A review of Football Belongs – Australia’s football history

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Football Belongs is an exploration into the passion of the people who make up the World Game within Australia. Featuring interviews with football aficionados, players and coaches, the documentary is an excellent reminder of how the immigrant communities have contributed to the success and survival of football in Australia, but also to the national identity as well.

The strength of the documentary lays in its vast catalogue of interviews. Countless legends of the game describe how football clubs and the communities that underpin them have contributed to their lives. The insight from these interviews – over 150 in total – reveal how these football clubs became bastions of their respective ethnic communities. “It’s not about football, it’s about getting people together” is the quote that most perfectly encapsulates the heart of this film.

One of the greatest successes of Football Belongs is its authenticity. Anybody who has spent time around a football club in Australia, particularly any ethnic club, will feel instant nostalgia. The culture these clubs create, the memories they form, and the players they develop can’t be ignored. Nobody ever forgets the feasts these football clubs put on after (and during) a game.

Rarely will you see a production on Australian football that has so much respect for the rich achievements of Australian football pre-2006 World Cup. From coaches and players from Australia’s first-ever World Cup in 1974 to mainstays from clubs that haven’t been on the national stage since the National Soccer League, the documentary shows reverence to an often-overlooked history.

A common sentiment from the countless people interviewed is that their lives would not have been as rich, or their careers as successful, without the clubs that form the Australian football community. Socceroos coach Graham Arnold talks about the impact that Sydney United, and its Croatian community, had on him after the loss of his mother. Mark Bresciano, John Aloisi, and Sasa Ognenovski – great servants to the game in Australia – discuss their upbringing in the game and the careers that followed. Others describe how football allowed them to experience different cultures and experiences, for their betterment.

While watching Football Belongs, it was an ecstatic surprise to see a young Jackson Irvine scoring goals for Ringwood City, wearing the same kit that I played in as a 13-year-old boy. Seeing a club I spent so many hours of my formative years at, having played there from under 14s through to the senior team, in such an important time of Australian football history was a beautiful moment.

One of its most impactful moments comes in the finale, when Indigenous footballer and artist John Moriarty is interviewed. He describes how he was accepted through football in a point in history where he had no rights in his own country, after experiencing the direct impacts of being a part of the Stolen Generation. The filmmakers have gone to great lengths to highlight the multiculturalism that sustains the world game in Australia.

This review barely covers the countless number of interviews within Football Belongs. The team behind it has delved deep into footballing history while highlighting the roots that were formed in the past that remain today. Football Belongs is a love letter to the multiculturalism that has helped not just the world game, but Australia as a whole. It is without doubt essential viewing for those who love football, and it is truly a part of Australian footballing history.

Football Belongs can be viewed on Optus Sport. You can also read more about the making of the documentary here.

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Football NSW supports Female Coaches CPD as Women’s Football Surges

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Football NSW has used the platform of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup to deliver a targeted professional development workshop for female coaches, bringing together scholarship recipients for an evening of structured learning and direct engagement with elite women’s football.

Held at ACPE last month, the session was open to female coaches who received C or B Diploma scholarships through Football NSW in 2025. Coaching accreditation carries a financial cost that disproportionately affects women, who are less likely to have their development subsidised by clubs or associations operating in underfunded community football environments. Scholarship access changes that equation at the point where many women exit the pathway.

Facilitated by Football NSW Coach Development Coordinator Bronwyn Kiceec, the workshop focused on goal scoring trends from the tournament’s group stage, with coaches analysing attacking patterns and exploring how those insights could translate into their own environments. The group then attended the quarter-final between South Korea and Uzbekistan at Stadium Australia.

The structure of the evening mattered as much as its content. Female coaches in community football rarely have access to elite competition environments as a professional resource. The gap between the level at which most women coach and the level at which the game is analysed and discussed tends to reinforce itself. Placing scholarship recipients inside a major tournament, as participants rather than spectators, closes that gap in a way that a classroom session cannot.

Female coaches remain significantly underrepresented across all levels of the game in Australia. The pipeline that will change that depends not only on accreditation access but on the professional networks, peer relationships and exposure to elite environments that male coaches have historically taken for granted.

The workshop forms part of Football NSW’s ongoing commitment to developing female coaches through scholarships and structured learning opportunities.

Record Pathway Breakthrough: Football NSW Report Highlights Power of Access and Equity

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Football NSW has released its 2025 Player Development Report, documenting a year of significant growth across its Talented Player Pathway programs for girls, boys and regional players, and offering the clearest picture yet of how the state’s talent identification infrastructure is reshaping who gets access to elite football development in Australia.

The report distinguishes between three streams: girls, boys and regional, where each operate under the umbrella of the Talented Player Pathway, which encompasses Football NSW’s Youth Leagues, Talent Support Program and state teams. Across all three, the numbers point to a system that is identifying more players, reaching further into the community, and producing more national team representatives than at any previous point in the program’s history.

A Girls Pathway Coming of Age

The girls program recorded some of its most significant outcomes to date in 2025, headlined by the inaugural Future Sapphires Program, a dedicated development environment for 2009, 2010 and 2011-born players that ran 140 training sessions, 16 high-level matches against boys teams, and identified 20 players for national team involvement across its first year alone.

The Talent Support Program conducted 494 player assessments across 119 club visits, with 117 additional games provided for TSP players throughout the season. At the Emerging Matildas Championships, Football NSW fielded three state teams, with the Under-15s Sky team claiming the championship, the Under-16s finishing as runners-up, and the Under-15s Navy placing third.

The pathway-to-national-team conversion rate was striking. Of the 23-player squad selected to represent the Junior Matildas at the AFC Under-17 Women’s Asian Cup Qualifiers, 13 were from Football NSW, a 56.5 percent representation rate from a single state federation.

“This report does not simply provide data and numbers,” said Girls Player Development Manager Nadine Shiels. “It highlights our progress and validates the standards we set.”

The equity implications of that pipeline are significant. Elite female footballers in Australia, have historically faced a narrower and less resourced development corridor than their male counterparts. Programs like the Future Sapphires and the TSP are structural interventions in that imbalance, reshaping access mechanisms that determine which players get seen and which do not.

Boys Program Deepens its Reach

The boys Talent Support Program underwent deliberate restructuring in 2025, reducing squad sizes from approximately 90 players and five teams to 54 players and three teams per age group, while extending match duration from 50 to 70 minutes. The intent was to raise the standard of the best-versus-best environment rather than simply widen it.

The results support that confidence. To date, 155 players who have participated in the boys TSP have transitioned to A-League academies, with approximately 35 progressing to A-League Men’s competition and a further 30 representing Australia at junior national level across the Under-17, Under-20 and Under-23 squads.

The 2025 season added four Talent Development Scheme matches for players born between 2007 and 2009, delivered in collaboration with Football Australia and targeting potential Junior Socceroos and Young Socceroos selection. The program also hosted the inaugural A-Leagues/TSP Tournament at Valentine Sports Park in December, featuring Melbourne City, Melbourne Victory, Western Sydney Wanderers, Sydney FC, Macarthur Bulls Academy and a TSP Select team.

“Our purpose is clear- not only to identify talent, but to prepare it,” said Boys Player Development Manager Philip Myall.

The Regional Question

Perhaps the most structurally significant section of the report concerns regional development- the stream that most directly addresses the geographic equity gap in Australian football’s talent pipeline.

Talent identification in Australia has historically concentrated in metropolitan areas, where NPL clubs, A-League academies and state federation programs are most densely located. Players in regional and rural NSW face a structural disadvantage that has nothing to do with ability and everything to do with geography. Fewer club visits, reduced access to high-performance environments, and reduced visibility to the coaches and scouts who determine national team selection saliently reflect a systemic barrier.

The 2025 regional TSP involved 241 players across 57 training sessions, 18 hub matches and 58 additional tournament games, with Football NSW coaches present at local association fixtures and regional tournaments including the Bathurst Cup and Country Cup. Regional players were also integrated into Elite Game Days at Valentine Sports Park, directly competing against metropolitan TSP cohorts and A-League academy players.

“The program has continued to enable identified players to progress and be part of the greater football elite player pathway,” said Regional Development Manager Andrew Fearnley, “with opportunity to progress and be identified into national youth teams.”

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