Melbourne Victory celebrates funding from Play Our Way program

Jack Huggett31/03/2025 5:55 am30/03/2025

Melbourne Victory has celebrated being awarded funding under the Play Our Way program by inviting Federal Minister for Sport, the Hon. Anika Wells to Aami Park.

Play Our Way is a $200 million program from the Federal Government created after the success of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 to increase women and girls’ participation in all sport.

The program seeks to achieve its goals by funding initiatives that aim to tackle the barricades that prevent women and girls from engaging with sport and physical in order to create a more equitable environment for everyone.

There were over 660 applications for the participation stream of the program, with only 70 programs across all sports and levels becoming successful recipients: of those, only four were professional clubs.

In a joint visit to Aami Park, Minister Wells and member for Macnamara Josh Burns MP spoke with key club representatives such as Managing Director Caroline Carnegie, former Matilda Lydia Williams and Melbourne Victory community program participant Tesnim Beke about the club’s work to support women and girls.

Carnegie highlighted how the visit reinforced Victory’s commitment to breaking down the barriers to equality in sport.

“We were honoured to welcome MP Anika Wells to Melbourne Victory to discuss and celebrate the incredibly important work we are undertaking as a Club to provide more opportunities in football for women and girls,” she said in a press release.

“Our projects will provide a program that will have an immensely positive impact on not only participation in sport, but allow individuals to grow their social and leadership skills.

“At Melbourne Victory, we aim to lead, unite, connect and inspire through football, and the Play Our Way program allows for women and girls to connect and reach their potential.

“We look forward to seeing our programs and pathways continue to welcome new participants across Victoria.”

Through funding from the Play Our Way program, Melbourne Victory now has the support it needs to build a comprehensive partnership strengthened program that will support participation in sport across schools, communities and clubs. This program will deliver important and educational physical sessions as well as workshops which encourage leadership.

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Football NSW supports Female Coaches CPD as Women’s Football Surges

Declan Chan15/04/2026 6:15 am14/04/2026

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Football NSW has used the platform of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup to deliver a targeted professional development workshop for female coaches, bringing together scholarship recipients for an evening of structured learning and direct engagement with elite women’s football.

Held at ACPE last month, the session was open to female coaches who received C or B Diploma scholarships through Football NSW in 2025. Coaching accreditation carries a financial cost that disproportionately affects women, who are less likely to have their development subsidised by clubs or associations operating in underfunded community football environments. Scholarship access changes that equation at the point where many women exit the pathway.

Facilitated by Football NSW Coach Development Coordinator Bronwyn Kiceec, the workshop focused on goal scoring trends from the tournament’s group stage, with coaches analysing attacking patterns and exploring how those insights could translate into their own environments. The group then attended the quarter-final between South Korea and Uzbekistan at Stadium Australia.

The structure of the evening mattered as much as its content. Female coaches in community football rarely have access to elite competition environments as a professional resource. The gap between the level at which most women coach and the level at which the game is analysed and discussed tends to reinforce itself. Placing scholarship recipients inside a major tournament, as participants rather than spectators, closes that gap in a way that a classroom session cannot.

Female coaches remain significantly underrepresented across all levels of the game in Australia. The pipeline that will change that depends not only on accreditation access but on the professional networks, peer relationships and exposure to elite environments that male coaches have historically taken for granted.

The workshop forms part of Football NSW’s ongoing commitment to developing female coaches through scholarships and structured learning opportunities.

Marie-Louise Eta makes history as new Union Berlin head coach

Patrick Irving15/04/2026 6:05 am14/04/2026

Image credit: FC Union Berlin

In an historic appointment, Eta will take over as head coach of Union Berlin until the end of the season.

History in the making

Previously the first female assistant coach in Bundesliga history with Union Berlin, Eta will now take the reigns of the men’s first team on an interim basis.

Currently, the club sit in 11th place in the Bundesliga table, but with only two wins so far in 2026, relegation appears an all-too-real prospect, and one which the club is desperate to avoid.

“Given the points gap in the lower half of the table, our place in the Bundesliga is not yet secure,” said Eta via official media release.

‘I am delighted that the club has entrusted me with this challenging task. One of Union’s strengths has always been, and remains, the ability to pull together in such situations.”

Eta will begin as Union’s new head coach with immediate effect, and will be in the dugout for the club’s matchup against Wolfsburg this weekend.

A step into an equal future

Eta’s appointment signals a major step towards a more level playing field in the football landscape.

Furthermore, Eta joins other coaches including Sabrinna Wittmann, Hannah Dingley and Corinne Diacre who, in recent years, have blazed a trail for female coaches to step into the men’s game.

Wittmann currently manages FC Ingolstadt in Germany’s third division, and was the first female head coach in Germany’s top three divisions.

In 2023, Dingley became caretaker manager of Forest Green Rovers, and thus the first woman to lead a men’s professional team in England.

Diacre, now head coach of France’s women’s national team, managed Ligue 2’s Clerment Foot between 2014 and 2017.

Final thoughts

The impact therefore, is that Eta’s appointment will show future generations of aspiring female coaches that men’s football is an equally viable and possible pathway as the women’s game.

The time is now to level the playing field.

And while it may be a short-term role, its effect on attitudes towards equality and fair opportunities in the game will hopefully resonate long after the season ends.