PlayHER Tournament returns as Football Victoria Doubles Down on Women’s Participation

Declan Chan25/03/2026 6:15 am24/03/2026

Image Credit: Football Victoria

Football Victoria‘s PlayHER Tournament returns to the Knox Regional Football Centre in Wantirna South this May, offering women across Victoria the chance to play football in a structured, social and welcoming environment.

Now in its fifth year, the tournament has grown considerably from its origins as the GO Soccer Mums Cup, which was recognised as Community Sporting Event of the Year at the 2023 Victorian Sport Awards. The rebranding to PlayHER reflects a deliberate broadening of the event’s ambition, from a competition aimed at a specific demographic to one designed to lower the barriers to entry for any woman who wants to play.

That ambition is visible in the structure of the day itself. Matches are played in a five-a-side format with short halves, keeping the format accessible for players who may not have competed in years, or those who are stepping onto the pitch for the first time. New for 2026, participants will compete across two categories: an Open and 35 years and over. It’s an addition that acknowledges the different pathways women take into sport, and the importance of ensuring the game remains available at every stage of life.

More than a matchday

The tournament comes at a strategically critical time. Women’s football in Australia is in the middle of a period of unprecedented growth, with record crowds at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup and a growing pipeline of players coming through at club level. Translating that momentum into lasting participation growth depends on events like PlayHER- low-cost, community-driven, and explicitly designed for women who might not see themselves reflected in elite competition.

At $20 per participant, the tournament remains one of the most accessible organised football experiences available in Victoria. The message is straightforward: the game is for everyone, and the door is open.

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

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

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.

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.