Gold Coast United Chairman Danny Maher: “We are chomping at the bit to get back into the A-League”

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Danny Maher is the current Chairman of Gold Coast United FC and is leading the charge to bring a Gold Coast team back into the A-League.

In a wide-ranging chat with Soccerscene, Maher speaks openly about his involvement in the game, provides an update on Gold Coast’s bid for the A-League, the current on and off the field progress of Gold Coast United and his future ambitions for football in the city.

First of all, I’ll ask about your role in Gold Coast United – how did your involvement come about and what is your background in the game?

Danny Maher: There was a group of business people who got together to return A-League to the Gold Coast basically, but with a strong focus on reforming the elite pathways at the Gold Coast. We wanted to start by ensuring there was at least two top NPL clubs on the Gold Coast and provide some local interest in the game.

So, we reformed Gold Coast United, entering it into the National Premier Leagues (NPL). I am the Chairman of the club and I was obviously heading that reformation process. I’m also chairing the A-League bid for the city.

I’ve got kids that play the game, I played representative football and was one of those people who left the game as a teenager. I was president of Magic United prior to this, which has basically now turned into the Gold Coast Knights (the other NPL club in the city).

I’m very much using my background of being a tech entrepreneur and investor, looking at it as a long-term play, with a group of business people that are very interested in football.

Is there an update on Gold Coast’s A-League bid, are there any details you can reveal?

Danny Maher: I can. The A-League bid is separate from Gold Coast United and it’s an all of city bid supported by both NPL entities and the city itself. I chair an investment firm and that’s the lead entity for the bid. It’s backed majorly by a group of US business people including Jordan Gardner and Brett Johnson. They lead a US consortium that own football clubs around the world and would like to add the Gold Coast in to their portfolio of clubs.

If a Gold Coast bid were to be accepted in the A-League again, how would the team excel this time around?

Danny Maher: First of all, we need to determine the brand it would fall under and whether we would return to the Gold Coast United moniker. That will be up to the city, all the football clubs and participants, but ultimately the decision will be made by the owners and the APL.

One of the previous myths about the A-League and the Gold Coast is that United went under, but it actually didn’t. The license was removed by the FFA when Clive Palmer was butting heads with Frank Lowy, but the club didn’t fold.

We’ve got a situation at the Gold Coast where we have two excellent NPL clubs, the fastest growing population in Australia, the largest population without an A-League team, an empty $200 million stadium and an international football group that is backing the bid.

The AFL and NRL both have a professional team here and they are investing heavily in those sports in this area, but we are not asking for a dollar. We are just asking for permission to invest.

Would the consortium look to enter a national second division, or would it only consider an A-League expansion spot?

Danny Maher: The consortium for the A-League bid isn’t interested in joining a National Second Division at the moment, but the NPL clubs individually will look at that. For example, Gold Coast United, the NPL entity, may be interested in the second division and we are currently part of that group investigating the viability of a second division.

How is the Gold Coast United NPL club currently progressing on and off the pitch?

Danny Maher: It’s a really happy place. It’s the highest rated academy in Queensland, I believe. It’s the only academy in this region that has females and our senior women were the league champions last year. The men are going well, we don’t spend the amount of money some of the other clubs do as we are pursuing a long-term strategy with a youth policy. We’ve got a great facility that council has provided us down at Tallebudgera. It’s a really peaceful, scenic setting with six football fields and three of them operated by Gold Coast United. We have a really low turnover of players and its quite difficult to get in the academy.

We have good levels of sponsorship so we don’t use any junior fees to fund senior programs, so that’s great, and we focus strongly on the junior setup having to be self-sustaining.

One last one Danny, where do you want to see Gold Coast football with the NPL entities and the A-League bid moving forward in the next 5-10 years?

Danny Maher: We definitely would like to see sustainable NPL clubs that have good local competition and we want to see the football ecosystem connected. So, for example, clubs working together and not being sensitive about talented players moving to the correct pathway for them. We want to see committees, from the Gold Coast Knights and ourselves, collaborating together for the greater good of the game and leaving the competition to the fans, players and coaches.

Then ultimately, the A-League is an all of city entity so it doesn’t belong to any one club. It belongs to the city and all football fans in the region. We want to see the A-League team connected to all the NPL clubs and the NPL clubs connected to other clubs below them in their geography (which we are very close to reaching).

We are chomping at the bit to get back into the A-League for the city; we don’t talk about it a lot in public because we don’t need anything, everything is in place.

 

 

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Football Queensland to celebrate Female Football Week with statewide events, awards and coaching programs

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Brighton women's football motion
Image Credit: Shutterstock

Football Queensland will mark the 2026 Female Football Week with a program of statewide events, competitions and professional development opportunities running from May 8-17, as the governing body continues to push for broader access and representation across all levels of the women’s game in Queensland.

The nationwide initiative, now a fixture on the Australian football calendar, provides a concentrated period of visibility for female participation across playing, coaching, officiating and administration: areas where structural underrepresentation has historically limited both the growth of the game and the opportunities available to women and girls within it.

“Female Football Week provides us with a valuable opportunity to celebrate the contributions of women and girls across our game while continuing to increase the accessibility of football in Queensland,” said Football Queensland CEO Robert Cavallucci. “We encourage our clubs to host their own Female Football Week events and activations for female participants.”

 

Elite Competition Meets Community Access

The centrepiece of Football Queensland’s program is the return of the NPL Women’s Magic Round to Nudgee Recreation Reserve on May 8 and 9, featuring five NPL Women’s Round 13 clashes alongside a Girls United Junior Carnival and family-friendly activations. Each Magic Round game will feature an all-female refereeing panel, a deliberate and visible commitment to developing the next generation of female match officials at a moment when referee shortages are among the most pressing structural challenges facing the game nationally.

A Women in Football networking event will be held on the opening night of Magic Round, bringing together coaches, match officials and administrators. The inclusion of that event alongside elite competition is significant because it positions professional development and community building not as supplementary activities but as core components of what Female Football Week is for.

The Central Coast region will host its own Magic Round on May 16, featuring a Youth Girls game and three FQPL Central Coast Women’s matches, while a Darling Downs Junior Girls Day will take place at Captain Cook Park on the same day, extending the reach of the week’s programming beyond the southeast corner of the state into regional Queensland.

 

Coaching access as a structural priority

Football Queensland will deliver a series of female-only coaching courses around Female Football Week, with clubs also able to express interest in hosting their own. The initiative addresses one of the most persistent barriers to female representation in football administration- its coaching pipeline.

Female coaches remain significantly underrepresented at all levels of the game in Australia, and the barriers to accreditation, including cost, availability and the cultural environment of mixed coaching courses, compound one another in ways that individual ambition alone cannot overcome. Female-only courses create environments where women can develop without those barriers, and their delivery during Female Football Week signals that the commitment extends beyond celebration into structural change.

The Girls United Carnivals, running in both Metro and Far North and Gulf regions alongside the Q-League Schools program at Meakin Park, extend that access to players at the earliest stages of their football journey.

Beyond the Pitch: Miyuki Kobayashi on the Real Challenges Facing Japan’s Women’s Game

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Image credit: JEFUNITED

Last week, Soccerscene spoke to pioneer of women’s football in Japan, Miyuki Kobayashi, about the game’s development in Japan and the intersection between sporting and social change in the country.

 

Talent, quality and recent silverware

After Japan’s recent AFC Women’s Asian Cup victory in the final against Australia, the women’s national team solidified its standing as the No.1 team in Asia.

Throughout the last 15 years, Japan’s women’s national team has grown into a formidable opponent, boasting a World Cup trophy, an Olympic silver medal, as well as three AFC Women’s Asian Cups.

The talent is undeniable. The quality is unwavering. And the team shows no signs of slowing down.

But these victories and trophies on the world stage wouldn’t be possible without the leaders behind the scenes – none more so than Miyuki Kobayashi, former WE League Board Member and current JEF United Ladies Scout and Academy Chief.

 

Laying the foundations

Kobayashi has led the charge for women’s football in Japan, promoting not only a sport which values success, but one which empowers female footballers across the nation.

“At university, not many girls were playing and we didn’t have an official team. I went to the US and the environment was so different,” Kobayashi explained.

“That opened my eyes – women can play. That’s how I started the women’s soccer league when I came back: to make an environment for girls to play.”

Thus, accessibility and opportunity became driving factors behind Kobayashi’s work, not only for those on the pitch, but for those in the dugout.

“I got involved at the JFA (Japanese Football Association) to promote women’s football. We wanted to create the opportunity for women to be coaches.”

“They are coached by men all the time, so even when the top players leave the football world, they never think to be involved.”

Furthermore, as a former coach of JEF United Ladies Youth and General Manager, Kobayashi was intent on employing as many female coaches as possible. It was not merely a personnel change, but a challenge to widespread social attitudes.

“When I started to employ female coaches, the girls’ parents asked why the coach wasn’t a man. But gradually, we started to make it equal – they didn’t talk about the gender, but about the quality of the coach.”

 

The mission to empower

In 2011, the same year Japan’s women won the World Cup, the domestic league was yet to become professional. Known as the Nadeshiko League, players would work during the day and train in the evenings.

The transition from an amateur to the current professional league required time, resilience and a change in perspective.

“The sports world in Japan is more traditional – it is dominated by men,” said Kobayashi.

“If you want to make the environment even, or (want) more women to come into the (football) world, you can change the mind of the players.”

Since 2021, the WE League has embodied a sense of growth and positive change for the women’s game. In name and nature, it looks to empower players, coaches and all involved in the industry.

“I was in charge of mission achievement for women’s empowerment. We wanted to educate the players, to inspire girls and women who watch the game.”

However, the drive to empower women in football was not without backlash and challenges.

“Some people don’t like that word: ’empowerment’. It’s too strong for them. Some women really appreciate it, but it’s not easy to change the mind of society through football,” Kobayashi admitted.

 

Growing and attracting talent

Although WE League clubs are accelerating youth development and expanding pathways across U15, U18 and first team football, Kobayashi acknowledged that the overall product must improve to bring foreign players to Japan and entice homegrown talent to stay.

“Most of the national team players go to Europe or North America. I don’t say it’s a problem, but from a young age, girls who can play in the WE League want to go abroad,” Kobayashi outlined.

Indeed, when looking at the starting XI in last month’s AFC Women’s Asian Cup final, only one player – Hana Takahashi – plays in the WE League.

But the key to attracting domestic and international players to the WE League, is aligning financial investment and industry attitudes.

“The reason why women’s football has developed in European countries is the social thinking – you have to be equal and have the same opportunities as men in football. The Japanese way of thinking, especially in the football world, is not that at all,” Kobayashi continued.

“When I speak to people at Spanish clubs, women’s football is not a charity, but an investment.”

“We have assets. We have good, young players, but we’re exporting them, so we need to import too.”

Indeed, Spain is a perfect example of what can happen when investment becomes intentional, not optional. Back-to-back UEFA Women’s Nations League titles, 90% television viewership increase since 2016, and record-breaking crowd numbers reflect what can happen when the industry aligns in vision and commitment.

Japan has the players to compete against any nation in the world. Purposeful investment, combined with its overall quality of players and style, could transform the WE League into a true, global powerhouse.

 

The vision for the future

Moving forward, Kobayashi hopes that girls progressing through JEF United’s academies develop confidence and resilience, whether as players or people.

“We want to make the girls – even if they aren’t in JEF United – continue playing football and continue to be leaders,” Kobayashi said.

“Some of them have a dream to be a coach or a leader off the field too, so that’s one of the attributes we want to develop.”

This resilience, reflected by the club’s ‘never give up’ philosophy, is testament to the vision of empowerment championed by Kobayashi across the women’s game.

Even in the face of social obstacles and a lack of financial investment, perseverance and hard work is at the bedrock of women’s football in Japan. It is not just that these values exist, but that they are consistently manifested on and off the pitch, which can show future generations that football is a sport for all – men and women alike.

 

Final thoughts

There is no limit to what the WE League and the national team can achieve if given the resources it deserves. All the ingredients are there: individual quality, a distinct playing style, football philosophy and ambitions to grow.

By following the example of industry leaders like Kobayashi, women’s football in Japan can hopefully continue to make waves of impact – in the sporting landscape and society as a whole.

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