Football Australia welcomes first ParaMatildas team

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Football Australia has announced the launch of the ParaMatildas, Australia’s first national team for women and girls with cerebral palsy (CP), acquired brain injury (ABI) and symptoms of stroke.

A first in the Asia-Pacific region, the ParaMatildas become the 10th member of Australia’s national teams’ family and the first new senior national team in 22 years.

Football Australia CEO James Johnson was delighted to welcome the ParaMatildas to the fold.

“Today is a momentous occasion for Football Australia as we celebrate the inclusion of the ParaMatildas in the Australian football family,” Johnson said.

“With the launch of the ParaMatildas we are closing the gap in Australian football and ensuring that women and girls have the same pathways as men and boys in our game. This announcement is the result of years of incredible commitment, hard work and belief from many people in our football community, and it will be transformative for our All Abilities programs.

“With Australia co-hosting the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ in 500 days, and as a global leader in women’s football, we now plan to leverage this milestone event to develop a sustainable, world-class ParaMatildas program.  This will demonstrate to women and girls with cerebral palsy, acquired brain injury or symptoms of stroke that football is a game which they can enjoy and excel, and that their achievements will be celebrated by an Australia that embraces diversity.”

More than 2.2 million women and girls live with disability, with 700,000 Australians living with an ABI and one in six Australians set to have a stroke in their lifetime.

CP football is a seven-a-side sport with smaller goals, 30-minute halves and no offside. Players are classed as FT1, FT2 and FT3 depending on how their disability affects a player, with at least one FT1 player and a maximum of one FT3 player required to be on the pitch at all times.

A long-standing All Abilities coach and program coordinator, ACT’s Kelly Stirton will be the ParaMatildas inaugural Head Coach. She expressed her pride at being named head coach and how the potential impact of the ParaMatildas cannot be understated.

“As a head coach in the All Abilities space, this has been a dream of mine to be able to take a team at the national level,” she said.

“Being able to say I’ve coached an Australian team has been a dream because we now have a pathway created from young children to adults and the ability to say to players that they can represent their country.

“This team will stand proudly alongside their Commonwealth Bank Matildas teammates as iconic female footballers and that is an incredible visual that we are portraying as a sport.”

ParaMatilda and London 2012 Paralympian Georgia Beikoff added:

“This will be an absolute dream come true for all of us.  Knowing this will create opportunities to break barriers around the stigma of disability is something that we are all ecstatic about,” she said.

“The girls and I have all faced all sorts of challenges growing up, living with a disability that have been incredibly tough. To platform what we bring as women with CP, ABI or with symptoms of stroke as a national football team, I believe will help pave the way for young girls and boys living with a disability in Australia to face life with a determined and fierce spirit.

“We are so stoked to be able to don the green and gold and join that national team family at Football Australia. In launching a team like the ParaMatildas, I truly believe we will represent and further contribute to the values of diversity, inclusion and a sense of belonging that our sport upholds.”

The ParaMatildas will hold their first camp in April as they prepare to compete in the inaugural IFCPF Women’s World Cup in Spain.  The tournament will take place from 8 – 18 May 2022.

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Australia football needs to fix its football governance before it can fix its referees

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Image Credits: Football Australia

The clearest image yet of Australian football’s refereeing crisis arrived on Wednesday night as Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory met in an Australia Cup semi-final at Jubilee Stadium.

A first ever Big Blue in the competition – and towards it’s pointy end – should have been a showcase event for Australian football but instead, the referees were in the spotlight. Not because of the quality of their officiating, but because of the dire situation the game finds itself in and it’s present need to resort to international imports.

Four Singaporean referees were in charge of the fixture, which Victory won 2-0. Australian referees had refused appointments because of their ongoing dispute with Football Australia. The issue is no longer theoretical. Australian referees are not simply threatening industrial action – their absence has already changed how major matches are delivered. That is a governance failure on the part of Football Australia and the Australian Professional League.

What are the referees fighting for?

Around 90 elite Australian match officials are currently without contracts. That includes referees, assistant referees, fourth officials and video match officials working across the A-Leagues and Australia’s national competitions. The previous contracts expired last month. Some officials are also waiting for outstanding payments from A-League trial matches.

 The Professional Football Referees Association (PFRA) has set three main requirements:

  • It wants the existing contracts extended until June 30, 2027, or until a new agreement or independent refereeing structure is established. 
  • It wants all outstanding match fees and expenses paid.
  • It wants a professional refereeing structure that does not place elite officials directly under the APL, which is controlled by the clubs they officiate. A new central structure is what the referees are demanding and should get.

Evgeny Vizelman, chairman of the PFRA, believes that whilst the strike action is extreme, it is necessary to protect Australian referees.

“We do not take the decision to stop officiating matches lightly,” Vizelman told Sydney Morning Herald last week.

“Our referees are being asked to perform in one of the most scrutinised roles in Australian sport without basic certainty around their employment and, in some cases, without even being paid for work already completed. That is not acceptable.”

Football Australia and the APL have been working towards a new structure, but one in which the two organisations contract separately for Australia Cup and A-League matches. The referees believe that is the wrong model.

Their concern is simple: The APL is 67.7% owned by the A-League Club Unitholders. Essentially, the clubs are appointing their own referees. That creates a perceived conflict.

If the referees sit under Football Australia as a regulator, it ensures there is no conflict of interest and that A-League clubs have no opportunity to influence the referees they may be appointed to matches.

England shows another way

England has already built the structure Australia is struggling to create. Professional Game Referees, or Pro Ref, is the central body overseeing refereeing across the Premier League, EFL, WSL Football and FA competitions. It is funded by those aforementioned competitions.

The important distinction is those competitions do not each run their own separate professional refereeing workforce. Pro Ref manages the system. It oversees appointments, development, training and performance. For the 2026-27 season, its new Professional Referee Group will service the Premier League and EFL Championship.

Officials work within the same professional structure and can be selected across competitions. That centralisation brings consistency. It also allows referees to be treated as a professional group rather than a collection of officials contracted separately by different competitions.

Whilst it is centralised, the system is not perfect. England has also recognised the need for greater independence in assessing referee performances due to Pro Ref being owned and funded by leagues and, as a result, the clubs they represent. However, as the body is also owned in part by the English FA, the governing body can oversee practices.

Pro Ref has also implemented world-leading officiating practices. Its Key Match Incidents panel includes former players and coaches, alongside representatives from the Premier League and Pro Ref, and reviews major decisions independently each week.

Pro Ref now has dedicated development groups, specialist coaching, sports science, psychology and performance analysis. 37 Pro Ref officials are currently on the FIFA International List. That does not prove centralisation alone creates better referees. But it shows what happens when refereeing receives a professional structure, long-term investment and consistent management.

Australian football needs to collaborate

This is where the Australian dispute becomes bigger than referees. Football Australia and the APL have been unable to secure agreement over who funds the referees over a long period of time, leading to this standoff; it comes at the same time as the APL’s difficulty in negotiating a new CBA with the players’ union.

 Both organisations have a role in running their respective parts of the Australian game, but again an industrial dispute has the game appearing in shambles on the eve of another domestic season.

 The most frustrating part of this dispute is that everyone needs the same thing. Football Australia and the APL need referees; there is no doubt the refs deeply value their employment at the elite level. With due respect to Wednesday’s flow-in Singaporean officials – themselves from a valued partner member through our shared position in the AFC – nobody wants to see the circumstances under which they were required on Wednesday continue any longer.

The PFRA dispute should therefore be treated as more than an industrial disagreement. It is an opportunity to fix the structure. Australia should learn from the principle behind Pro Ref and the English system. Centralise, professionalise and protect the officials who manage the game.

Gold Coast International drives futsal growth as international interest surges

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Image Credits: Experience Gold Coast

The 2027 Gold Coast International is set to be the biggest year of growth in the tournament’s history. The tournament has become one of Australia’s premier futsal events. Attracting the best teams from not just Australia but around the world. Andrew Parkes is the founder and managing director of the Gold Coast City Futsal Association and an advisory board member at Football Queensland. He says the tournament, and its international reputation, is only strengthening.

“Registrations are actually a step up from what they were last year,” Parkes said.

“We’ve got several teams from New Zealand. At the moment, we’ve got some Pacific Island teams that have expressed interest in coming. We got interest from Japan, and from England as well.

“We’ve got over 140 teams so far, and that’s not including anything from the local areas.”

Over 200 teams attended the 2026 edition, and the Gold Coast International is well set to break that record next year. The figures show the tournament is becoming more than a local competition. It is building a strong national and international presence.

Football Queensland and Football Australia unite behind growth

Parkes believes collaboration has played a major role in the development of futsal in Queensland. The tournament is sanctioned by both Football Queensland and Football Australia. He praised Football Queensland for its work across the sport. He said the organisation has helped create a stronger and more professional futsal system. This relationship between state and national bodies and the event has allowed the Gold Coast to play host to the national competition as well. This ensures shared resources including referees and courts.

“Football Queensland have been a major driving force and a godsend in relation to the development of futsal,” Parkes said.

“We’ve got the nationals the week before the Gold Coast International now. We’re working in harmony and synergy and supporting each other.

“I think the proofs in the pudding, not just with the Gold Coast International, but with the exposure and obviously the diversity of teams that attend. But then the further development in our local leagues, and that’s resulted in.”

E-sports adds another pathway for players and clubs

E-sports has become another major part of the Gold Coast International. Parkes said he had explored the idea for several years and that the tournament allows the community to grow beyond just the physical players on the court. The use of e-sports also allows friends and families to have an interactive experience with simulators and games whilst at the Gold Coast International.

“We launched e-sports about 2 years ago, just with a bit of a light feel. We’ve incorporated the competition into the tournament fees, which is excellent. So it doesn’t cost anybody anymore to be part of it,” Parkes said.

“It actually allows the clubs and academies to extend on their current offerings as it is at the moment and allows gaming players to be part of the club, to be part of the atmosphere and to join and that unity and be part of that sporting community.”

“We had three times the amount of teams that we had from the first year of e-sports. We’re looking to probably even double that again this year, which is really exciting as well.”

New pathways shape the tournament’s future

Parkes wants the Gold Coast International to keep expanding. He is now looking at ways to create pathways beyond the tournament itself. He said the use of its international experiences that can be earned through the tournament is not only about investing in players. But ensuring coaches have a more time-efficient avenue to be involved with futsal. It also gives more coaches the chance to work with players at an international tournament.

“We’ve now created the Gold Coast International All Stars, which is now embraced by many of the coaches and the players,” Parkes said.

“That also provides coaches who don’t have the time or the ability or whatever for the state teams, and the commitment that they need to put in the state teams throughout the year.”

“It allows us to have a lot more outreach to far more coaches that have a lot of passion and enthusiasm, and be part of the Futsal community. They want to build on the players’ abilities but may not have that year-long or eight-month-long exposure that is required by the state Futsal team coaching staff.”

For Parkes, the future is about widening access while continuing to raise standards. The tournament is growing its international reach, strengthening partnerships and creating new opportunities for both physical and e-sports players. The Gold Coast International is no longer just a tournament. It is becoming a broader platform for the development of futsal and its wider community.

For more information on the Gold Coast International and to inquire about competing in the 2027 edition, visit their website.

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