Football Coaches Australia supports Heartbeat of Football to promote healthy hearts in football

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FCA

Football Coaches Australia (FCA) – Australia’s national Association for qualified coaches at professional, semi-professional & community levels – and Heartbeat of Football (HOF) have agreed to work together to promote healthy hearts in Football and enhance one of FCA’s key pillars: Wellbeing.

Glenn Warry, FCA CEO stated:

“Football Coaches Australia is pleased to be partnering with Heartbeat of Football to raise awareness of heart health to all football coach cohorts around the country. There are two important reasons for coaches at all levels to be involved:

“Firstly, to understand their own wellbeing status and need to monitor their own health via the Heart Health Check as coaching at all levels can lead to increased stress levels. There are a range of negative emotional, physical and behavioural responses to stress and this includes cardiovascular and other serious medical conditions.

“Secondly, to promote and support education of all other stakeholders at their Clubs via CPR & Automated External Defibrillator (AED) training and ensuring that the Club’s AED is accessible & rescue-ready. This important education should be integral within all coach professional development programs.”

Andy Paschalidis, HOF Founder & CEO, added:

“It is vitally important that the whole football family gets behind heart health awareness in our game, and having FCA’s support is critical as coaches as educators and influencers can play a key role in spreading the life-saving messages of getting your heart health checked regularly and advocating for defibrillators at all sporting grounds that are “Rescue-Ready” – VISIBLE, ACCESSIBLE and ACTIONABLE.”

FCA and HOF will work together on advocacy and awareness programmes, as well extending the unique preventative heart health testing days to FCA members – working together to save lives!

Football Coaches Australia (FCA) was formed in November 2017 and is Australia’s national Association for qualified coaches. Football Coaches Australia currently consists of over 250 Advance Licence and Community coach members across the country. Through close collaboration with each member State Federation and Football Australia (FA), and leveraging corporate and government relationships, they aim to provide a holistic support model for coaches – with key pillars of Advocacy, Professional Development, Wellbeing and Gender Equity and Diversity.

The objectives of Football Coaches Australia are:

  • Represent and provide a collective voice for professional and community football coaches.
  • Provide opportunities for Australian football coaches to contribute intellectually to national player pathways.

Heartbeat of Football Heartbeat of Football (HOF), a not-for-profit organisation, was established in early 2016 by media personality and football enthusiast Andy Paschalidis as a direct result of cardiac arrest events on the football field. Heartbeat of Football promotes healthy hearts in sport via:

  • Awareness & Education: player, participant & community programs;
  • Prevention: minimisation of health risks through simple screening checks and
  • Action: “rescue-ready” defibrillators at all sporting fields around the country, starting in NSW.
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Filopoulos: Football Must Move Beyond Campaigns to Win Fans for Good

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Image Credit: Perth Glory

Global marketing and advisory firm Bastion has strengthened its leadership team with the appointment of Peter Filopoulos as Managing Director, Experience. This decision brings one of Australian football’s most influential administrators into a new phase of the sports business landscape.

Filopoulos, who has held senior roles across Football Australia, Football Victoria and Perth Glory, will lead Bastion’s experiential and partnerships division, applying a football-informed lens to brand engagement.

Drawing on his time in the game, Filopoulos emphasised the importance of cohesion in building meaningful fan connections.

“For me, the biggest lesson is that fans don’t see brand, content and experience as individual silos, they experience it all as one connected ecosystem,” he said.

“At Football Australia, the work resonated most when everything was aligned; the team, the narrative, the partners and the matchday experience all working together to feel cohesive and authentic. That’s when engagement moves beyond interaction and becomes something far more meaningful.”

He added that too many organisations still treat fan engagement as short-term.

“Where a lot of organisations fall short is treating fan engagement as a campaign. It’s not, it’s an always-on system.”

Filopoulos’ move reflects a broader shift within football, where commercial growth is increasingly driven by experience-led strategy.

“At Bastion, we put experience at the centre—because it’s where the brand comes to life, where partners integrate in a way that adds real value and where fans genuinely connect,” he said.

“Our focus is on building platforms that bring fans closer to the brand… Get that right, and you’re creating something people actively want to be part of.”

Pushing for First Nations representation in the game with Football Queensland’s Murri Cup

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Image Credit: Football Queensland

Football Queensland has announced the inaugural FQ Murri Cup, a two-day tournament celebrating First Nations cultures and showcasing Indigenous football talent from across Queensland, to be held at Nudgee Recreation Reserve on November 28 and 29.

The competition, developed in close consultation with Football Australia’s National Indigenous Advisory Group and Football Australia’s General Manager of First Nations Courtney Fewquandie, will feature a Coles MiniRoos activation, a Charles Perkins XI Talent ID session and a community stallholder zone alongside the on-field competition. Expressions of interest are open now for individuals and teams across the state.

More than a tournament

The launch arrives at a moment when the structural underrepresentation of First Nations Australians in organised sport, at the administrative, coaching, and pathway levels, is under sustained scrutiny. Football, like most codes, has historically failed to build the kind of community-embedded structures that make sustained Indigenous participation possible rather than incidental.

The FQ Murri Cup is a direct response to that gap. By centering First Nations culture within the competition itself, rather than treating it as supplementary to a standard football event, the tournament signals a shift in how the game positions Indigenous participation as a community with its own relationship to the sport that deserves its own platform.

The inclusion of a Talent ID session carries specific weight. Structured pathways into elite football have not always been accessible to players from regional and remote Indigenous communities, where geography, cost and cultural barriers compound one another. Embedding that opportunity within a culturally safe environment lowers the threshold at the point where it most frequently closes.

“The FQ Murri Cup will bring together First Nations players, families and communities for a two-day celebration, providing a wonderful opportunity to acknowledge the contributions of First Nations participants within our game,” said Football Queensland CEO Robert Cavallucci.Mu

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