What the future holds for futsal in Australia

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Credit: Football Australia

The return of the National Futsal Championships is a huge boon, according to two people key to the development of the game within Australia.

Last month Football Australia announced the return of the National Futsal Championships, pitting states against each other in a tournament that has been on hiatus since the start of the pandemic.

The Futsalroos – the FIFA recognised national team for Australia – have competed at eight FIFA Futsal World Cups, and the game has a rich history and strong participation in Australia.

The 2019 National Participation Report, produced by Football Australia (FA), shows the game growing in participation by 36% – with 63,031 registered players. The National Futsal Championships will feature close to 1,000 participants from over 100 teams being involved from states and territories across the country.

James Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of Football Australia, was pleased with the re-introduction of the National Futsal Championships and the reinvigoration of the F-League and looks forward to growing the futsal footprint in Australia.

“As part of our clear strategic agenda, we outlined a vision to create a national program for futsal and beach soccer by working closely with our Member Federations in a unified, inclusive and collaborative manner,” he said in a statement.

“With the culmination of this process, we are delighted that Football Queensland and Football Victoria will be hosting the National Futsal Championships in 2022 and 2023 respectively.

“There is a clear appetite throughout Australia for football to increase its imprint through futsal and beach soccer.  Queensland and Victoria now have the opportunity to showcase this and bring it to life over the next two years, in a way never seen before.”

The 2022 and 2023 Championships will be hosted in Queensland and Victoria respectively – two states that have embedded futsal within their overall organisational strategies.

Trevor Edwards, Head of Futsal at Football Queensland (FQ), is the tournament organiser for the 2022 National Futsal Championships. He believes that FQ is seeing success in futsal because they have linked it with their football strategy in the state.

“We see it as a game in itself, but also linked in with the entire football family,” Edwards told Soccerscene.

“We are looking to develop the F-League in Queensland into a conference style where we have northern, southern, and central competitions in the state. That might take a few years to get to, but that is our target for futsal.”

Anthony Grima, head of Futsal at Football Victoria (FV), explains that it is essential for Australian football to develop futsal alongside the 11 a side game.

“After the 2021 National Futsal Championships were cancelled due to the devastating impact of COVID-19 on sport and the community, we needed to work together to regain momentum, and confirm hosts for the tournaments in 2022 and 2023 to ensure our community had a calendar they could work towards,” Grima said to Soccerscene.

“The tournament is the pinnacle event for Futsal in Australia and is the largest of Football Australia’s national tournaments.”

The National Futsal Championships is seen as a way to strengthen pathways for junior development, as well as grow the game within Australia.

“It is essential from a state perspective. We would like to see that continue and grow. In previous years since the national F-League became defunct, there hasn’t been a pathway for juniors to make the national selection for the Futsalroos. We’d love to see that pathway come back and develop,” Edwards said.

“Not just your pathway for national teams, but also pathways and processes for really strong grassroots participation, coach education, and referee education.”

The F-League, Australia’s last national futsal competition, ended in 2016. Grima thinks that a relaunched national futsal competition is vital to the development of the game in Australia.

“A National Futsal League is crucial for any country who wishes to participate and compete in international tournaments,” Grima said.

“In addition to the National Futsal Championships, state-based F-Leagues could potentially link up with a National Futsal League that links all the champions together and forms the pathway for both male and female players, coaches, and referees.”

In recent years, the small-sided game has been recognised for its ability to supplement player development for football and also increasingly as a sport in its own right.

In 2016, a game featuring legendary Brazilian Falcao and Bayern Munich’s Douglas Costa drew a crowd of over 2,000 people in Melbourne.

With states collaborating towards a common goal, futsal will only continue to expand within Australia.

“There are many initiatives that we can plan to elevate futsal not just in Australia but on the world stage. It is clear that Football Australia, under the leadership of James Johnson, wants to grow the Futsal footprint in Australia,” Grima said.

“Futsal’s inclusion in the ‘XI Principles – for the future of Australian Football’ back in October outlined a vision to create a national program for futsal and beach soccer by working closely with the Member Federations in a unified, inclusive and collaborative manner.”

Edwards shared the same view as Grima towards growing the game.

“As a whole, we are excited as Member Federations to be involved in the development of futsal. We are excited with the collaboration that is happening, and I hope we can keep pushing the sport together so futsal continues to grow in this country,” Edwards said.

When the National Futsal Championships kicks off at the Gold Coast Sports and Leisure Centre on January 5, 2022, it will have the backing of the entire football landscape.

Those involved in the game are committed to see it be a grand return for the tournament, to ensure the continuing growth of the game is not only maintained, but expanded and elevated in the months and years to come.

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Victorian State Budget delivers $750,000 to football facilities as governing body signals more to come

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Two of Victoria’s most prominent football clubs have secured a combined $750,000 in facility funding from the 2026 Victorian State Budget, in what Football Victoria describes as the beginning of a broader set of announcements for the sport from this year’s budget cycle.

Avondale FC will receive $500,000 to install lighting at Avenger Park in Avondale Heights, while Hume City FC has secured $250,000 for major upgrades at Nasiol Stadium in Broadmeadows, including a new LED scoreboard and improved lighting infrastructure. Both clubs compete in the Victorian National Premier Leagues and serve large multicultural communities in Melbourne’s north and northwest.

The announcements are modest in scale relative to the infrastructure deficit facing community and semi-professional football across the state, but their political significance extends beyond the dollar figures. They represent a tangible return on Football Victoria’s sustained advocacy campaign, which includes the Level the Playing Field parliamentary petition calling for more equitable government funding for football relative to other codes.

Facilities as Equity Infrastructure

The Avondale funding addresses a problem that has constrained the club’s operations for years. Avenger Park currently cannot be used at night, forcing the club to play matches at neighbouring venues or arrange temporary lighting for significant fixtures, including last year’s Hahn Australia Cup tie. The $500,000 investment will allow the club to host evening matches and training sessions on its own ground for the first time, removing a structural disadvantage that has affected scheduling, participation and the overall experience for hundreds of players each week.

For Hume City, the implications carry a specific equity dimension. Club President Ersan Gulum noted that upgraded lighting and facilities would directly support the growth of the club’s girls’ and women’s programs by providing better access to training environments and creating more opportunities for female participation.

“We have hundreds of players across all age groups utilising these facilities each week, and these improvements will help create an even stronger environment for excellence, participation, and community engagement,” Gulum said.

The connection between lighting and women’s football access is not incidental. Inadequate or absent lighting at community grounds disproportionately affects female programs, which have expanded rapidly in recent years but frequently find themselves scheduled into daytime slots because evening use of the facility is not viable. Infrastructure that enables night training and matches does not merely improve conditions. It expands the hours during which the ground can be used, directly increasing the number of teams and players a facility can serve.

The Political Context

Both clubs are located in state electorates where local members played an active role in securing the funding. Avondale celebrated the announcement with Parliamentary Secretary Sheena Watt, while Hume City acknowledged the support of local members in its public statement.

The pattern is familiar in Australian sports funding. Facility grants flow through electorate-level political relationships as much as through any centralised allocation process. Football Victoria’s acknowledgement of both Merri-Bek and Hume City Councils, in addition to the state government, reflects the layered advocacy required to move funding from budget allocation to ground-level construction.

Football Victoria CEO Dan Birrell praised both clubs and pointed toward further announcements.

“Both Avondale and Hume City are pillars in the Victorian football landscape, building strong and supportive communities around their top level junior and senior football programs,” Birrell said. “Professional level facilities like Avenger Park and Nasiol Stadium are critical for the development of Victorian football.”

Football Victoria has indicated more budget-related football announcements are forthcoming and has urged supporters to sign the Level the Playing Field petition ahead of the next Victorian State Election.

Heidelberg United denied qualification to AFC UCL 2

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Image credit: Mark Avellino Photography / Australia Cup

In an announcement made yesterday, Football Australia revealed that, in place of Heidelberg United, Melbourne Victory will now take the AFC UCL 2 spot.

A premature ending

In what is sure to be a disappointing verdict for Heidelberg’s fans, staff and supporters, the NPL VIC side will no longer compete in next season’s AFC CL 2.

The decision comes despite Heidelberg meeting the necessary criteria outlined in Football Australia’s National Club Licensing Regulations.

“We understand that this will be a disappointing outcome for everyone connected to Heidelberg United FC,” said FA Executive Director of Football, Heather Garriock, via press release.

“The club earned enormous respect through its performances this season and should be proud of what it achieved both on and off the pitch.”

Indeed, through defeating several A-League outfits en-route to the Australia Cup Final against Newcastle Jets, Heidelberg did earn widespread respect and admiration across the landscape. Football Australia also strongly advocated for the side’s place in the AFC CL 2 following Newcastle’s qualification to the AFC CL Elite.

But despite the determined efforts of the club’s board to meet all necessary criteria, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) ruled the side ineligible to compete.

 

Victory emerge as replacements

Filling the now-vacant position in next season’s competition is Melbourne Victory, who finished 4th in the A-League this year.

As 3rd-place Auckland FC are based in New Zealand, thus falling under the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), they are also ineligible to compete.

So while the AFC CL 2 will still be arriving in Melbourne next season, fixtures will no longer be built on the underdog success story of Heidelberg’s immense rise from NPL to AFC CL matchdays.

The club, however, will appeal the decision, and has written to Football Australia for further clarity on the Appeals Process.

It remains uncertain whether the appeal will be successful or not, but Heidelberg will undoubtedly enjoy the backing not just of its own staff and supporters, but of the entire Australian grassroots community.

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