Football Queensland President Ben Richardson’s letter to the football community

Football Queensland

To all members of our Queensland football community, 

After two years of unprecedented challenges and interruptions to our game with the ongoing impacts of COVID-19, in recent weeks we’ve once again found ourselves coming together to work through a significant crisis as a sport and as a community. 

As the water recedes and we prepare for the return of football in many regions from this weekend, it is poignant to reflect on the devastation caused by the recent flood event across a huge number of our football clubs in the South East Queensland and Wide Bay regions. 

It has been personally heartbreaking to see the hard work of dedicated volunteers washed away in just a matter of days. Many of you may not be aware of the true scale of devastation, especially for those whose clubs have been lucky enough to escape significant damage. 

Football Queensland has been working closely with clubs to assess the impact of the recent flood event and is continuing to learn more about the severity of damage inflicted, primarily across South East Queensland. 

So far, Football Queensland has identified 102 clubs who have been affected by flooding; this includes 90 fields inundated with water, 42 club changeroom buildings and 37 clubhouses heavily damaged, 21 clubs with damaged machinery and 21 clubs with damage to their field lighting, with many still yet to be assessed. 

All parts of our game have been impacted, with FQ’s own headquarters at Meakin Park submerged in two metres of floodwater for many days and the clean-up only able to begin in the last week.  

Our focus has remained on supporting our clubs through this time as we know they have lost the most. Run by volunteers who dedicate countless hours to prepare fields and maintain clubhouses and facilities each week, sustaining damage of this magnitude is absolutely devastating for clubs and their members. 

It was a pleasure to welcome Will Hastie and Alex Davani from Football Australia to Queensland this week to discuss support and recovery efforts while visiting some of the clubs and facilities who were heavily impacted.  

Football Queensland launched a dedicated Flood Support Hub in the wake of the flood event, providing a go-to place for clubs to seek assistance from the football community, find information on fundraising and relevant funding opportunities, and connect them with volunteers willing to help in their clean-up efforts. 

The Flood Support Hub is also providing clubs with access to relevant webinars and helpful resources from our partners to help them get back on their feet, and will continue to be updated as more resources become available.  

With the support of Football Australia, Football Queensland wrote to the Queensland Premier advising of the impacts of the flood event being experienced by so many of our clubs and seeking assistance in football’s recovery efforts. We were delighted to hear the Queensland Government announcement just days later of disaster recovery funding being made available for sporting organisations, and encourage all impacted clubs to apply for funding of up to $20,000 via the Queensland Government website once applications open. 

We have also been working with both the State and Federal Governments and relevant local councils to accommodate a return to football as soon as possible, and we’re delighted to have been able to get many competitions back up and running across the state from this weekend. 

We understand that even those clubs and participants not directly affected by flooding have been impacted in recent weeks as we’ve been forced to postpone fixtures at all levels of the game in certain regions, and we thank you for your ongoing patience and cooperation. 

Whilst our focus remains first and foremost on supporting our clubs and volunteers who still have a tough road ahead of them, we are also excited to get players at every level of the game back out on the park in many regions from this weekend onwards. We know this will lift the spirits of so many across our game who have been personally impacted by the flood event. 

It has been truly incredible to see our football community band together over the last few weeks to provide support wherever it was needed. Whilst the sport is what unites each of us, it is the unwavering community spirit off the pitch that makes football the beautiful game. 

As we continue to navigate the ongoing challenges of flood recovery alongside many of our clubs, the resumption of competitions this weekend is a timely and welcome reminder that even in the hardest of times, football will always return. 

Ben Richardson
President
Football Queensland

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Victory unites with Roasting Warehouse in culture-led partnership

The Melbourne-based anf family-owned business will join the Victory family, uniting two institutions which represent the city’s culture and identity.

A partnership with local roots

As the newest partner of Melbourne Victory, Roasting Warehouse joins forces with a vital part of the city’s sporting landscape.

The club’s Managing Director, Caroline Carnegie, outlined why the partnership bears so much value to both parties.

“We are excited to collaborate with Roasting Warehouse, a community-oriented destination for high-quality coffee, proud of its foundations in Melbourne,” said Carnegie via official media release.

“Football and coffee sit at the epicentre of Melbourne’s culture. The two go hand-in-hand, consistently at the centre of the conversation that stirs Melburnians, which is no different to the conversation sport and Melbourne Victory stir in the State.”

Indeed, this is a partnership which combines the identity, passions and culture of an entire city, therefore giving it the foundations required for long-term, mutual success.

Representing the best of Melbourne

Both Victory and Roasting Warehouse are hugely successful in their respective industries. They are institutions with community-oriented philosphies, who pride themselves on craft and quality.

“We’re incredibly proud to partner with Melbourne Victory, a club that represents the heart, passion, and ambition of Melbourne,” revealed Roasting Warehouse Head of Brand, Alexander Paraskevopoulos.

“As a Melbourne-founded, family-run business, supporting a team that means so much to the local community feels very natural for us.”

Furthermore, through their high-quality blends, Roasting Warehouse will look to prepare Victory’s players and staff for high performances on the pitch as the seasons nears completion.

But this is about far more than just fueling athletes.

This is a partnership which embodies and unites two of Melbourne’s greatest strengths and cultural markers – a connection forged from the city’s very own DNA.

 

For more information about Roasting Warehouse, click here.

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

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.

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