Off the Pitch Podcast: Shepparton Cup’s Incredible $5 Million Community Impact

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On Episode 15 of Soccerscene’s Off the Pitch Podcast, it was a Shepparton Cup special with Australian Football Skool Director Rolando Navas and Mayor of Greater Shepparton Shane Sali on the eve of the 2025 Shepparton Cup.

On the topic of tourism and the economic impact of the event, the annual Shepparton Cup is the region’s most lucrative and popular event, amassing over 12,500 visitors and generating $3-4m in revenue in the 2024 edition of the cup.

Shane Sali discussed the importance of football and the cup in the Greater Shepparton region for tourism.

“We have a strong multicultural community and a lot of people have grown up playing football. People have migrated and really contributed to the sport over here and it’s a sport that’s been very active in an around Greater Shepparton,” he said.

“When you come to the event and get that warmth that we want to provide, not only to the people hosting the event, but the visitors , we hope you can leave with a smile at the end of it and encourage family and friends to come back.”

Sali continued to speak about the impact it has on local businesses and the great feeling of seeing the town’s buzz during the weekend.

“We like to position Greater Shepparton as a really prominent regional city and we feel like we’ve got a role to play in economic activity for surrounding communities.”

“As Rolando mentioned, with the visitation that comes with this event, you’re getting close to 15,000 people in and around the town. I can’t believe we have the facilities to cater for that,” he said.

“This is the biggest sporting weekend we have in and around Greater Shepparton and it will generate well over $5m for our local economy.”

This upcoming weekend, the 2025 Shepparton Cup is predicted to become the largest weekend junior football tournament in Australian history, and the sheer scale of the event will have a lasting impact on the local community.

Click hear the full Shepparton Cup special, on Episode 15 of Soccerscene’s Off the Pitch Podcast – available on all major podcasting platforms.

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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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