Western United CEO Chris Pehlivanis: “The biggest challenge we have in our game is infrastructure”

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Western United have had a tumultuous start to life in the A-League. After weathering the start of the pandemic, Chief Executive Officer Chris Pehlivanis talks to Soccerscene about his involvement in football, building a stadium and the future of the A-League.

Q. How did you first become involved in football?

Pehlivanis: I started playing football when I was five years of age. I was the middle child of three boys, and we all played for a club called East Bentleigh Soccer Club. That was our first taste of it, and I continued to play until the age of 18 where I unfortunately had a knee reconstruction at 17 and again at 18. I started refereeing for about 13 or 14 years and became a sports administrator, worked at FFA, then at the AFL and now at Western United.

Q: When the did the opportunity to be involved with Western United first arise?

I was working at Essendon Football Club, I was CFO (Chief Financial Officer) there for eight years. The people who won the bid, I had a relationship with them, and during their journey they identified me as someone they wanted to bring into the organization. I was really interested in the project, there was more than just a football club, and as such it was really appealing. You don’t get the opportunity to work with a startup or work with an organisation where you get the chance to build the foundations, the culture and build something special. We are two years into this journey and loving every moment of it.

Q: What have you learned from your time with WU throughout the Pandemic?

Pehlivanis: The pandemic was challenging for everyone – for us, it was especially challenging when we were trying to build a new brand, and bring in new fans on the journey. Not being able to physically connect with people and share experiences in the beginning, we lost that. In our first season we played finals, and we didn’t get to enjoy that with our fans, which was heartbreaking for me.

That was a missed opportunity and then you go into the second year, and the matches are stop start – fans had to be resilient with games moving venues left, right and centre – we haven’t been able to get into the community like we planned to, visit schools and clubs in the west, take Western United to the west.

All those things have been challenging, but at the end of the day we are a club holds important values, and we are going to find ways to activate everything we are trying to do, be more resilient and go on this journey. The club isn’t about one or two years, it’s about what we are going to build for the next 20 years.

Q: Has there been any unforeseen challenges?

Pehlivanis: There are always challenges in any startup, and there are always the challenges of people, there are always challenges of players, staff and when you bring a group of 100 people together for the first time. The pandemic has clearly been the most significant. The ability to work in an environment where we play in purpose built stadiums, I think has been the biggest challenge we have to face and that is why we are building a stadium.

It has really highlighted in our state that we don’t have enough purpose built stadiums that create good atmosphere needed to connect with your fans. It is something we continue to work on, and something that challenges us, but this is something that will be fixed in our journey as we continue to build our stadium.

Q: Are boutique purpose built stadiums the future of Australian football?

Pehlivanis: I think so, definitely. It is the atmosphere, we live it and breathe it. When you get to a stadium and it is purpose built for your code there is nothing better. It allows us to activate in a manner that our fans want, so I think it is the future of our game. We need to work with all the key stakeholders, government, and private investors to ensure that we create enough assets, and that is the legacy we want to leave behind. Not only us as Western United, but with the Women’s World Cup coming to this country. The biggest challenge we have in our game is infrastructure, at grassroots level and at senior level. Our game is the best game in Australia, but it lacks infrastructure. As soon as we can get government investment, and private investment into those areas, its only going to mean better things at those levels.

Artwork for Wyndham Stadium

Q: Is the plan to play at AAMI Park for next season?

Pehlivanis: We are working on a solution, and that is our intention. We will still go to Ballarat and Tasmania as part of existing deals, and they are opportunities for us to expand our brand. The majority of the games will be hosted at AAMI Park, because that is a purpose built stadium in Melbourne that caters to A-League games.

Q: How important is the new TV deal to the continued success of the A-League?

Pehlivanis: This is the best game in Australia, it just needs the right investment. Channel 10 has backed our game, and it is a really good message to the community. My view is that the game is in a good place, and what it needs is a partner that will back it. What I mean by that is a partner who will invest in the product, invest in the brand and marketing, and invest in everything other than what is on the pitch, because we will invest in what is on the pitch and ensure it continues to grow.

I think they are ready to grow the game with us, they’ve done it with the Big Bash and the racing, by sticking around and investing in them to turn them into spectacles. I’m really excited by Channel 10 and where we are going, but ultimately it’s going to need everyone to work together to get our game to where it needs to go. For Channel 10 to support on us on this journey sends a really clear message that the next five years of this deal will be really special for the game and help us take it to the next level.

Q: How important will next season be to engage with fans?

Pehlivanis: We’re still on the journey to our forever stadium, and the reality is that every year it is important we continue to grow our brand, our market and build a genuine connection with our fans – these people are our family. Our aim is to turn every football fan, and any potential fans that lives in the west, into a Western United supporter and member. That doesn’t happen overnight, we need to take these people on a journey with us. But we’re patient, and we have time. We want genuine fans that fall in love with Western United.

We are in our third year, we need to keep embracing these challenges and opportunities to enter new markets and connect with people before we get into our new stadium. That will be the time where we showcase our brand at its optimal level. Everything we do for these first few years is foundational, and that is why it is important we continue to work closely with the community and be successful on the park. Our commercial partners are strong, and continue to grow, and without their support we wouldn’t be able to continue to grow. We are going into the season this year with most of our partners re-signed, which is something that didn’t happen in our first two seasons.

From our point of view, we are excited about the upcoming season. We think the game will go to another level, and we are on the verge of some really big announcements regarding coaches and additional players in the squad. The next year will be a really big opportunity to continue growing and build on those foundations.

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Western Strikers Nominated FSA Club of the Month for Equity Outcomes

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Image Credit: Football SA

Western Strikers SC has been nominated for Club of the Month after a period of deliberate structural investment in its female program that is already producing measurable outcomes, and offering a model for how community clubs can drive participation growth through equity-focused planning rather than passive goodwill.

The nomination recognises a program that has moved beyond surface-level commitment to women’s football and into the kind of structural change that determines whether female players actually stay. Improved lighting across training and match pitches, equitable scheduling, extended training hours and dedicated pitch allocation have addressed the practical barriers that clubs often overlook. It’s conditions that tell players, implicitly or otherwise, whether the game was built for them.

 

Leadership as Infrastructure

Central to Western Strikers’ approach is a leadership structure that takes female football seriously as a technical and administrative priority. Women’s Coordinator Michelle Loprete and Technical Director Georgia Iannella, a former Matilda, provide the program with both organisational direction and the kind of visible role modelling that shapes whether younger players can picture themselves progressing through the game.

The presence of a former international player in a technical leadership role at a community level isn’t incidental. It signals to junior players that the pathway from their Friday night training session to elite football is real and navigable, and it gives the club’s coaching staff access to experience and credibility that most community programs cannot offer.

That pipeline is already functioning. Western Strikers’ Under-13 to Under-16 girls teams all qualified for finals in the Youth Premier League this season. Under-15 goalkeeper Sian Schopfer made her debut in the Women’s State League team which is a direct product of a club environment designed to move players upward.

 

The Friday-night model

One of the more quietly significant initiatives at Western Strikers is the scheduling of Friday night women’s matches, with junior girls training beforehand encouraged to stay and watch senior football. The structure is straightforward but its implications are meaningful. Aspiration in sport is not abstract. It’s built through proximity, through watching players a few years older doing what you want to do, in the same kit, at the same club.

The absence of that experience is one of the more consistent reasons girls disengage from football in their mid-teens. When junior female players cannot see where the game goes after their age group, the logical conclusion is that it goes nowhere. Western Strikers’ scheduling decision addresses that directly, at minimal cost, and whose effects are starting to manifest.

 

The Club Changer framework

The club’s participation in Football South Australia’s Club Changer Program has provided a structured framework for identifying and addressing barriers that might otherwise go unexamined. Pitch allocation, training structures and safety conditions are the kinds of issues that accumulate quietly in club environments; not because of deliberate exclusion but because the default systems were built around male participation and have never been comprehensively reviewed.

The Club Changer Program creates accountability for that review. Western Strikers’ ability to project an additional 146 female players over the next three years is a product of planning rather than optimism.

 

Industry implications

Western Strikers’ model matters beyond its own membership. At a time when women’s football in Australia is navigating the challenge of converting a participation surge into sustainable long-term growth, the question of what community clubs actually do with increased interest is among the most consequential in the sport.

Record crowds at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup and sustained national visibility have opened the door. Whether players walk through it and stay depends on whether the club on the other side looks anything like Western Strikers

The Coaching Crisis Hiding in Australian Football

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Image Credit: Ministry of Sport

The low standard of Australian football has often been attributed to limited resources and the relative immaturity of the sport’s development system in the country. A 2023 study suggests that coach education in Australia is a key issue, as it often fails to adequately prepare coaches for the realities of the game, resulting in weaker practical coaching outcomes.

Coaches have attributed this matter to a number of factors; including the contents quality, structure and delivery. However, deeper systemic issues can also explain its inefficiency. Identifying and understanding these concerns is necessary to improve coach training in Australia.

 

Why does coach training matter?

Coaching is central to any sport, encompassing the transmission of knowledge and the development of athletes to perform at their highest level and achieve their goals. It contributes to shaping sporting identity, club culture and path-dependent behaviour within an organisation. Coaches must participate in training to ensure their efficiency in leading a team.

 

Coach training in the Australian context

In 2020, Football Australia (FA), the national governing body for the sport, introduced new principles aimed at raising the standard of coaching and coach development. These included modernising the delivery of coach education and reviewing both course content and the broader Australian coaching methodology.

Despite this renewal of objectives, the Australian coach education system remains underpinned by the National Football Curriculum (NFC) released in 2013.

The NFC aims to provide coaches with an understanding of the national ‘playing’ and ‘coaching’ philosophy, advocating for a i) player-centred approach to coaching; ii) game-based and constraints-led approach to practice design; and iii) an information-processing view of motor learning.

In Australia, coach education is broadly divided into two pathways, each tailored to different stages of the game:

The Community Coaching pathway targets coaches working with participation players aged 5 to 17. These courses are relatively short and focus on equipping coaches with practical skills in session design and delivery.

The Advanced Coaching pathway is aimed at those operating in the performance phase. These courses are more intensive, centred on Football Australia’s Coaching Expertise Model, which outlines the key competencies required of high-level coaches.

Does the National Football Curriculum have a content issue?

Despite the importance Football Australia (FA) places on football knowledge, coaches reported that courses do not adequately address this area and expressed some dissatisfaction with how it is delivered.

Coaches also highlighted an expectation of conformity to the National Football Curriculum (NFC), which limits the value and impact of formal coach education in developing both theoretical understanding and practical coaching approaches. As a result, coaches can struggle to translate knowledge from coursework into on-field practice, with a lack of alignment between theory and application contributing to this implementation gap.

It is only at the ‘A’ Licence level that coaches are actively encouraged to develop their own football philosophy and vision. In contrast, earlier stages of the curriculum remain largely focused on adopting FA’s established framework.

This sustained emphasis on technical and tactical elements can also restrict the development of broader pedagogical and interpersonal skills required for effective coaching. Given the inherent complexity of coaching, this further complicates the effective translation of formal coach education into practice.

In addition, the NFC is seen as overlooking key off-field responsibilities of coaches. Beyond tactical duties, coaches play a significant role in player development, particularly in relation to well-being and welfare. In modern high-performance sport, coaches are increasingly viewed not only as tacticians, but as holistic developers of athletes both on and off the pitch.

 

No possibility to ‘climb the ladder’

Coaches also complain about the inability to grow and “climb the ladder” in the sport. Indeed, the development of football in Australia highly relies on volunteers.

The majority of NPL youth coaches in Australia are in a casual position. Many of them have full-time jobs in completely different fields. Often juggling two or three jobs just to make ends meet.

“There is no realistic ladder where a young coach can start at grassroots level, improve, get noticed, and work their way into a full-time position in a professional youth academy. The reason is simple. The positions barely exist.”

Jan Schmidt, former Technical Director of the NPL

Coaches are often unable to attend coaching courses during the week, which limits their ability to stay up to date with modern coaching methods.

Limited time and resources therefore restrict coaches’ capacity to deliver high-quality performance and effective coaching practice.

“Most NPL youth coaches earn between $6,000 to $8,000 a year. That is not a career. That is a sacrifice”. Jan Schmidt, former technical director in the NPL

Systemic limitations on the growth and development opportunities available to football coaches in Australia can reduce their motivation and constrain their capacity to deliver effective results. These constraints, in turn, negatively affect coaching quality and ultimately impact the standard of football.

When coaches are unable to fully commit to the demands of the game, they are less able to provide optimal training environments for their players. This limits player development pathways and, consequently, restricts the overall standard of Australian football.

If Football Australia (FA) aims to develop world-class coach education environments, it must better support the behaviours, knowledge, and practices of coaches across the country. This requires a stronger emphasis on aligning coach education with the real needs of the coaching community.

These findings highlight the importance of ongoing engagement between FA and Australian coaches to collaboratively improve coach education programs. Strengthening coach development has the potential to significantly enhance the quality of football delivered to the next generation of Australian players.

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