NSW football funding giving more girls better pathways

Staff Writer

A new round of funding for football in New South Wales has the community abuzz.

The NSW Government announced the NSW Football Legacy Program, boosting football in all levels across the state to help capitalise on next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Some clubs have already enjoyed a funding hit, like western Sydney club Rydalmere Lions FC.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Liberal candidate for Parramatta, Maria Kovacic announced on Wednesday that the club would be receiving $3 million in funding for improved facilities.

The funding will be put towards new changerooms for players and referees alike, both male and female, as well as rooms for physios, medical staff, a canteen, a store room, and ice baths for both home and away teams.

There are also plans to put a grandstand in place, as well as undercover seating, offices and a media outlet which will all be a priority.

Club President Peter Bacha is confident that the funding will help the club in it’s goal to provide better pathways for its female players.

“It’s a big project, and that’s going to help especially with the female side of football in our area. We’re looking for a pathway, and we keep getting knocked back to get our female state league license,” Bacha told Soccerscene.

“There’s a lot of girls that are missing out, and that’s all we’re missing at the club.

“A lot of girls come through the ranks in the mixed competition in our association, but you’re only allowed to have a maximum of four girls in the mixed team, and then there’s nowhere else to go after under 12s.

“We’ve got one or two girls that are to me, future Matildas, but there’s no pathways for them.”

The Rydalmere FC under 9s on CommBank Stadium at half time of a clash between the Western Sydney Wanderers and Wellington Phoenix.

With a senior girls team and a ‘massive stadium’ on the cards, Bacha believes both he and the club will give the girls the best chance to succeed.

But it’s not Rydalmere that needs to up their support of women’s football, he says. Every club in the region will benefit from the level of funding across the state.

“It’s not just going to help our club, it’s going to help all the clubs within the Granville & Districts Football Association,” Bacha continued.

“There’s a lot of girls that are missing out, and it’s an opportunity for them. Female football here in Australia is really strong and has to be kept that way.”

Football NSW celebrated 100 years of women’s football at the end of 2021, on the anniversary of the first game played at the Gabba in September, 1921.

A Football Australia report from the end of 2019 saw female participation in football grow by 11%, with women and girls now making up 22% of all footballers in the country.

Increasing these levels of participation will be done by continuing to invest in the facilities of all clubs, according to Bacha.

The Rydalmere FC under 9s team outside Commbank Stadium in Parramatta.

“If other funding is going to come, upgrade the fields and the amenities blocks,” he said.

“It is so important now. I don’t expect every park to have a synthetic pitch, but the government needs to help them with their drainage, which we’ve done now with our other two fields.

“There’s a lot of places that don’t have amenities blocks, and that detracts from people going into the sport for those clubs.

“Since we started a lot of these projects, our numbers have escalated from having about 10 teams to 40 teams. We were one of the smallest clubs and now we’re one of the biggest clubs representing the whole area.

“Money has to go back to the kids, it’s about family. If the facilities on the parks are up there, then we can match it with the rest of the world.”

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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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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.

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