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Why the FFA have made the right call on grassroots soccer
The grassroots level is where our stars are born, where we discover our love for the game.
It’s arguably the most important level of the game and without it, the sport of soccer in this country would be next to nothing.
In light of the recent coronavirus outbreak that has been dominating the headlines worldwide, the FFA originally decided to continue games at the community level, without crowds.
From a certain point of view, it made sense.
Local clubs thrive on matchdays and to play fixtures as per usual, just without any supporters.
Only players, coaches, officials, registered ground staff and media were going to be allowed attendance.
But this week, the FFA have overruled this decision, instead opting to postpone all fixtures below the A-League until the virus outbreak reaches a manageable level.
One which would allow fans to go to games without running the risk of contracting COVID-19.
It’s hard to argue that the FFA have made the incorrect decision.
As much as we want to watch our favourite clubs play whilst we sit at home, cheering them on, it’s hard for clubs to warrant fixtures being played without gameday income.
As fans, we can often take our purchases and financial commitments to clubs for granted. It’s easy to do so, especially if you’re a long serving member of the club.
At the start of the year, prior to the outbreak, many fans would’ve felt paid their membership fees, bought their attire and anything else without thinking twice.
Just the beginning of another season.
But now, with all those fees paid and no games to help bring more money in, clubs would struggle.
Clubs rely heavily on food, drinks and ticket purchases to keep them afloat during the season. It’s a reliable source of income that doesn’t need much attention, if any.
People will always buy tickets on the day, buy their own dinners and even a few drinks if they’re in the mood. It’s a given for most clubs and it is an easy way to make profit.
However, with no fans at games, things change drastically.
Players, coaches, ground staff and club media still have paychecks to be met. Referees are in the same boat.
Power bills don’t come cheap and with games being played, you can bet those bills would take their toll, especially night fixtures where lights are required to be on.
Furthermore, by playing these fixtures, you run the risk of people contracting the virus.
Yes, it’s not as risky as having hundreds or thousands of fans enter the stadiums/grounds.
But the chances of it happening, albeit slim, are still higher than we all wish it was.
Clubs will still make significant losses from this outbreak, make no mistake about that.
Some AFL clubs are reporting that they may be in for financial losses of more than $5 million, a staggering amount.
Clubs across the Serie A, Bundesliga, La Liga and the Premier League will also make losses.
Community level clubs are in the same boat. But it’s certainly smarter and above all else, safer to have these games postponed until the time comes when we can all shake hands again.
When we can go outside without having to worry about what might happen.
When we can live our lives as per normal.
Many fans will be staying at home during these bizarre times and limiting how often they leave the house.
As much as they’d love to see their sides play whilst in the comfort and safety of their own homes, it simply isn’t the way.
Fans will simply need to find other ways to entertain themselves as their local clubs will have to join many more around the world, in a period of limbo.
Although the decision would have been one they did not make lightly, FFA CEO James Johnson and his team have certainly done the right thing in postponing.
By running these fixtures, it’s simply running the unnecessary risk of spreading the virus and that’s the last thing needed right now.
Johnson has been thrown out of the frying pan and into the fire as CEO, but he has made a good start in trying circumstances and let’s hope he stays on this trend.
However, he and his team need to continue making these tough calls.
Next up, postponement of the A-League.
Once again, it’s merely common sense.
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More than 60 million fans attended matches across Europe’s five major domestic leagues during the 2025/26 season, with average attendances rising 2.4 per cent to 34,402 spectators per game.
On the surface, the figures paint a picture of a healthy ecosystem. Stadiums are fuller than ever, supporters continue to attend in large numbers and live football remains one of the most compelling entertainment products in the world.
But headline crowd figures only tell part of the story.
The more revealing measure is stadium utilisation how much of a venue’s capacity is actually being filled and the structural factors influencing those numbers.
For clubs, higher attendances don’t simply mean more ticket sales. Every additional supporter creates revenue opportunities across hospitality, food and beverage, merchandise and memberships. Modern stadiums are increasingly designed to maximise revenue per visitor, making infrastructure investment as much a commercial decision as a football one.
Attendance growth needs context
In Germany, the Bundesliga reclaimed its position as Europe’s best-attended league, averaging more than 42,300 spectators per match following a 9.4 per cent increase on last year’s figures.
However, much of that growth was driven by the return of traditional powerhouses Hamburger SV and 1. FC Köln. Both clubs continued to attract crowds of more than 50,000 despite spending recent seasons in the second division.
Their promotion didn’t suddenly create new supporters.
It returned two of German football’s biggest fan bases to the top flight, demonstrating how promotion and relegation can significantly influence league-wide attendance trends.
Everton shows how new stadiums can unlock demand
While the Premier League recorded another increase in average attendance, much of that growth can be traced to Everton’s move into the new Hill Dickinson Stadium. The larger venue added almost 13,000 spectators per home match compared with Goodison Park, accounting for more than half of the league’s overall attendance growth during the season.
Rather than generating new demand, the project unlocked demand that already existed.
That distinction matters.
Attendance should be viewed alongside stadium utilisation because many clubs have effectively reached capacity.
A stadium averaging 98 per cent capacity tells a very different story to one averaging 60 per cent, even if the latter attracts more spectators overall.
High utilisation suggests strong demand, pricing power and a compelling matchday experience, while lower utilisation can indicate untapped potential or a venue unfit for its market.
Capacity is becoming a strategic issue
In competitions where grounds are regularly close to full, future growth will depend less on attracting new supporters and more on expanding or redeveloping stadiums.
Elsewhere, the opportunity lies in making better use of existing capacity.
Spain illustrates how infrastructure can also temporarily suppress attendances. Barcelona’s continued absence from the Spotify Camp Nou during its redevelopment has limited crowd numbers despite strong demand.
Real Madrid’s renovated Santiago Bernabéu, meanwhile, demonstrates how modern stadium investment can increase not only capacity but also commercial revenue through premium hospitality.
League structures also shape attendance trends
Ligue 1’s growth over recent seasons has coincided with its reduction from 20 clubs to 18, concentrating a greater number of well-supported clubs within the competition and lifting average attendances as a result.
Stadium investment, league composition, promotion and relegation, and long-term supporter culture all play a role.
Taken together, the figures suggest that attendance growth is rarely driven by a single factor.
Crowd figures are often viewed as the primary indicator of a league’s health, but European football demonstrates that context matters just as much as the headline number.
The recent Australia Cup fixture between South Melbourne and Preston Lions provides a good local example. While the official attendance was 6,673, the packed grandstands, active supporter groups and television presentation created an atmosphere that felt far larger than the raw figure suggested.
It was a reminder that fan engagement, venue utilisation and matchday experience can often say more about the health of a competition than attendance alone.
A sold-out 15,000-seat stadium may indicate stronger demand than a half-full 30,000-seat venue, while investment in infrastructure can unlock thousands of additional supporters without changing underlying interest in the game itself.
As clubs continue to invest in new stadiums and redevelop existing venues, attendance should increasingly be measured not simply by how many people are watching, but by how effectively football is meeting supporter demand.
The crowds may be rising, but the real story is why.
Football can't police its way to a better future. It needs to build a culture of belonging, accountability and membership that lasts beyond any one administration.
Security manages risk. Membership builds culture. Football Victoria’s greatest legacy won’t be another policy – it will be a connected football community that outlasts today’s administrators.
Every time crowd trouble makes headlines, football tends to reach for the same solutions: more police, more security, stronger sanctions and another statement condemning the behaviour.
But football membership could offer another layer of accountability by creating a stronger relationship between supporters, their clubs and the game.
The recent South Melbourne and Preston Lions fixture has once again placed supporter behaviour under the spotlight. The match finished 0-0, but the football was overshadowed by the actions of a small group of supporters. Football Victoria condemned the behaviour and launched an investigation, while Preston Lions also condemned the conduct and indicated it would cooperate with authorities.
Those responses are necessary. The overwhelming majority of supporters attend football to support their clubs and should be able to do so in a safe and welcoming environment.
But incidents such as this should force a bigger conversation. Instead of continually asking how we punish those responsible, perhaps we should be asking how we build a football environment where accountability is embedded into the relationship between the supporter, the club and the game.
England confronted this challenge more than three decades ago.
Following the dark era of football hooliganism throughout the 1970s and 1980s, English football underwent a fundamental transformation. All-seater stadiums, CCTV, intelligence-led policing, professional stewarding and Football Banning Orders all played important roles in changing the match day environment.
But one principle sits underneath many of those reforms: knowing who your supporters are.
Football became less anonymous, and accountability became more achievable.
Football Membership Makes Accountability Possible
A membership card alone will never eradicate hooliganism. England did not solve football violence simply by introducing membership; it built an integrated system of policing, stadium management, intelligence, sanctions and supporter engagement.
Football membership can, however, strengthen that system.
When someone becomes a member, they are no longer simply an anonymous person purchasing a ticket. They have a relationship with the club. In Australia, that relationship can be even stronger because club memberships commonly provide prepaid match admission and voting rights.
That creates both privileges and responsibilities.
If a member repeatedly breaches a club’s code of conduct, there should be meaningful consequences beyond being removed from one match. Membership can be suspended, voting rights revoked and access to tickets, digital services and other member benefits restricted where appropriate.
The objective isn’t to punish supporters collectively. It is to give clubs and governing bodies the tools to identify, manage and sanction individuals while protecting the overwhelming majority who simply want to support their team.
Membership doesn’t replace policing. It strengthens accountability.
Australian Football Already Has the Foundation
Australian football does not need to start from scratch.
Our existing club membership structures already provide a direct relationship between supporter and club. Members can have voting rights, prepaid gate admission and a formal stake in the organisation they support.
The problem is that the relationship often ends at the turnstile.
Football Victoria has an opportunity to take that existing foundation and build something much bigger: a connected football membership ecosystem across Victorian football.
Imagine every supporter receiving a Football Victoria Membership ID linked to their club membership, ticket purchases, attendance, volunteer history, coaching and referee accreditation, junior participation and other interactions with the game.
That identity could become the gateway to the entire football experience.
Visual reference: Manchester United digital membership platform. What could a connected Victorian football membership experience look like?
One Membership. One Platform. One Football Community.
A centrally managed digital platform could provide members with access to live-streamed matches, club news, fixtures, results, exclusive content, merchandise, hospitality, voting, community programs and other services.
For clubs, it would create a direct and trusted relationship with their supporters.
For Football Victoria, it would create a statewide football network. For supporters, football membership becomes more than an annual transaction; it becomes their digital identity within the game.
This is where the proposal moves beyond supporter behaviour and into commercial sustainability.
Football Membership Is a Commercial Asset
The biggest misconception in Australian football is that membership is simply a marketing product.
It is not.
Football membership can become one of the game’s greatest commercial assets.
Every club talks about attracting sponsors, but sponsors increasingly want more than a logo on a shirt or perimeter board. They want access to audiences, measurable engagement and data.
A club with a strong membership base can demonstrate a genuine, identifiable community. It can communicate directly with supporters, promote merchandise and hospitality, measure engagement and provide sponsors with a more compelling proposition.
Now scale that across Victorian football.
Club websites, live streams, fixture pages, newsletters, digital memberships and content platforms collectively become a significant commercial inventory.
Football Victoria could develop statewide commercial partnerships across that network while allowing clubs to maintain their existing local relationships.
Every live stream, digital banner, fixture page, newsletter and member portal becomes valuable commercial inventory.
Revenue generated through that central digital ecosystem should be transparently redistributed across the game.
Football Victoria generates new commercial income. Participating clubs receive a share based on an agreed model that could consider active memberships, digital engagement, live-stream audiences and commercial performance.
That changes the economics.
Clubs are no longer operating entirely as individual commercial islands. They become part of a larger football marketplace where growth in membership and engagement creates value for the entire game.
Building Football’s Digital Infrastructure
The opportunity isn’t simply another membership database.
It is football infrastructure.
Imagine a single platform connecting club memberships, voting rights, match admission, live streaming, club news, supporter communications, merchandise and participation across the state.
It could also give Football Victoria a much clearer picture of the football community.
Not just registered players, but members, supporters, volunteers, coaches, referees and families actively engaged with clubs.
That data matters.
When football is competing for facilities, funding and political attention, credible evidence of community demand is far more powerful than assumptions or isolated attendance figures.
A connected football membership system could give policymakers a clearer understanding of the people behind the game and the scale of the community being served.
The South Melbourne–Preston Fixture Should Be a Catalyst
The recent fixture should not simply become another disciplinary matter that disappears once sanctions are handed down.
It should prompt a broader examination of whether Victorian football has the systems required to create stronger supporter accountability.
There is a legitimate place for security, policing, stewarding and sanctions. But these should sit within a broader framework that connects clubs with their members and gives supporters a genuine stake in the culture they help create.
The goal should not be to turn football into a sterile environment. Passion is one of the game’s greatest assets.
The goal is to protect passionate support while making it increasingly difficult for a small minority to hijack the experience for everyone else.
Football membership can be part of that solution.
A Legacy Beyond Today’s Administrators
Football administrators often ask themselves how they will be remembered.
Will it be another strategic plan? Another governance review? Another infrastructure announcement?
Those achievements matter, but systems create legacies.
The administrators who transformed English football are not remembered simply because they installed CCTV or introduced stronger sanctions. They are remembered because they helped fundamentally change how football operated.
Football Victoria has the same opportunity.
Imagine being the administration that built Australia’s first integrated football membership ecosystem: one that strengthens supporter accountability, creates recurring commercial opportunities for clubs, provides government with credible participation data, increases sponsorship value and connects supporters with their clubs through one trusted platform.
That is a legacy.
Football doesn’t need another reactive policy after the next crowd incident. It needs infrastructure—not just concrete and steel, but digital, commercial and community infrastructure capable of supporting the game for decades.
Because the greatest asset in football isn’t the grandstand, the sponsor or even the competition.
It is the people who choose to belong.
If Victorian football has the courage to transform football membership from a ticketing product into the foundation of accountability, community and commercial growth, it can do more than respond to the next incident.
It can change the way football is experienced, governed and commercially sustained for generations.
History shows us that football doesn’t change after one incident.
It changes when leaders have the courage to build systems that make the next one less likely to happen.
