Regents Park Saints FC’s women’s game in 2026 and beyond

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Football NSW

The New South Wales club has outlined that current facilities are not well-adapted for women and girls engaging with local football, putting long-term participation at risk. 

 

Keeping pace with rapid growth 

With participation numbers in women’s football rapidly increasing across New South Wales, appropriate infrastructure becomes all the more essential. And for the women and girls looking to join local teams like Regents Park Saints FC, there is growing concern that facilities are struggling to keep up with the modern game. 

Outdated infrastructure, lack of privacy and minimal space in changing rooms have been highlighted as the main issues currently facing the upcoming generations of young female footballing talent. 

Regents Park Saints FC Club Secretary, Vanessa Thorburn, emphasised the benefits to having updated facilities for all players associated with the club. 

“Any updates to our changing rooms are going to benefit our players, but also any other players that use our club,” Thorburn explained via video press release issued Monday. 

Of course, the proposals are not just about addressing present concerns, but about planning for the future of the women’s game and establishing the right environment to nurture young talent.

“The Matildas did a great job of promoting girls in football and I think that it’s something that has really taken off and you see so much more interest in it. We like to think that our club will grow the future Matildas one day,” Thorburn continued. 

 

How can the 2026 AFC Women’s Asia Cup play a role? 

With the 2026 AFC Women’s Asia Cup just around the corner, the next few months represent a pivotal point for the development of the women’s game in Australia. 

In the past, participation and match attendance has increased following major tournaments like the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. For example, between the 2022/23 and 2023/24 season, average attendances at ALW matches shot up from 1,233 to 2,117. It is clear that the Matildas can play in creating nationwide support for women’s football. 

As Australia will host the tournament this upcoming March, there is potential for it to act as a springboard for change across the nation’s football pyramid. 

What remains important to remember is that creating buzz among fans is not enough to sustain long-term progression. The football-fever which will arise when the Matildas kick off in March this year will hopefully infect not only future stars, but the current governing bodies with the power to implement real change in the women’s game. 

 

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France’s LFP eye return of Ligue 1 to traditional broadcast platforms

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Image Credit: ESPN

The French Professional Football League (LFP) are hoping to again attract a traditional broadcast partner for the 2027/28 campaign, believing there is renewed interest in their domestic football media rights.

Ligue 1 – the top division of professional football in France and home to PSG, Marseille et al. – has been without a traditional broadcast partner since 2025 following a series of failed deals and the exhaustion of their potential partner market.

In place of a traditional broadcast deal the LFP launched its own direct-to-consumer platform, which presently carries all ten Ligue 1 matches each week. The platform has attracted around one million subscribers.

The LFP had hoped a return to a traditional broadcast partner could be on the cards from the 2029/30 season, however given their assessment that market interest has returned, they are expected to bring that tender process forward by two years. 

LFP Media chief executive Oliver Bramly believes the time is right to amend a situation that proved deeply unbecoming for a league as esteemed as Ligue 1 – considered, until recently, an indisputable member of Europe’s ‘Top Five’ leagues. 

‘Before I joined, the idea was to issue a tender for the period covering 2029 -2034,’ Bramly told SportsPro. 

‘But the reaction was that this was too far away. Streamers … [and] all the pay-TV platforms expressed a clear interest in a bid for the period between 2027 and 2032.’

‘It’s a once-in-a-lifetime occasion to get a domestic league in a big market like France at an affordable price.’

In March, the LFP presented research that indicated 59% of 9.9million football fans in France watched Ligue 1 via illegal pirate platforms.

Article first appeared in SportsPro. 

Ernie Merrick: ‘There are many clubs that would be fantastic additions to the A-League’

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Ernie Merrick will be forever recognised as a key figure through the A-League’s golden early years. Appointed Melbourne Victory’s foundation manager in 2004 he led the club to not just silverware, but legitimacy and respect in a serious sport city.

A Scottish migrant and PE teacher by trade, Merrick was the youngest of the NSL’s managerial crop when he started with Preston in 1987 in the era of Thomson, Arok & Matic; when he finished with Newcastle in 2020 he was the elder statesman in the A-League age of Postecoglou, Popovic and Arnold.

For the places the game took him and all he achieved – including time as national team manager of Hong Kong – Victory supporters can comfort themselves in the fact that for whatever they feel towards Merrick and his iconic group of players, that feeling is mutual.

‘Yes, definitely,’ Merrick told Soccerscene Unfiltered when asked if managing Victory was the highlight of his career.

‘I think success is [fans] having identification with players, especially. We had Victorian boys playing for Victory.

‘That second year I was determined to have a complete pre-season. Archie Thompson bought me a birthday cake with 200 candles and said “Ernie, we’ve had 200 training sessions. We should celebrate this” – so he was looking forward to a big year, and we won the Grand Final 6-0.’

Nearing 20 years on, Victory and the A-League in general haven’t managed to drive forward as would have been hoped. Unsurprisingly that comes as painful to Merrick, as does the change in landscape regarding his other great passion and contribution in player development. 

‘I’m disappointed, as would most people be, that it’s struggled so badly. To me, there’s something missing,’ said Merrick of the current state of the A-League.

‘Those players we produced at the AIS and VIS went on to be the golden generation. Unless the league is fixed, there’s going to be ongoing problems with the financial status of things.

‘You just cannot earn enough money from selling a youngster, who you might get a million for, who then becomes worth several million in a few years if he does well. Maybe there’s a bit too much of selling players early.’

As someone who gave enduring service across Australia’s two domestic leagues, his voice holds weight in the consideration as to whether it’s time to now blend the, in today’s hyper-corporate landscape.

‘South Melbourne and Preston are two clubs that are perfect for the A-League, I think, down the track. They’ve set up, they’ve endured, they’ve been resilient, they’re playing good football and they’ve got a home base with a home crowd, which is far better than starting a club up from scratch.

‘All those players coming through those squads and the number of supporters they’ve got would be a huge addition. In Sydney too, there’s Marconi – there are so many good clubs around that I think would make a great addition to the A-League.’ 

Merrick also spent thirteen years as head coach at the Victorian Institute of Sport. He feels modern player development is an equation we still haven’t got right, post the closure of the AIS’ football program in 2017.

While many argue the move to club-based academy structures has seen Australia fall more in line with global practice while still producing players of quality, Merrick still feels there is merit in a national high performance program, in addition to club academies.

He was in the process of setting up state academies through the Member Federations during his time as Football Australia’s chief football officer from 2022-25. While the Victoria project was short-lived, academies in Tasmania, Western Australia and South Australia continue to run, but it appears the broader expansion of the concept has been abandoned.

‘I think both systems should work [together] equally well. When I started with the FA program clubs thought they would lose players to us, but I didn’t take any of their players. We offered the opportunity of a high-performance program to other youngsters.

‘We could develop players completely; we weren’t restricted to playing 4-3-3 to combine with the way the first team were playing. We provided more of a rounded education, and good players can play in any system.

‘We managed to affect the coaches involved so they were up to date with the latest information on methods of coaching, etc.’

Catch the full chat with Ernie Merrick on Soccerscene Unfiltered: from being two-footed by a 15-year old Kevin Muscat to his enthusiasm for the future of the Socceroos, his memories of Wellington and Newcastle, and plenty more…

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