Football Queensland President Ben Richardson’s letter to the football community

Staff Writer
Football Queensland

To all members of our Queensland football community, 

After two years of unprecedented challenges and interruptions to our game with the ongoing impacts of COVID-19, in recent weeks we’ve once again found ourselves coming together to work through a significant crisis as a sport and as a community. 

As the water recedes and we prepare for the return of football in many regions from this weekend, it is poignant to reflect on the devastation caused by the recent flood event across a huge number of our football clubs in the South East Queensland and Wide Bay regions. 

It has been personally heartbreaking to see the hard work of dedicated volunteers washed away in just a matter of days. Many of you may not be aware of the true scale of devastation, especially for those whose clubs have been lucky enough to escape significant damage. 

Football Queensland has been working closely with clubs to assess the impact of the recent flood event and is continuing to learn more about the severity of damage inflicted, primarily across South East Queensland. 

So far, Football Queensland has identified 102 clubs who have been affected by flooding; this includes 90 fields inundated with water, 42 club changeroom buildings and 37 clubhouses heavily damaged, 21 clubs with damaged machinery and 21 clubs with damage to their field lighting, with many still yet to be assessed. 

All parts of our game have been impacted, with FQ’s own headquarters at Meakin Park submerged in two metres of floodwater for many days and the clean-up only able to begin in the last week.  

Our focus has remained on supporting our clubs through this time as we know they have lost the most. Run by volunteers who dedicate countless hours to prepare fields and maintain clubhouses and facilities each week, sustaining damage of this magnitude is absolutely devastating for clubs and their members. 

It was a pleasure to welcome Will Hastie and Alex Davani from Football Australia to Queensland this week to discuss support and recovery efforts while visiting some of the clubs and facilities who were heavily impacted.  

Football Queensland launched a dedicated Flood Support Hub in the wake of the flood event, providing a go-to place for clubs to seek assistance from the football community, find information on fundraising and relevant funding opportunities, and connect them with volunteers willing to help in their clean-up efforts. 

The Flood Support Hub is also providing clubs with access to relevant webinars and helpful resources from our partners to help them get back on their feet, and will continue to be updated as more resources become available.  

With the support of Football Australia, Football Queensland wrote to the Queensland Premier advising of the impacts of the flood event being experienced by so many of our clubs and seeking assistance in football’s recovery efforts. We were delighted to hear the Queensland Government announcement just days later of disaster recovery funding being made available for sporting organisations, and encourage all impacted clubs to apply for funding of up to $20,000 via the Queensland Government website once applications open. 

We have also been working with both the State and Federal Governments and relevant local councils to accommodate a return to football as soon as possible, and we’re delighted to have been able to get many competitions back up and running across the state from this weekend. 

We understand that even those clubs and participants not directly affected by flooding have been impacted in recent weeks as we’ve been forced to postpone fixtures at all levels of the game in certain regions, and we thank you for your ongoing patience and cooperation. 

Whilst our focus remains first and foremost on supporting our clubs and volunteers who still have a tough road ahead of them, we are also excited to get players at every level of the game back out on the park in many regions from this weekend onwards. We know this will lift the spirits of so many across our game who have been personally impacted by the flood event. 

It has been truly incredible to see our football community band together over the last few weeks to provide support wherever it was needed. Whilst the sport is what unites each of us, it is the unwavering community spirit off the pitch that makes football the beautiful game. 

As we continue to navigate the ongoing challenges of flood recovery alongside many of our clubs, the resumption of competitions this weekend is a timely and welcome reminder that even in the hardest of times, football will always return. 

Ben Richardson
President
Football Queensland

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Football NSW workshop offers clubs rare insight into elite talent pathway as development gap comes under scrutiny

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Image Credit: Football NSW

Football NSW has delivered a Club Capability Building Workshop designed to give community club coaches direct exposure to the methodology underpinning the state’s elite Talent Support Program, in an initiative that addresses one of the more persistent structural problems in Australian football development.

The workshop, led by Player Development Managers Phil Myall and Nadine Sheils, who oversee the technical direction of the Boys and Girls Talent Support Programs, combined classroom presentation with pitch-side observation of live TSP fixtures. Coaches from clubs including Rydalmere FC attended sessions covering talent identification processes, player development models, coaching methodology, Individual Development Plans and player profiling based on technical traits and competencies.

The structure of the day, moving coaches from theory into a live competitive environment, reflects an attempt to close a gap that has long shaped the relationship between community clubs and elite talent pathways in Australian football. Club coaches typically operate with limited visibility into how state-level development programs actually function in practice, relying on secondhand information, accreditation course material or assumptions about what elite environments look like. The workshop replaced that distance with direct access.

Why the gap matters

Talent Support Programs exist to identify and accelerate the state’s most promising young players, but the players who enter those programs come from community clubs first. If the coaching methodology and development philosophy applied within elite pathways is poorly understood at the community level, the two systems risk operating with misaligned expectations of what good development actually looks like.

This means a player developed in a club environment that does not share the technical language or coaching priorities of the elite pathway may find the transition into a Talent Support Program more difficult than it needs to be, not because of any deficiency in the player but because the systems around them were not speaking to each other.

Football NSW’s decision to bring club coaches into direct contact with TSP methodology, including observation of live matches rather than theoretical instruction alone, represents an attempt to narrow that gap at the level where it matters most. Rydalmere FC’s Head of MJDL, Michael Canale, said the experience offered a clear reference point for his own club’s program.

“It was great to see how the FNSW Talent Support Program operates and the level of alignment from the methodology and match environment,” Canale said. “For us at Rydalmere FC, I took away ideas that we can look to build into our own programme. It provided a really clear reference point and an opportunity to reflect on how we can continue to strengthen our environment moving forward.”

A model for industry-wide capability

The workshop also points to a broader question facing football governing bodies as participation continues to climb nationally. As more players enter community football and the demand for genuine development pathways grows, the capability of community coaches becomes a determining factor in whether that growth translates into improved player outcomes or simply more players moving through under-resourced environments.

Football NSW’s approach, embedding observation and direct engagement with technical staff alongside structured presentation, offers a model that other state federations grappling with similar capability gaps may look to replicate. The collaborative element of the day, where coaches from different clubs compared notes and aligned their understanding of TSP application, also suggests an organisation attempting to build a shared development language across its club network rather than treating elite pathway knowledge as something that remains internal to Football NSW staff.

Whether that shared language translates into measurable improvement in player outcomes at community level will depend on how consistently workshops like this one are delivered, and whether the ideas coaches take away are genuinely implemented rather than simply observed. For now, the initiative represents a concrete step toward addressing a gap that has shaped Australian football development for years, the distance between what elite pathways do and what community clubs understand about how and why they do it.

Inaugural 2026 UEFA Walking Football EURO Cup begins

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Image credit: Brisbane Roar FC

On 25 June, senior players from across Europe will take part in the first UEFA Walking Football EURO Cup at UEFA HQ in Lyon, Switzerland.

 

It’s everyone’s game

When thinking about football, fans tend to imagine the fast-paced, adrenaline-pumping action of the professional game. That is where excitement and drama is, usually, at its highest.

But growing within the wider football landscape is a version of the game which, rather than focusing on speed, instead champions enjoyment, health and participation for senior participants.

Walking football is proof that football truly belongs to everyone. UEFA’s commitment to staging the inaugral tournament on 25 June reflects the organisation’s understanding that a love for the beautiful game stays despite age, injury, or mobility issues.

Alongside the 2026 UEFA Walking Football Euro Cup is the release of the UEFA Walking Football Toolkit. This aims to provide more information about the game, benefitting associations, leagues and clubs and encompasses contributions from national associations of England, the Faroe Islands, France, Gibraltar, Portugal, Poland and Sweden.

 

A brief history of walking football – and its importance

From its beginnings in the UK in 2011, walking football has since expanded across Europe and the world to give senior players a chance to be socially and physically active – all within a safe, minimal-impact environment.

And the game – despite its more steady nature – is gathering real pace here in Australia.

In October 2021, Football Australia introduced the first ever Seniors Football Week. Also, just last month, Brisbane Roar hosted the 2026 IWFF Walking Football World Championships at Perry Park – the first time the tournament has taken place in the entire Southern Hemisphere.

The implication, therefore, is that walking football will continue to grow and welcome more members of the community with a desire to dust off their old boots and join a team.

From youth teams to walking football, everyone in the pyramid shares the same love for the game. And there is no reason why, when speaking about the cohesive football development, that walking football shouldn’t be included in future planning and strategic visions.

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