Football Australia 2022 Annual Review details bounce back from COVID

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FA Annual Review
Images via Football Australia

The way the Australian football community has responded to the post-COVID-normal life this year has been extraordinary and the 2022 participation figures are to be credited to the efforts of Member Federations, A-League Clubs, Associations, Zones, Community Clubs and the large number of volunteers.

The last three years has been a period of significant changes in football and also in the wider society of Australia and around the world, with 2022 being another year of taking the necessary steps to improving the game in the country by taking transformative measures towards the continued evolution and growth of the game.

In December of last year, Football Australia approved the successful completion of a transaction that saw 33.33% of the economic and voting interests within Australian Professional Leagues (APL) be provided to global private equity firm, Silver Lake.

Silver Lake is a leading global technology investment firm, with combined assets of more than $90 billion under management and committed capital along with a team of professionals based in North America, Europe and Asia.

The investment will propel technology enhancements and innovation targeted at improving the fan experience and driving the development of Australia’s premier professional men’s and women’s football competitions, the A-Leagues, along with providing Football Australia to deliver an exciting agenda for improvement of Australian football, as part of the aspiring 15-year vision.

Financial report:

The period for the year ending on 30 June 2022 (FY2022) saw Football Australia operations gradually saw resuming to the levels of the pre-COVID arrangement, the positive news that the restrictions of international travel and the ability to host the Socceroos match in round 3 of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Asian Qualifiers, and also the Matildas being able to host their matches in preparation for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand 2023 – all were well received.

With the unbundling of the professional leagues officially occurring in July 2021, FY2022 was the first year of Football Australia’s operations with the A-Leagues entirely excluded.

The following results were achieved for Football Australia:

  • Operating deficit before grants and distributions for the
    year ended 30 June 2022 of $2.4 million
  • Grants and distributions for the year ended 30 June 2022
    totalling $1.3 million.
  • Net deficit before discontinued operations and
    extraordinary items for the year ended 30 June 2022 is
    $3.7 million.
  • Net surplus after discontinued operations and
    extraordinary items for the year ended 30 June 2022 is
    $3.6 million.
  • Net Members’ Equity at 30 June 2022 is $21.0 million.

Activity report:

A noteworthy grant revenue is linked to Football Australia’s blueprint of its Legacy ’23 plan to invest in the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023 – it has allowed the funding of $12 million over two years from the Australian Government.

This has provided the means of opportunity for an increased expenditure into the seniors of Australian Football and the Youth Women’s National Teams, as well as the original vigour of Football Australia’s national Club Development Program (Game Plan).

In relation to the technical development, a web application form was created to implement to assist coaches and technical directors to manage live scouting together with reports on the players potential and performances after the matches, which will support Member Federations technical staff to build resources to allow education for coaches in the future.

The five pillars of Legacy ’23 are participation, facilities, leadership and development, tourism and international engagement as well as high performance.

Participation:

As at 2021:

  • 356,607 female participants
  • 26.67% female participants

Facilities:

As at October 2022, the National Facilities Audit has identified that nationally, 40% of existing football facilities are classified as female friendly.

Leadership & development:

Currently, females represent:

  • 20% of active coaches
  • 13% of active referees
  • 50% of Football Australia Board members

Tourism and international engagement:

In August 2022, the federal government committed funding to the Pacific Women’s Player Pathway Program. This program is aimed at giving elite women footballers from Pacific regions the opportunity to participate in and benefit from Australian high-performance infrastructure, expertise, and competition.

High performance:

In 2022, Football Australia has provided our women’s National Teams as follows:

Generally speaking, football’s engagement from a political perspective and an electorate level through to the national office level secured $141.3 million in funding towards infrastructure projects into the sport, the highest of any sport, of which it included $47.4 million from the ALP.

MiniRoos is the foundational program of grassroots football in Australia, encompassing both the MiniRoos Club Football and MiniRoos Kick-Off programs for all participants in football aged 11 and under.

The MiniRoos Kick-Off saw participant numbers hit over 13,000, the highest number of participants in the program since 2019 (prior to COVID-19 disruption).

National teams:

The national stage for Australia’s Women’s team, CommBank Matildas, have turned their attention to building a squad full of depth ahead of the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023, while falling short in the continental championships earlier in the year with a quarter-final exit.

The following months that followed saw a list of highlights, counting the long-awaited homecoming in front of over 15,000 fans at CommBank Stadium in a well-deserved 3-1 win against Brazil, the excitement of new talent and the large turnout of crowds for home international matches.

With five players reaching a century of international appearances for the Matildas, four players were welcomed to the national team giving the platform to recognise their potential and gift for years to come.

Meanwhile for the Subway Socceroos, after a strong and persistent qualification of matches played away from home due to travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, they had not hosted a game on home soil since October 2019 playing against Saudi Arabia in a tough and tight affair that finished goalless.

Playing two rounds of qualification against the UAE and Peru, the Men’s national team persevered in the end by qualifying for a fifth successful World Cup that will be remembered as one of the great Australian sporting moments in the country’s history.

Competitions:

Formerly known as the FFA Cup, the Australia Cup, broke records that saw A-League Men side Macarthur FC defeating NSW National Premier Leagues Sydney United 58 2-0 at CommBank Stadium almost breaking the record Cup attendance playing in front of 16,461 passionate fans.

The highlights of the Australia Cup 2022 were known for various reasons such as a record of 742 club entries across the country, achieving record crowds and breaking broadcast audiences, along with a highly successful tournament capturing the heart and minds of the Australian football community throughout 2022.

The Magic of the Cup displayed fairy tale moments such as Sydney United 58 triumphing over A-League sides Western United and Brisbane Roar, with Oakleigh Cannons also claiming a hard-fought win against Sydney FC.

However, when Oakleigh Cannon’s 13-year-old reserve goalkeeper Ymer Abili was subbed on late for his side against Macarthur FC, attracting worldwide attention was arguably the highlight of the tournament and undoubtedly for years to come.

The Annual Review can be viewed in full here.

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Tasmania’s State Budget Commits $350,000 to Football Facility Planning as $80 million Home of Football Moves Closer to Reality

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Image Credit: Football Tasmania

The Tasmanian State Government has committed $350,000 in seed funding for the next stage of planning for Football Tasmania‘s proposed Home of Football, moving the state’s most significant football infrastructure project closer to construction and signalling political recognition that demand for rectangular facilities in Tasmania has outgrown what currently exists.

The funding, confirmed in the 2026-27 State Budget handed down last week, sits within an almost $200 million investment in sport and recreation across the budget and forward estimates: a package the government describes as designed to improve access and participation for Tasmanians of all ages. The football allocation is listed alongside a $25 million community sporting infrastructure commitment at Kingborough, $12.5 million for new multipurpose indoor sporting courts at New Town Bay, and $8 million for the Domain Tennis Centre redevelopment.

Football Tasmania CEO Tony Pignata OAM welcomed the commitment as an acknowledgement of the structural gap between participation numbers and available infrastructure, particularly in the state’s south.

“The State Government’s delivery on this commitment shows us that they understand that demand outstrips supply for rectangular facilities in the state,” Pignata said. “If we are to continue to grow and develop future Matildas and Socceroos, we need to invest in the infrastructure our game so desperately needs.”

The proposed $80 million facility would include six full-sized pitches, three synthetic and three turf, alongside four five-a-side pitches, modern changerooms for both men and women, and dedicated training facilities. The design is intended to serve every level of the game simultaneously, from grassroots junior competitions through to national-level tournaments.

From grassroots to A-League ambitions

Football Tasmania has framed the facility’s purpose across a deliberately wide range of uses. At the community end, it would provide a permanent home for junior games and regional tournaments that currently compete for limited rectangular ground availability across the state. At the elite end, it would create the capacity to host national competitions including the Emerging Matildas and Emerging Socceroos Championships, flagship state competitions such as the Statewide Cup finals, and potentially, in time, an A-League team.

That last ambition is the most significant and the most distant. Pignata was measured but direct in raising it, situating a Tasmanian A-League club alongside the NBL’s Jackjumpers, the WNBL’s Jewels and the AFL’s Devils as part of the state’s emerging identity as a home for national sporting competition.

“One day down the track, we anticipate this would become home to our very own A-League team, so that we take our rightful place in the nation’s elite competition,” he said.

The pathway from planning funding to A-League admission is long and would require sustained political and commercial support well beyond the current commitment. But the logic is consistent with how football infrastructure investment has worked elsewhere in Australia. The facility comes first, and the competitive pathway follows. Without a purpose-built ground that meets the standards required for elite competition, the conversation about an A-League team cannot begin in earnest.

The equity dimension

The inclusion of modern women’s and men’s changerooms in the facility’s design carries more weight than it might appear. Community and semi-professional football facilities across Australia have historically been built to male standards, with women’s changerooms added as afterthoughts or not included at all. That inadequacy has been consistently identified as a barrier to female participation and to the hosting of women’s competitions at venues that cannot accommodate them properly.

A purpose-built facility that treats women’s infrastructure as a design requirement rather than a retrofit positions the Home of Football to serve the growth of women’s football in Tasmania in a way that existing facilities cannot. The state recorded 41,395 registered football participants in 2025, a number that has been growing and that the current rectangular facility stock was not built to support at this scale.

Additionally, the government’s Ticket to Play program, which provides eligible children with two vouchers worth up to $100 each for sporting participation, and the Ticket to Wellbeing program offering $100 vouchers to eligible seniors, represent indirect but meaningful support for football participation across the state’s communities.

Pignata also acknowledged outgoing Football Tasmania President Bob Gordon, who he said had dedicated almost a decade to the organisation and had been instrumental in lobbying for this and other facilities across the state.

The $350,000 planning commitment is a beginning. The $80 million facility it is intended to progress remains subject to further government investment and development approval.

Football NSW calls on clubs to Make It Red for Heart Health Round

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Football NSW is calling on clubs and associations across the state to register for the 2026 Make It Red campaign, joining a national awareness movement aimed at reducing heart-related deaths on sporting grounds ahead of Heart Health Round on the weekend of June 5 to 7.

The campaign, developed by the Heartbeat of Football Foundation, asks sporting clubs to wear red, raise funds and build awareness around heart disease and sudden cardiac arrest, which is the leading single cause of disease burden and death in Australia for both men and women, and one that health authorities say is largely preventable through modifiable risk factors.

The call to action comes as the Foundation continues its work to map and register Automated External Defibrillators across NSW sporting facilities, a project that has already engaged twelve football associations and fed data into both the NSW Ambulance GoodSAM registry and NSW Health’s public AED map. The availability of a functioning, registered AED on site is among the most significant determinants of survival following sudden cardiac arrest, with survival rates declining sharply for every minute without defibrillation.

Football NSW is encouraging clubs to engage with the campaign across three areas. Clubs can register for the Make It Red campaign to help fund research, education and prevention programs. Participants, particularly those aged over 35, are encouraged to seek a free heart health screening test from their local GP or enquire about hosting a Heartbeat of Football testing day. Clubs are also urged to ensure their grounds have active, accessible AEDs in place, with guidance available through Football NSW’s Rescue Ready Guide.

The Make It Red campaign runs from June 5 to July 12, with Heart Health Round taking place across the opening weekend. Clubs can register and access participation resources at makeitred.org.

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