Growing Football Community Grant Program open for applications

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Image credit: CommBank Matildas

Round Two of the Growing Football Community Grant Program is now open for local clubs to apply, it opened on August 21st and will go until September 16th.

In light of the successful FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™, Football Australia introduced the Growing Football Fund to further boost the development of women’s football across the country and after a successful first round of recipients, applications opened up again for more grassroots clubs.

Supported by CommBank, this fund offers community clubs and associations the opportunity to apply for grants of up to $5,000. These grants aim to support initiatives and programs focused on enhancing and promoting women’s and girls’ football.

Key dates

Application open dates:

10am AEST, Wednesday 21 August 2024 – 10pm AEST, Monday 16 September 2024

Project delivery period:

Clubs/associations will have up to 12 months to utilise the funding.

Grant objectives

The main goal of the Community Grant Program is to offer concrete support to clubs and associations, with an emphasis on initiatives aimed at attracting and retaining women and girls in football.

Additionally, the program seeks to:

– Create positive experiences for both new and returning football participants that encourage continued involvement in the sport.

– Enhance the education and development of community coaches, equipping them with the skills and knowledge needed to deliver high-quality football experiences.

– Assist clubs and associations in fostering inclusive and safe environments to help retain women and girls within their clubs.

The collective impact of these objectives will significantly contribute to Football Australia and CommBank’s shared goal of advancing gender equity and creating quality environments for women and girls within football.

Grant Guidelines + link

The Guidelines provide information on all things related to the grant, including eligibility criteria, type of activities that will or will not be funded, assessment criteria and more. Any club or association wishing to apply for the Growing Football Fund must review these guidelines.

A document outlining the conditions of the Grant can be found here.

In March 2024, the inaugural round of 121 clubs or associations was confirmed a Growing Football Community Grant.

To contact for more details, the email is provided below:

growingfootballfund@footballaustralia.com.au

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Victory unites with Roasting Warehouse in culture-led partnership

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Image credit: Melbourne Victory

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

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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.

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