Future of Football 2020+ constitutional reforms passed by Football Queensland

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Queensland have taken massive strides towards a stronger footballing future with the announcement that constitutional reforms have been passed across the game.

In what is significant news for the state, the Future of Football 2020+ constitutional reforms have been passed following a vote at the Football Queensland Extraordinary General Meeting held on Saturday, August 28.

FQ Members voted on 11 resolutions put forward with an overwhelming show of support for the Future of Football 2020+ reforms, the first the game has seen in 20 years.

Football Queensland President Ben Richardson acknowledged the significance of the occasion for the state’s footballing participants.

“Today is a momentous day for football in Queensland and we have reached an incredibly exciting milestone. I want to thank our members and the wider football community for embracing change and for their feedback, input and support throughout this state-wide 14-month process,” he said.

“Importantly, today’s outcome represents another crucial step towards the implementation of the ‘One Football’ model outlined in Football Australia’s XI Principles, highlighting the need for a modern streamlined governance framework that will better serve the game, reduce duplication, improve affordability and the quality of football product delivered.”

Football Queensland CEO Robert Cavallucci explained that the focus of the Future of Football 2020+ process has now shifted to implementation of key reforms to strengthen the game and its delivery across the state.

“We can now move forward with common purpose and with certainty we can continue to unite football in Queensland behind a modern, streamlined, responsive, efficient and effective governance and administrative framework from which the entire football community will benefit,” he said.

“2020 and 2021 saw great change across our game in Queensland, our competitions and administration, all built around delivering important reforms to the game.

“2022 and beyond will see years of stability, with remaining elements of these generational reforms implemented, with a focus shifting towards unlocking the commercial potential of our game, improving services to community clubs, improving affordability and preparing our infrastructure for the Women’s World Cup in 2023.”

Football Australia CEO James Johnson congratulated Football Queensland for taking important steps forward in the governance of football across the state.

“We congratulate the Board and Members of Football Queensland on this positive step forward for football in Queensland,” he said.

“Football Queensland have recognised the need to review and modernise its structures so that it can better meet the challenges of modern-day football and deliver the game more effectively and with greater impact for all participants in Queensland.

“This is a significant milestone for football in Queensland and we look forward to seeing the continued growth of the game across the state.”

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Football Victoria joins campaign to fight racism in sport

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Image credit: Football Victoria

With the launch of the Victorian Government’s Racism Doesn’t Belong in Our Game campaign, Football Victoria joins several sporting organisations in the state to ensure sport remains inclusive and welcoming for all.

 

About the campaign

Racism Doesn’t Belong in Our Game aims to raise awareness of racism in community sport, uniting organisations and associations like VACSAL, Vicsport, VicHealth and more.

Football Victoria, as the state’s governing body for the beautiful game, will affirm its commitment to ensuring football is a safe and inclusive place for all who play, coach or support by joining the campaign.

It reflects the leadership and guidance of the Centre for Multicultural Youth (CMY) and its CMSport initiative, a service provider with over 30 years of experience in supporting diversity in sports through training, coaching and mentoring, and consulting support.

“It has been fantastic to work with CMSport, CMY and the other sporting codes to bring this campaign to life,” said FV Executive Manager of Equity Growth and Government Relations Karen Pearce via media release.

“The Racism Doesn’t Belong in Our Game campaign started with a pledge from all seven codes to tackle racism, and I really do believe that we can achieve that as a cohesive group pulling toward the same goals.”

 

Strength in diversity

Australia is an immensely diverse and multicultural nation. According to numbers from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the population includes 8.8 million people born overseas, representing 32% of the population. 48% have a parent born overseas, while 4% is Indigenous.

It should therefore be expected – and indeed, welcomed – that Australia’s most-participated sport reflects this multiculturalism.

But for many who want to enjoy playing or watching football in their local community, incidents of racism continue to plague their experiences in the game.

“Research tells us over 56% of Victorian community sport have reported experiencing or witnessing racism, a truly alarming number,” Pearce continued.

“We look forward to working together to lower that stat as we try to stamp out racism in sport once and for all.”

Racism Doesn’t Belong in Our Game ultimately embodies not only the goal for all sport going forward, but the best way through which to achieve it.

That is, through unity and championing the diversity which makes Australia a nation to admire.

Football Australia Expands Mental Skills Program for Match Officials Amid Sustained Focus on Referee Retention

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Image Credit: Football NSW

Football Australia has confirmed a second national webinar for match officials, led by sports psychologist Dr Liam Slack, extending a referee development series introduced after strong engagement with an initial session on managing match-day pressure.

The upcoming session, themed “parking with purpose,” will focus on decision-making strategies designed to help referees process on-field calls and reset attention quickly across a match that can present hundreds of individual decisions. Dr Slack, who also consults with The Football Association and the AFC Referee Academy and previously spent over a decade as a performance psychologist with the Professional Game Match Officials Limited in England, brings substantial elite-level experience to a program open to officials at every level, from grassroots to professional.

The theme builds on work Dr Slack has already delivered within Australian officiating. He recently led a session with Football Australia’s National Referee Academy on the same concept, framing the ability to consciously park a decision and refocus on the next phase of play as a trainable skill rather than an innate trait, one that separates officials who reset quickly under pressure from those who don’t. He has also addressed more than 100 Football Australia elite match officials and staff on developing a stronger match-day mentality, an indication of how embedded this psychological framework has become across the officiating pathway rather than remaining a one-off intervention.

The expansion of the webinar series reflects a broader shift in how football administrators are approaching referee attrition. Rather than treating retention purely as a recruitment or pay problem, the program signals an institutional acknowledgment that the psychological demands of officiating, particularly the compounding pressure of split-second decisions under public scrutiny, are a material factor in whether officials remain in the game.

It rests alongside other measures adopted across Australian football in recent years, including visible identification programs for junior referees and structural reviews of referee departments at state federation level, all aimed at the same underlying issue: a shrinking pool of match officials relative to demand.

Football Australia has not detailed metrics for assessing the program’s impact on referee numbers, though the recurring engagement of an internationally credentialed specialist across multiple tiers of the officiating pathway suggests sustained institutional investment in the approach.

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