Insights into the PFA’s Strategic Framework 2025-28

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Following the Annual General Meeting (AGM) held yesterday by Professional Footballers Australia (PFA), a new three-year Strategic Framework has been agreed. The framework will seek to outline the key steps which must be taken to develop and sustain the men’s and women’s professional game in Australia.

Opportunities

The Strategic Framework underlines four opportunities which must be taken advantage of by the PFA if they are to secure the future of football in Australia.


Leadership

The need for leadership during the current crisis period is essential. The PFA has expressed its desire to re-position itself as the protagonist on which the responsibility to save the game lies. To do this, integrity and reliable leadership, from both staff and players, will be vital.

Financial Independence

This refers to the financial support and power both of the organisation and its players. To this end, developing commercial revenue and tapping into the PFA reserves are features which can be harnessed going forward.

Whole of Game Capacity

The widespread dissatisfaction with the current state of the game in Australia presents the PFA with a chance to prove itself as the only stakeholder with the ability to overcome present issues. Furthermore, the collaboration with FIFPRO (International Federation of Professional Footballers) will help them deliver on their ambitions.

Expanding the women’s game

Despite the popularity of the Matildas, the women’s game has a long way to go in its development. Encouraging commercial interest in the A-League Women, as well as promoting the AFC Women’s Asian Cup™ due to be held in Australia next March, are both addressed in the framework as ways to achieve this development.

Challenges

Despite an optimistic outlook for the next three years, the Strategic Framework has also addressed several challenges which must be considered by the PFA in their future plans.

Health of the Professional Game

Firstly, the framework acknowledges that the professional game is currently in crisis. Low fan engagement, poor broadcasting agreements and disconnected stakeholders all represent recent failings, as well as being significant reasons for the limited revenue generated.

Influence and Power

An issue in both the men’s and women’s game is that players will choose to play in foreign leagues, meaning the nation regularly loses top footballing talents. Furthermore, a lack of control over commercial rights and a collective mainstream media to give players a voice representing additional failings regarding player power.

Player Support

Supporting future talent remains a key factor to address if the game is to be developed in the next three years. As the membership becomes increasingly younger, so too does the need to maintain world class program standards in a volatile industry.


Gender equality

Although the 2023 Women’s World Cup made viewership numbers skyrocket, the chance to capitalise on the Matilda’s growing popularity was never taken, leading to a recent stagnation. Looking to March 2026, the AFC Women’s Asian Cup™ provides another chance to build up support and desire for investment in women’s football across Australia.

What will Ensure Success?

Alongside the core values of respect, intelligence, world class standards, courage and trust, there are four fundamental pillars which give the Strategic Framework solid foundations to ensure its success throughout the next three years.

Lead

The PFA will look to take a leading role to ensure the industry’s recovery. This will include providing a new vision for professional leagues, tackling the main issues which affect players, and championing the potential of the women’s game.

Equal Say

This part of the framework hopes to put players and staff within the PFA at the centre of decision and policy making. Players will be given influence and leverage over issues such as expansion, ownership, scheduling and fan engagement, as well as being provided with world class employment standards.

Support

If the professional game is to be sustained beyond the current Strategic Framework, then the support for current and future players is vital. Player ownership can be elevated through programs like the Player Development Program and the celebration of successes or experiences within the membership base.

Strength

Whether financial, ethical or organisational, the strength of the framework will also be fundamental moving forward. The PFA will look to assume a leading role within the professional football community in Australia, and ultimately establish improved fan engagement by attracting and retaining world class players and staff.

Looking to the Future

Chief Executive of the PFA, Beau Busch, highlighted the importance of the framework in a statement made as part of the publication.

“This Strategic Framework embodies the players’ ambition to secure the future of the professional game in Australia,” he said via report release.

He then outlined that, alongside the support and leadership provided by the players to achieve the ambitions of the PFA, there will also be the need to recognise and reinforce the shared values upholding the organisation.

“This Strategic Framework provides us with clarity and purpose. Our values of respect, courage, intelligence, world class and trust will guide how we embark on our mission.”

The PFA, with the backing of its membership base and staff, will hope that the Strategic Framework is the springboard which will propel the professional game across Australia into a new era.

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More than 220 coaches attend Football South Australia’s second NOVA Youth Club Championship workshop

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Football South Australia drew more than 220 coaches to its second NOVA Youth Club Championship Coaches Workshop in late May, underlining the scale of engagement clubs are generating through the state’s restructured youth competition framework.

The online session was facilitated by Football SA Technical Director Michael Cooper, who also serves as Junior Matildas Head Coach. Cooper shared observations from the AFC U17 Women’s Asian Cup and Australia’s qualification for the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup, giving club-level coaches a window into the demands and standards of elite international football.

The presenter line-up extended that international lens further. Lachlan Tosh and Cristiano Dos Santos spoke to their experiences in national tournament environments, while legendary Australian coach Tom Sermanni addressed the fundamentals of youth coaching. Colin Sanctuary from the University of Newcastle examined coaching language and its direct influence on player learning.

Themes running across the session included the primacy of long-term player development over short-term results, with presenters consistently emphasising technique, ball mastery, individual improvement, and decision-making under pressure. Coaches were encouraged to expose players to varied styles of play, facilitate practice outside organised training, and help young players retain possession longer in match conditions.

Post-session feedback pointed to strong practical value, with coaches singling out clear communication, relationship-building, and age-appropriate feedback as key takeaways.

The workshop series sits within the broader transition from the Youth Premier League to the Club Championship model, which ties coaching participation to championship points for clubs and CPD credits toward individual coaching diplomas. Six workshops are scheduled across the season, with four still to come.

1200 players to descend on Geelong for Football Victoria Country Championships as Regional Football Enters New Era

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Image Credit: Football Victoria

More than 1,200 junior footballers from across regional Victoria will converge on Geelong this weekend for the 2026 Football Victoria Country Championships, with players representing eight regions competing across the King’s Birthday long weekend at Stead Park and Myers Reserve.

The tournament, which has been running since 1978 and has grown into one of the largest junior football events in the country, takes on additional significance this year. It marks the first Country Championships since Football Victoria announced a restructured regional football model in December 2025, making this edition an early measure of how that new framework translates into competitive outcomes at the representative level.

Sixty-seven teams will compete across Under-11 to Under-16 age groups for both boys and girls, with finals day scheduled for Monday. All fixtures and results will be available through the DRIBL app.

More than silverware

FV Regional Development Manager Lauren Stevens said the tournament represented something beyond the competitive results it produces.

“The Country Championships are an exciting opportunity for players from across regional Victoria to come together, represent their region and create lasting memories both on and off the pitch,” Stevens said. “This tournament has a rich history and continues to play an important role in bringing regional football communities together while providing players with the chance to experience a high-level representative environment and talent identification opportunity.”

That dual function is central to what makes the Country Championships structurally significant. For many players travelling to Geelong this weekend, a regional representative tournament is the highest level of football they have experienced. For some, it will be the environment in which they first come to the attention of Football Victoria’s technical staff and pathway programs.

The talent identification dimension carries particular weight at a moment when Football Victoria’s participation numbers are at record levels and the pipeline from community football to elite competition has never been more closely scrutinised. The 2025 Annual Report documented a 14 percent overall participation increase, with junior football among the fastest-growing segments. Tournaments like the Country Championships are where that growth begins to translate into representative opportunity for players who live outside metropolitan Melbourne.

Regional football in transition

The timing of this year’s Championships against the backdrop of Football Victoria’s regional restructure adds a layer of context that will be watched closely by administrators and clubs. The December 2025 announcement of the new regional model represented the most significant structural change to regional football governance in the state in some years, and the process of transitioning Life Members from regional associations into the Football Victoria honour roll at last month’s AGM reflected the scale of that change.

How the eight regions perform this weekend will offer an early indication of whether the restructured model is serving regional communities effectively.

The Corrie Koppen Fair Play Award, introduced last year to celebrate the life and legacy of the late Cornelius Koppen, adds a dimension to the competition that sits alongside the on-field results. The award is given to the region judged to have played and conducted itself in the spirit of the game, a recognition that how communities behave at a junior tournament is as meaningful as what they win.

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