretinsky succeeds in increasing his own influence. Either outcome could have a major impact on West Ham’s future ownership structure. For now, the proposed sale remains the focus of a growing battle for control and influence at the London Stadium.

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