Football NSW celebrate biggest ever Female Football Week

Matthew Badrov06/06/2022 6:05 am06/06/2022

Football NSW’s 2022 edition of its Female Football Week has been revealed as its most successful yet.

Taking place between the 6^th and 15^th of May, the weeklong celebration was headlined by Matildas star and 2022 Female Football Week Ambassador, Chloe Logarzo. The campaign involved a massive 9,700 participants, spanning coaches, administrators, and officials, from 35 activations across NSW.

The Female Football Week events, which incorporated Female Football Round across Football NSW’s elite competitions, celebrated female participation at all levels of the game, whilst aligning with the recent launch of Football Australia’s national #OurGame initiative.

Football NSW’s Head of Women’s & School Football, Hayley Todd, was delighted with the expansion of the 2022 campaign.

“We could not have asked for a better way to rejuvenate our annual Female Football Week campaign following two COVID-19 impacted years,” Todd said via Football NSW.

“To have 35 different events promoted across the week, incorporating almost 10,000 participants, is a great testament to our dedicated Associations and Clubs, illustrating just how far the women’s game has come.

“With the FIFA Women’s World Cup just around the corner, and following the recent announcement of a $10 million NSW Football Legacy Program, we are incredibly excited about what lies ahead, and remain committed to ensuring we have the capacity and capabilities to support the ongoing growth of the female game.”

The smiles were there to be seen by all as Football NSW assisted with the facilitation of a record number of FFW events, which included:

Several gala days for girls and women
Numerous free skills sessions, clinics and ‘Come & Try’ days
Female-only coaching courses and workshops
All abilities matches
Female trial and exhibition games
Football NSW FFW Round

Football NSW has supported Female Football Week since introducing the annual campaign in 2014, with the initiative standing as one of the highlights of the national football calendar since 2016.

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

Declan Chan15/04/2026 6:15 am14/04/2026

Image Credit: Shutterstock

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.

Marie-Louise Eta makes history as new Union Berlin head coach

Patrick Irving15/04/2026 6:05 am14/04/2026

Image credit: FC Union Berlin

In an historic appointment, Eta will take over as head coach of Union Berlin until the end of the season.

History in the making

Previously the first female assistant coach in Bundesliga history with Union Berlin, Eta will now take the reigns of the men’s first team on an interim basis.

Currently, the club sit in 11th place in the Bundesliga table, but with only two wins so far in 2026, relegation appears an all-too-real prospect, and one which the club is desperate to avoid.

“Given the points gap in the lower half of the table, our place in the Bundesliga is not yet secure,” said Eta via official media release.

‘I am delighted that the club has entrusted me with this challenging task. One of Union’s strengths has always been, and remains, the ability to pull together in such situations.”

Eta will begin as Union’s new head coach with immediate effect, and will be in the dugout for the club’s matchup against Wolfsburg this weekend.

A step into an equal future

Eta’s appointment signals a major step towards a more level playing field in the football landscape.

Furthermore, Eta joins other coaches including Sabrinna Wittmann, Hannah Dingley and Corinne Diacre who, in recent years, have blazed a trail for female coaches to step into the men’s game.

Wittmann currently manages FC Ingolstadt in Germany’s third division, and was the first female head coach in Germany’s top three divisions.

In 2023, Dingley became caretaker manager of Forest Green Rovers, and thus the first woman to lead a men’s professional team in England.

Diacre, now head coach of France’s women’s national team, managed Ligue 2’s Clerment Foot between 2014 and 2017.

Final thoughts

The impact therefore, is that Eta’s appointment will show future generations of aspiring female coaches that men’s football is an equally viable and possible pathway as the women’s game.

The time is now to level the playing field.

And while it may be a short-term role, its effect on attitudes towards equality and fair opportunities in the game will hopefully resonate long after the season ends.