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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Jets and University of Newcastle Unite to Empower Future Leaders

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Image Credit: Australia Cup

The Newcastle Jets have announced they will renew their partnership with the University of Newcastle for the next three years.

Both the Jets and the University will exchange resources to provide hands-on learning opportunities to the next generation of students across Sports Science, Physiotherapy and the Business School.

Newcastle Jets CEO, Tain Drinkwater, expressed his delight at how the partnership is helping to push for equality in football by supporting both the men’s and women’s teams.

“Through this partnership, we’re providing University of Newcastle students with invaluable opportunities to gain real-world experience within a professional football environment,” he said in a press release.

“The University’s commitment to equality and a sustainable future for female football is also something we’re incredibly proud to showcase, with their logo represented on both our A-League Men’s and Women’s jerseys this season.

“Together, we’re building stronger pathways, creating opportunities, and championing the growth of football in our region.”

The new agreement will continue to support player education through the University’s sports scholarship program and its influence on the Jets’ pathways initiatives.

University of Newcastle Deputy Vice-Chancellor Equity and Engagement, Nathan Towney, also spoke on the new opportunities the partnership will provide for the University’s students.

“This renewed alliance is a collaboration that reflects our shared commitment to excellence, our community, and providing education pathway opportunities for our students and the Jets players,” he said in a press release.

“Through this partnership, we’re not just cheering from the sidelines; together, we’re actively contributing to creating a space for our students and Jets players to thrive, while contributing to the vibrancy and well-being of our community through football and support for the Jets.”

The University has been actively involved through education, athlete development and community engagement across Northern NSW.

Students will gain valuable real-world experience within a professional sporting environment through the partnership, which hopes to help shape the next generation of leaders in football.

Off the Pitch Podcast: Cavallucci On the Importance of FQ’s Future Club+ Initiative for Local Clubs

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Image Credit: Football Queensland

On Episode 16 of Soccerscene’s Off the Pitch Podcast, it was a special episode with FQ CEO Rob Cavallucci ahead of the all-important 2025 Queensland Football Convention.

Many topics around the issues in Queensland football were discussed including Futsal’s incredible growth, update on Perry Park’s upgrade plan and driving player retention in certain youth age groups.

On the topic of administration, FQ’s new Future Club+ is a ground-breaking initiative designed to strengthen the foundations of football clubs across the state.

The concept of this began after last year’s convention and through interactive club lab sessions and ongoing consultation, FQ are continuing those discussions and driving practical change.

Cavallucci discussed the current volunteering and administration issues that are plaguing local football clubs.

“Future Club+ is in line with what I talked about earlier in regard to what we need to do to best position this sport for the next 20 years,” he said.

“Clubs are run by volunteers and volunteerism is waning. A lot of clubs can’t get the administration right because they also can’t get the governance right.

“The sport is run by volunteers and when you look at the fact that volunteerism is declining in Australia across every sport, you know it’s a problem we have to solve right now.

“From a governing body point of view, when you look at that, that’s actually a limiting factor on the success of our sport.”

He also gave a solution on how FQ are going to tackle this in the future, specifically in regards to what  Future Club+ will offer in the 2025 Queensland Football Convention and beyond.

“We need to start to work with clubs to transform how they manage themselves and that means a whole series of things. Hence the Future Club+ concept is looking at that and rethinking about best practice of how a club should operate,” he said.

“What we’ve been doing over the last 18 months through a series of webinars and in the last convention, and even in this upcoming one, there’s three Future Club+ sessions and it’s all about best practice at a club.”

In this convention, the three Future Club+ sessions are:

#1 What data reveals about your club future

#2 The amalgamation playbook: Real stories from the clubs forging the future

#3 The growth engine: your tool kit to fund staff and empower volunteers.

“Those three subjects should be very appealing to any club.”

Click hear the full interview with Rob Cavallucci, on Episode 16 of Soccerscene’s Off the Pitch Podcast – available on all major podcasting platforms.

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