Football NSW Expands Flexible Football Program as Women’s Participation Surges

Declan Chan13/04/2026 6:05 am12/04/2026

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Football NSW has expanded its Flexible Football Initiatives program into six additional associations in 2026, building on a successful pilot year that demonstrated measurable demand for shorter, more accessible formats among women and girls across the state.

The program, a key pillar of the NSW Football Legacy Program funded by the NSW Office of Sport, offers casual tournaments and abbreviated competitions designed to fit around the schedules of women who may not be able to commit to the structure of a traditional 90-minute outdoor winter season. The participation data supports the premise: women currently make up 33 percent of summer football participants compared to 26 percent in outdoor winter football, representing a gap that points directly to the role format flexibility plays in driving female engagement with the game.

First piloted in 2025 in partnership with Football Canterbury, Northern Suburbs Football Association, Macarthur Football Association and Hills Football, the program has now expanded to ten associations across NSW following strong results in its inaugural year.

“Flexible Football gives women more ways to get involved, whether through shorter games or casual competitions,” said Football NSW Female Football Coordinator Emma Griffin. “It’s about making football easier to access and helping more women enjoy playing.”

The structural logic is straightforward. Barriers to participation in women’s sport are rarely about interest, but rather are about time, cost, geography and the degree to which formal competition structures accommodate the realities of women’s lives. A program that removes the requirement to commit to a full winter season lowers the threshold at the point where many women disengage.

The initiative sits within a broader national picture of sustained growth in women’s football, with participation numbers at record levels following the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and the 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup currently underway in Australia.

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

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

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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.

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.