New South Wales NPL clubs share Victorian counterparts’ fears of recommencement

Staff Writer

Despite the existence of a desperate desire to see training resume for footballers across New South Wales, such a move may do more damage that good.

As of 12.00am Friday the 22nd of May, COVID-19 induced restrictions were eased and clubs began informing their members of the intended timeline for a potential return to full training in the coming weeks. Currently, all training must be undertaken in line with the Public Health Order issued by the New South Wales State Government.

That order has informed the Return to Training Guidelines issued by Football New South Wales. Those documents outline the overarching goal of allowing football training to recommence whilst also ensuring safe and positive conditions for all players, coaches and officials.

More specifically, a set of clear guidelines have been constructed in order to ensure that safety. At each session there is a requirement to:

  • have gatherings of no more than 10 people at any time.
  • have appropriate social distancing of at least 1.5m between people at all times.
  • allow for at least 4m2 for all participants at all times.
  • maintain reasonable levels of hygiene to minimise the risk of infection.

Should all go well, the intention is for game simulation, contested ball and social activity before and after the sessions to once again be permitted in the near future.

It has been a bold undertaking and one that required a set of somewhat strict measures to even be approved at a government level. However, with drill based sessions a far cry from a return to trial matches and eventual competitive play, any conviction that football is officially back in New South Wales and not threatened by COVID-19, is far from convincing.

Whilst it will be heartening to see young kids back on the pitch and enjoying the beautiful game, the ramifications of a return to play in Australia’s semi-professional landscape are challenging and potentially crippling.

The governing body in New South Wales has been categorical in its current position, “all football activities are suspended through to 31 May 2020 and no decision has been made in relation to Football NSW’s NPL Competitions for the 2020 season.” No doubt, with players now gradually returning to limited training, a statement of intention in regards to what happens post May 31, will surely be looming in coming days.

Should competition recommencement be the crux of that statement, clubs will potentially be placed in a precarious and life threatening position. As is the case with their Victorian counterparts, a number of NPL clubs have already approached Football NSW expressing a desire to cancel the season.

Sponsors have been lost, the doors of once profitable social clubs have remained pad locked for over two months and many clubs seem unlikely to be able to meet their wage bill for 2020. Throw in a potential return to play without spectators, where the clubs may in fact be forced to trade even deeper into the red.

The costs of venue hire would remain, payments for officials and security requirements may potentially be lessened but still in existence and revenue from gate takings and food/beverage sales would be zero. Thus, NPL clubs across New South Wales may well be asked to operate at a substantial loss should their federation demand a return to play.

Should a positive Coronavirus test cause a second shut down of the season, it will have all been for nothing. The best laid plans could be torpedoed in an instant; leaving clubs lamenting the recommencement and knowing things had actually worsened thanks to their return to the field. The shutting down of Waverley College, an Eastern Suburbs private school, on May 26th displayed just how fraught with risk a return to any organised activity where increased social contact occurs actually is.

New South Wales’ students had only returned to school in a full-time capacity the day prior and despite all best intentions to have children back in a safe and comfortable environment, for Waverley College, the recommencement of classes was a sheer waste of, and a potentially dangerous, time.

Football New South Wales needs to consider such realities when contemplating a recommencement of play. As keen as I am to have Blacktown City challenging for the NPL1 title, doing so whilst clubs continue to lose money and have their long term existence threatened may well be enough to sway its decision towards conceding defeat to COVID-19.

It would be a sad decision for football, yet one that may well need to be made.

 

 

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Capital Football Introduces Pink Armband to Protect Junior Referees

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Image Credit: Marist Canberra FC

Capital Football has launched a visible identification program for referees under 18, requiring them to wear a pink armband during matches. It’s intended to build awareness surrounding the concern across Australian football about the abuse driving young officials out of the game.

The Pink Armband Initiative, effective immediately across Capital Football’s competitions in the ACT and surrounding region, makes junior referees identifiable to players, coaches and spectators. The federation says the marker is designed to set clear behavioural expectations and signal that many match officials are minors still developing their skills.

Capital Football acknowledged a referee crisis as far back as 2022, at which point it restructured its entire referee department in partnership with Football Australia. The pink armband program is the latest layer of that response; this time by targeting the cultural conditions on match day rather than systems of recruitment and pay.

A problem that spans codes and states

Research has consistently linked referee abuse to declining retention rates, with officials quitting in growing numbers due to sustained mistreatment, a trend researchers warn will reduce the pool of skilled match officials available at all levels of the game. Studies also show that young, less experienced referees are disproportionately likely to be subject to abuse.

Capital Football is not alone in reaching for a visible solution. Similar programs operate across Football Queensland, Football South Australia, Football South Coast and several other federations, while Basketball Victoria and Basketball South Australia have adopted comparable measures through the Green Whistle initiative. The spread of these programs across codes and states reflects a shared administrative problem: many grassroots referees are teenagers and volunteers who do not officiate for money but because they love the game, and abuse is eroding that foundation.

For a federation overseeing nearly 29,000 registered players, fewer referees means fewer matches. Fewer matches means reduced participation. The pink armband is a low-cost intervention with structural consequences if it works.

Football Victoria Backs Campaign to Shield Junior Players from Gambling Harm

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More than 600 sporting clubs across Victoria have enrolled in a state government program designed to limit young players’ exposure to gambling, with Football Victoria now urging its community clubs to join before a late-July registration deadline.

The Love the Game initiative asks clubs to formally commit to a set of principles: refusing sports betting sponsorships, developing internal harm prevention policies, and building environments where coaches, parents and players are equipped to discuss gambling risks with children.

The program’s public health rationale has a sharper statistical edge than its community-facing materials suggest. A 2025 study of Victorian secondary school students aged 12 to 17 found that nearly 30% had gambled at some point, and among those who had gambled in the past year, 7.5% met the criteria for problem-gambling and a further 26.8% were classified as ‘at-risk’. The research, commissioned by the state government and published earlier this year, also found that students exposed to gambling venues and advertising were more likely to gamble or to do so in a risky manner.

The most recent Victorian Population Gambling Study found that Victorians aged 18 to 24 are the group least likely to gamble overall, yet carry the highest rates of harmful gambling across all age groups. Young people aged 18 to 34 are around five times more likely to bet on sports than older cohorts.

When the data lands at the clubhouse door

Football Victoria’s support for the program reflects a broader recognition within community sport that participation rates and club culture are connected. The environments clubs create shape whether young people stay in sport and what norms they carry with them into adulthood. For football specifically, which draws participants across a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds, that responsibility is not evenly distributed. Approximately 440,000 Victorians, or 8.5 per cent of the state’s population, are classified as being at some risk of experiencing problem gambling.

The Victorian Government’s program gives clubs more than symbolic membership. Registered clubs receive practical tools to develop governance frameworks around gambling harm, resources for coaching staff and volunteers, and standing as part of a growing network of clubs taking a formal position on the issue.

Researchers have described the current framing of gambling harm as a matter of personal responsibility as inadequate, arguing it is a public health issue requiring a systemic response. Community football clubs, with their reach into households across the state, are one of the institutional levers available to make that response visible.

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