Football Victoria and School Sport Victoria unite to bring more football and Futsal to schools

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Football Victoria (FV) have announced a significant partnership with School Sport Victoria (SSV) that will see opportunities to participate in football and futsal enhanced for school students across the state.

Pending COVID Safe guidelines, three tailor-made programs are set to kick-off in Term 4 which are designed for students of different ages and abilities to get involved in the world game.

FV CEO Kimon Taliadoros was excited to be teaming up with SSV to launch the initiatives, which will provide students a range of new and exciting pathways into football.

“Our partnership with School Sport Victoria continues to grow, with our united goal of providing more sporting opportunities for students, not only as players but as officials through our new Referees Academy program,” he said.

“With an objective of achieving 50/50 participation by 2027, the partnership with SSV enables us to provide equal access for boys and girls to kick-start a lifelong love of football for many who have not yet played our beautiful game.

“We look forward to guiding more young Victorians on their football journey.”

With the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand on the horizon, there has never been a better time for young women and girls to try football.

FV and SSV will partner to host Gala Days for primary school students in Grades 4, 5 and 6. These events will be exclusively girls-only so participants can shine in a fun and safe environment.

In addition, FV in conjunction with SSV are seeking Expressions of Interest (EOI) from SSV Primary and Secondary Schools who wish to participate in ‘Futsal’ 5-A-Side Indoor Football competitions in 2021 and 2022.

The program will be kicking off in December with a Futsal Gala Day at La Trobe Sports Stadium located in Bundoora.

A Futsal Champions Cup is also being proposed for Runners-Up and Champions who qualify from any SSV Divisional and Regional Futsal events that can be held in 2021.

Finally, FV and SSV have offered their Refereeing Academy program to students who are aged between 15 and 18.

The program will take students through the Level 4 Refereeing Course, which includes an online component that teaches the laws of the game and a practical component, where students will be trained by a qualified instructor out on the pitch.

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Geelong Regional Football Hub vision one step closer to reality

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Image credit: Football Victoria

A process five years in the making, the Geelong Regional Football Hub (GRFH) will now build its home at Sutcliffe Reserve in Corio.

A major advancement

The project promises to be a major boost for the football community in Victoria’s west.

But the approval isn’t just about addressing the current issues facing players in and around Geelong (with just one football pitch found per 6,971 people), it symbolises an all-important promise to players, coaches and supporters:

A promise to invest, support and grow.

So now, following an extensive process of potential site assessments and council approvals, Football Victoria (FV) will prepare to lay the physical foundations at Sutcliffe Reserve in Corio – ten minutes away from Geelong CBD.

“This is a brilliant result for the sport in Victoria and the start of something truly exciting for football in Geelong and the surrounding area,” said FV CEO, Dan Birrell, via press release.

But despite the obvious anticipation over site approval, there remains one more bridge to cross to bring this project from blueprint to building block: securing funding.

 

What is the GRFH?

Beyond a mere community football centre, the GRFH will become a world-class hub for playing opportunities, development pathways and venue for several of FV’s most popular competitions.

The proposed site will include five pitches, of which two will boast seated stands, as well as two pavilions, social spaces, kitchen and bar areas, media spaces, and facilities for players and match officials.

Such extensive, thorough infrastructure will therefore ensure the site can host an array of competitions for players across the landscape to showcase their talent. From supporting everything from school competitions to NPL VIC Men’s and Women’s games, the GRFH will be a place for player growth, opportunity and community engagement with the beautiful game.

And as Geelong Mayor, Stretch Kontelj, highlighted, the current demand requires investment of this nature as soon as possible.

“With more than 7,370 registered players across the Geelong region, the scale of demand is undeniable. A regional football hub would be genuinely transformational,” Kontelj said via press release.

“It would drive participation across all genders, abilities and levels of the game, strengthen education and development pathways, attract major events and tournaments and deliver lasting social and economic benefits for Geelong and the broader region.

The demand is there. The support is unwavering.

All that remains is the financial backing to bring about real, tangible results for those driving this vision forward.

Football Victoria and VicHealth partner on anti-racism program as community sport data reveals systemic problem

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Image Credit: Shutterstock

Football Victoria has partnered with the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation to roll out the Set The Standard initiative across the state’s football clubs, in a collaboration that signals a significant shift in how Australia’s most popular club-based sport is approaching racism and cultural exclusion at the grassroots level.

The partnership brings together the state’s peak football governing body and its primary health promotion agency around a shared finding that can no longer be treated as incidental. According to the 2025 report Enhancing the Capacity of Victorian Community Sport to Tackle Racism, 56 per cent of surveyed participants had experienced or witnessed racism in community sport. In a state where football draws participants from some of the most culturally diverse communities in the country, that figure represents a systemic failure the sport can no longer address through conduct policies alone.

Clubs that subscribe to the Set The Standard newsletter will be entered into a draw to win one of three $1,000 vouchers, available for equipment, facility improvements, events or other community initiatives. The incentive is designed to drive early engagement with a program whose ambitions extend well beyond a newsletter subscription.

What the Partnership Signals

Racism in sport has historically been treated as a conduct and governance issue, managed through complaints mechanisms that require incidents to be formally reported and tend to significantly undercount the actual prevalence of harm. VicHealth’s framing of racism as a public health problem repositions the entire conversation.

Experiences of racism are associated with measurable negative health outcomes including anxiety, depression and social withdrawal. When community sport, which governments and health agencies actively promote as a vehicle for physical and mental wellbeing, becomes a source of those same harms, the public health cost is direct and quantifiable.

Resources, not Rhetoric

For Football Victoria, the partnership brings something the governing body cannot provide on its own. VicHealth’s credibility, resources and public health framework give the initiative a foundation that a sporting organisation working alone would struggle to establish. Set The Standard offers clubs practical tools and guidance built around progress rather than perfection, which reflects a realistic understanding of how cultural change works inside volunteer-run community organisations.

The $1,000 vouchers are not a side note. Most community clubs operate on tight margins, depend on volunteer administrators and are already stretched managing growing participation demands. Finding room to invest in cultural development programs on top of everything else is difficult. Providing tangible resources directly addresses that constraint at the point where clubs are most likely to disengage.

The program also arrives at a consequential moment. Football in Victoria is absorbing significant participation growth following the AFC Women’s Asian Cup and sustained increases in junior registrations, bringing new communities into the game in large numbers. The 2025 data suggests the environments those communities are entering are not consistently safe or welcoming. Participation growth and cultural safety work need to move together. A sport that grows larger without becoming more inclusive has not actually improved the experience of the people playing it.

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