Football Queensland teams up with TAFE Queensland to deliver diploma program for 2024

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Football Queensland Diploma Program
Image credit: TAFE Queensland

Football Queensland’s Diploma Program for 2024 is set to be delivered in conjunction with TAFE Queensland.

The program is a 12-month course and provides graduates with a Diploma of Sport.

Unlike broader programs, this one will provide students with the opportunity to complete their studies in a practical football centric environment. This will include work integrated learning that will be facilitated directly with Football Queensland.

The opportunity to complete workplace learning with the governing body will be a huge sell for the program and is likely to be a great way for the quality of Queensland football to grow.

The studies themselves will cover a wide range of sports relates subjects, all geared towards preparing students to work in industry upon graduation.

Some of the areas covered in the course include high performance training, coaching techniques, the management of people, and the management of sporting events.

Graduates will be qualified to work as coaches or sport development managers. They will also be equipped to design, deliver, and manage a range of football activities, including training sessions, junior activations, tournaments and competitions.

The program will be headquartered at Meakin Park, giving students direct access to the heart of the Queensland game.

Through the programs proximity to the body, students will be able to regularly engage with quality football facilities as well as guest lecturers both from Football Queensland itself and also the wider sports industry.

Discussing this exciting opportunity, Football Queensland CEO Robert Cavallucci expressed the governing bodies excitement at being able to directly facilitate its states next generation of administrative talent.

“Following the success of the TAFE at Schools program, we’re delighted to deliver the Football Queensland Diploma Program from 2024 as part of our partnership with TAFE Queensland,” he said via press release.

“Football is already the state’s largest participation sport, and with our game only continuing to grow in the wake of the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023™ there has never been a better time to begin working towards a career in football.”

TAFE Queensland’s Academy Sport Manager Jesse O’Hara spoke of how this deal solidifies Queensland as the new frontier for football in Australia.

“Students are craving real world learning with tangible career outcomes, a style of learning that suits us naturally at TAFE Queensland. With the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 happening on our doorstep and the constant growth in football participation across the state, the football industry has never been stronger in Queensland,” he added via press release.

“We view this program as the ideal pathway for students looking to embark on their career with the football, and broader sports industry.”

This program is an exciting development for the growth of football not only in Queensland but also nationwide.

Through focusing its program on the development of the future administrators of the game, Football Queensland is helping to secure an efficient future for football in this country that is also one that is self-sufficient.

For students, this program will be a great pathway into real-world experience and coupling that with TAFE Queensland’s diploma-to-degree pathway, this will be a great step to help students keen to be involved in sport but unsure of how to gain both a qualification and industry experience while also keeping the door open to further study.

For those readers interested in participating in the scheme please visit https://tafeqld.edu.au/sportsacademy.

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Football NSW releases $600,000 towards Grassroots Grants to meet Participation Pressure

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The Victorian State Government has announced new grants and funding for 11 new community infrastructure projects for local football clubs, totalling $3.8 million.
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Sixty-five football clubs across New South Wales have secured a combined total of nearly $600,000 in funding through the NSW Office of Sport’s Local Sports Grant Program. It follows as a result of Football NSW’s scale of demand for community sport support and the growing pressure on clubs struggling to keep pace with surging participation.

The grants, covering 69 individual projects across the Football NSW footprint, will fund facility upgrades, equipment purchases, participation programs and accessibility improvements: the unglamorous but essential infrastructure that determines whether community clubs can function at the level their members require.

The Local Sports Grant Program made up to $4.65 million available statewide in 2025, with $50,000 allocated to each electoral district and individual grants capped at $20,000. Football’s share of nearly $600,000 reflects the sport’s status as the largest participation code in NSW, and the degree to which that status has not always been matched by corresponding investment in the facilities and resources required to sustain it.

Volunteers carrying an unsustainable load

The announcement arrives against a backdrop of mounting pressure on the volunteer workforce that keeps community football operational. Across NSW, thousands of volunteers dedicate significant unpaid time each week to administration, ground preparation, canteen operation and the logistical demands of running competitive junior and senior programs. As participation numbers climb, driven in part by the sustained visibility of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup and the legacy of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, those demands have intensified without a corresponding increase in the resources available to meet them.

“As the largest participation sport in NSW it is pleasing to see almost $600,000 will be reinvested back into supporting our players, coaches, referees and volunteers to improve the football experience across our community clubs,” said Helen Armson, Football NSW’s Group Head of Strategic Partnerships and Corporate Affairs.

The equity dimension

The distribution of the grants across 65 clubs and 69 projects also speaks to the geographic breadth of football’s footprint in NSW, and to the uneven distribution of resources that has historically characterised community sport in this country. Clubs in outer metropolitan and regional areas tend to operate with smaller budgets, older facilities and thinner volunteer bases than their inner-city counterparts. Grant programs structured around electoral allocation, rather than club size or existing resource base, provide a degree of equity that market-driven funding cannot.

The kinds of projects funded under this program disproportionately benefit clubs serving communities where the barriers to participation are highest. A club that cannot offer adequate facilities or equipment is a club that turns players away, often without intending to.

Football NSW has used the announcement to call on the NSW Government to maintain and extend its investment in the sport. “We urge the government to continue to invest in football,” Armson said, in the midst for a nation-wide push for a $343 million decade-long infrastructure fund to address the facilities gap across the state.

The nearly $600,000 secured through this round is meaningful. Against the scale of what is needed, it is also a measure of how far the investment still has to go.

Victory unites with Roasting Warehouse in culture-led partnership

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Image credit: Melbourne Victory

The Melbourne-based anf family-owned business will join the Victory family, uniting two institutions which represent the city’s culture and identity.

A partnership with local roots

As the newest partner of Melbourne Victory, Roasting Warehouse joins forces with a vital part of the city’s sporting landscape.

The club’s Managing Director, Caroline Carnegie, outlined why the partnership bears so much value to both parties.

“We are excited to collaborate with Roasting Warehouse, a community-oriented destination for high-quality coffee, proud of its foundations in Melbourne,” said Carnegie via official media release.

“Football and coffee sit at the epicentre of Melbourne’s culture. The two go hand-in-hand, consistently at the centre of the conversation that stirs Melburnians, which is no different to the conversation sport and Melbourne Victory stir in the State.”

Indeed, this is a partnership which combines the identity, passions and culture of an entire city, therefore giving it the foundations required for long-term, mutual success.

Representing the best of Melbourne

Both Victory and Roasting Warehouse are hugely successful in their respective industries. They are institutions with community-oriented philosphies, who pride themselves on craft and quality.

“We’re incredibly proud to partner with Melbourne Victory, a club that represents the heart, passion, and ambition of Melbourne,” revealed Roasting Warehouse Head of Brand, Alexander Paraskevopoulos.

“As a Melbourne-founded, family-run business, supporting a team that means so much to the local community feels very natural for us.”

Furthermore, through their high-quality blends, Roasting Warehouse will look to prepare Victory’s players and staff for high performances on the pitch as the seasons nears completion.

But this is about far more than just fueling athletes.

This is a partnership which embodies and unites two of Melbourne’s greatest strengths and cultural markers – a connection forged from the city’s very own DNA.

 

For more information about Roasting Warehouse, click here.

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