PFA release Matildas report on the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup outlining success

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Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) have published a new report on the Matildas and the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup that showcase positive numbers regarding the growth of the women’s game.

After a successful World Cup and a record-breaking A-League Women’s campaign in many areas, this comprehensive report is a guideline to FIFA and the AFC on how to tackle the current problems and challenges.

The report presents four pivotal recommendations that they believe will significantly contribute to the ongoing growth and success of women’s football. These include:

– A-League Women Professionalisation

The report suggests that it is imperative that the A-League Women adopts full-time professionalism as soon as possible to allow players to maximise their potential and produce the next generation of Matildas.

It currently lacks in that department compared to the top European leagues and is under threat from falling behind.

The A-League Women’s league has provided a crucial development platform for Australian football’s most successful, valuable, and powerful assets.

Every Matilda named in the World Cup squad had played in the A-League Women’s competition, playing a combined 1,953 matches prior to the World Cup.

– Equal World Cup Prize Money

Prize money for the 2023 Women’s World Cup was one quarter that of the 2022 Men’s World Cup. FIFA has suggested it intends to equalise prize money for the 2026-2027 cycle, but it has added a caveat that this is contingent on commercial outcomes.

However, the PFA pushes for FIFA to start their commitment now in order to build a foundation that will breed marketing and commercial success rather than wait.

The evidence from this recent World Cup suggests commercial success and potential is there if the funding gets lifted to allow it to grow.

– Increased Club Solidarity Fund

The report’s third recommendation, an increased Club Solidarity Fund, is an urgent call to action.

The Women’s World Cup Club Solidarity Fund for 2023 was US$11.5 million, just 5.5% of the men’s 2022 fund.

A substantial increase to the Women’s World Cup Club Solidarity Fund for 2027 would provide a massive stimulus package to women’s football and unlock investment in the environments where players spend the majority of their time.

The PFA consider this to be an imperative move.

– Player input into Scheduling

As the women’s football calendar expands, the report emphasises the importance of including players in decision-making processes.

In the report, it suggested FIFPRO found that 60% of World Cup players felt they did not have enough rest after the tournament before returning to club duties. Caitlin Foord and Steph Catley played for Arsenal just 17 days after the World Cup final.

Ensuring player welfare and competition integrity will create a sustainable and thriving environment for women’s football.

In the Executive Summary, it outlined many statistics and facts to come as a result of the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

Funding

The tournament generated a significant amount of money for a range of stakeholders. Football Australia (FA) estimated the tournament provided $1.32 billion in economic benefits to Australia.

FA’s Legacy ’23 strategy unlocked $398 million of government funding for women’s sports facilities and programs, of which two thirds would primarily benefit football.

‘The Golden Generation’

The home World Cup aligned with the peak of the Matildas’ golden generation of players. Fifteen of the squad were also part of the 2019 World Cup. The eight players aged between 28 and 30 played 59% of the Australia’s match minutes at the tournament. The data flags that there is a challenging period of transition on the horizon.

A-League Women’s growth

A-League Women clubs have also benefited from an organic increase in attendances and memberships as a result of the World Cup’s success.

This includes holding records such as Average attendance, Total attendance, Most in a single game, and Most memberships in league history.

CBA Competitive Advantage

Nearly two thirds (64%) of the Matildas felt their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) was a competitive advantage at the World Cup. The CBA guaranteed world class conditions in the four years preceding the tournament (equal to the Socceroos).

Great conditions

The player survey found generally positive feedback about the conditions, facilities, and environment during the World Cup camp.

The legacy and impact this World Cup has left this country is immense, with the numbers in the report suggesting many avenues like the future of the Matildas and the domestic league are progressing at an alarmingly high rate.

Conclusion:

The four recommendations made by the FA do suggest change is imperative and the product still has a long way to go before it maximises its commercial and on field growth but overall the report was quite positive.

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Northern NSW Football Launches Female Referee Mentor Program to Strengthen Officiating Pathway

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Image Credit: Football NNSW

Northern NSW Football has launched a Female Referee Mentor Program, backed by NSW Office of Sport funding, as the federation moves to address one of the game’s most persistent development gaps: retaining and advancing women in officiating.

The program pairs emerging referees with experienced female officials and coaches, and has already been introduced in match conditions during the 2026 Northern NSW Women’s State Cup under the oversight of NNSWF high-performance referee coach and FIFA referee Casey Reibelt.

Northern NSW says the initiative is designed to improve progression into representative appointments and leadership roles while building the support networks often cited as critical to referee retention.

Tournament rollout offers first test of model

NNSWF said 25 female referees officiated during the Women’s State Cup as part of the program’s initial phase.

The federation also released a number of key appointments linked to the rollout. Sophie Whale and Jamie Mills-Cove were appointed assistant referees for the Community Plate final. Lilli Skaines and Kaitlyn Digby were appointed to the under-13 and under-15 Premier Youth League Girls Cup finals, with Indi Charlesworth named assistant referee for both fixtures.

Reibelt said the initiative was intended to support younger and less-experienced referees in a practical environment and to reduce the sense of isolation that can come with early officiating experience. NNSWF general manager participation and women’s football Allana Neeve said the federation viewed refereeing as a critical part of women’s football and described the funded program as a pathway investment aimed at long-term sustainability.

From participation goal to workforce strategy

Over the past years, women’s player participation has boomed, but officiating pathways have not always expanded at the same pace, particularly in regional systems where access to experienced coaching and consistent appointments can be uneven.

That has consequences beyond referee numbers. Match officials are a core workforce input for competition quality, scheduling and player development. If attrition is high in early officiating years, federations are forced into constant replacement cycles rather than building depth.

In that context, mentor programs are increasingly treated as operational infrastructure, not supplementary participation projects. What matters is not only recruitment, but conversion: whether referees remain in the system long enough to progress into advanced appointments and eventually into coaching and leadership roles.

Northern NSW’s decision to embed mentoring in live competition rather than classroom-only delivery is a practical strength. Development feedback linked to real matches is generally more actionable for emerging referees than abstract technical sessions.

The next phase, however, will determine whether the program produces structural change. Initiatives launched around major events often generate strong short-term engagement but weaken across regular-season demands, especially where travel, study and work pressures are high.

Over time, the federation will need to show progress in second- and third-season retention, advancement into higher-grade appointments, and sustained mentor participation beyond flagship tournaments. Consistency across metropolitan and regional cohorts will also be central to any claim of pathway equity.

Public funding raises reporting expectations

Office of Sport support gives the program early stability, but it also raises the bar on transparency. Publicly supported pathway programs are typically expected to report outcomes, not just participation stories.

For this initiative, that means publishing practical indicators: cohort continuity, appointment progression and evidence that mentoring remains active throughout the season cycle. Without that reporting architecture, it is difficult to distinguish between a successful event and a durable reform.

For now, Northern NSW has delivered a credible first step: a defined mentor structure, named participants and immediate implementation inside a representative competition. The next challenge is to convert that start into a repeatable officiating pipeline.

Regional carnival puts Football West’s Country Pathway in Focus

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Image Credit: Football West. Photo by Football West/Oli Hustwick

Football West’s first State Regional Carnival has done what many federation pathway initiatives promise but do not always deliver: it brought regional players into a central high-performance environment and made them visible on equal terms, at least for a weekend.

Almost 160 players from six Football West Regional Academy zones: South West, Goldfields, Great Southern, Mid West/Gascoyne, Pilbara and Kimberley, were brought to the Sam Kerr Football Centre in Queens Park for the three-day event last week. For the governing body, the carnival is now being positioned as a formal part of its talent identification and development pathway.

Football West general manager of football David Lewis said the carnival had highlighted the standard of regional football and the role country programs continue to play in the state game’s future. He described the event as an “important part” of the development pathway and thanked players, staff, volunteers and families who travelled from around WA to attend.

From event success to system performance

Western Australia’s structural constraint is distance. Regional players face layered costs that metropolitan players usually do not: long-haul travel into Perth, additional accommodation, time away from school and work, and repeated trips if selected into subsequent camps. Those costs are not incidental. They influence who can stay in the system.

That is why the next stage of this initiative matters more than the launch optics. If identified players cannot progress because the second and third steps of the pathway carry prohibitive financial or logistical burdens, then early identification becomes a limited intervention.

In governance terms, the carnival has shifted Football West’s accountability point. The federation has now demonstrated it can convene regional talent at scale. The policy obligation is to show what proportion of those players can be retained and advanced across the following 12 to 24 months, and on what support settings.

Infrastructure is in Place; Distribution as the Issue

The use of the Sam Kerr Football Centre means WA now has a purpose-built football base capable of hosting large-format pathway activity in one location. That removes one of the traditional constraints often cited in state development systems. Once infrastructure is available, attention moves to distribution: who accesses the environment, how often, and under what conditions.

If Football West wants this carnival to function as a durable pathway mechanism rather than a showcase event, several design questions become central. What are the progression criteria after carnival selection? What travel and accommodation support is available for players invited back into metro-based programs? How is regional representation balanced across age groups and cohorts? What protections exist to prevent early dropout linked to cost rather than capability?

A broader shift in Australian pathway policy

The Football West carnival also reflects a wider trend in Australian football administration. Federations are increasingly moving from ad hoc regional scouting to more formal, event-based talent aggregation tied to defined development structures. The logic is straightforward: centralised assessment improves comparability, increases selector confidence, and reduces the chance that players are missed because of location alone.

Yet national and state systems alike continue to confront the same bottleneck. Identification has improved faster than inclusion in later stages. The policy challenge is less about finding players than funding continuity for players whose families absorb higher participation burdens.

Football West does not need to prove that regional football has quality; that case has already been made repeatedly by player outcomes and now by event scale. It needs to publish evidence that regional players can convert recognition into progression at rates that are not materially depressed by geography or household income.

That means performance should be measured against more than attendance and event satisfaction. Over time, the federation will likely be judged on transition rates from regional carnival cohorts into advanced programs, retention across seasons, gender balance in progression outcomes, and the level of practical support delivered to remote participants.

For now, the inaugural carnival can be read as a constructive step with genuine strategic value. It created a focal point for regional talent and signalled administrative intent. Whether it becomes consequential policy will depend on what Football West builds around it next: transparent progression settings, repeatable support, and a funding model that does not turn distance into exclusion.

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