Football Coaches Australia (FCA) has welcomed the arrival of Tom Sermanni as their new FCA Ambassador in a year that will feature the FIFA Women’s World Cup being jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
Previous FCA Ambassadors include Dr Ron Smith and Ernie Merrick, both of whom transitioned to lead roles at Football Australia following their time at FCA.
Sermanni has coached in the men’s and women’s professional game across Australia, USA, Japan, Canada, Malaysia and New Zealand. Moreover, Sermanni’s vast experience has seen him coach more than 300 international games and countless world-class players during a highly successful career.
Sermanni’s extensive experience, and reputation, as a former NZ, USA and Matildas Coach and current Head of Women’s Football at Western Sydney Wanderers, Assistant Coach to the Canadian Women’s National Team and FIFA Coach Mentor, places FCA in a privileged position to have Sermanni involved with their Association as an Ambassador.
A 2010 Asian Cup winner with the Matildas, Sermanni will lend his significant expertise to and provide valuable commentary and insights on FCA issues relevant to coaches in Australia. The role will involve Sermanni acting as an FCA advocate, spokesperson and coaching mentor to champion a range of strategies which raise FCA’s profile, coaching development expertise, and experience in supporting accredited and community coaches in Australia.
In committing to the FCA Ambassador role Sermanni stated:
“I am really honoured to be taking on the role at FCA and I’m privileged to be asked. The main focus for me is to contribute positively in the coaching space. As coaches, we’re all in the same business and we’re competitors at the same time, and because of that we can often be isolated. It’s important to be united as coaches and to support one another and look after each other. For me, heading into this role it’s about supporting both individual coaches and the coaching profession as a whole,” Tom stated.
“It’s a new role for me, and my goal is to help out in any way possible to help improve conditions for coaches, coaching education, and to ultimately advocate for coaches. There’s been improvements overtime from a playing perspective, and part of my role is advocating for coaches to be recognised in the same way and to make their working conditions better.
“My hope is to get involved especially in supporting female coaches, as the majority of my coaching experience has been in the women’s game. Conditions for female football players still need to get better but have improved significantly over the last few years. Now I think it’s important that conditions improve for the recognition of female coaches to encourage them to get into the game, and hopefully I can contribute in that way.”
FCA President Phil Moss acknowledged the appointment by stating:
“Tommy is first and foremost one of the most genuine people I have met in football and aligns perfectly with the values and culture FCA has worked so hard to build and staunchly protects.” he said.
“His work in and around football both here and internationally speaks for itself and we are very excited by Tommy’s humility and his incredible enthusiasm to make a difference with FCA for our members.
“His passion for people and sharing knowledge is second to none and we are thrilled to have one of the great characters and football minds officially involved in all the great work FCA is doing!”
On previous FCA Ambassador Ernie Merrick, Moss expressed:
“Tommy comes on board to replace our outgoing Ambassador Ernie Merrick who was absolutely fantastic for our organization. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Ernie for his considerable contribution to FCA and of course we look forward to continuing to work closely with him in his new and richly deserved role at Football Australia.”
FCA Vice President Sarah West reaffirmed the importance of Tom’s arrival at FCA:
“Tom is a highly respected member of our football community and his impressive coaching CV speaks for itself,” she said,
“We are absolutely delighted to welcome him as our new Ambassador, particularly as he has been an active and vocal supporter of FCA since we entered the Australian football landscape five years ago.
“Tom’s exhaustive knowledge of the opportunities and challenges that specifically relate to women’s football will also be a real asset as we seek to improve employment conditions for female coaches and coaches working in women’s football.”
On the outgoing FCA Ambassador Ernie Merrick, West added:
“Ernie has been an outstanding ambassador and supporter of the work FCA has been doing, and has deservedly moved into a role with Football Australia where he can implement positive change from the inside.” she added.
“We are really grateful for his advocacy in the role of FCA Ambassador and thank him for his continued service to Australia’s football coaches.”
Football Coaches Australia (FCA) is the lead advocacy organisation in Australia representing accredited and community coaches. Visit www.footballcoachesaus.org.au for more information.
