Refined inclusivity principles for club identity released by FFA

Liam Watson

Today is a new step forward by Football Federation Australia who have announced the release of new Inclusivity Principles for Club Identity to replace the National Club Identity Policy.

The changes have been made to preserve club ethnicity and will promote multiculturalism.

Here are the key points from a recent media release by FFA:

FFA INCLUSIVITY PRINCIPLES FOR CLUB IDENTITY 

Creating an inclusive and welcoming environment for participants from all cultural and linguistic backgrounds. 

Football in Australia has a rich and diverse history which FFA wishes to acknowledge and celebrate. Many clubs were formed and have developed from particular local communities who have made significant contributions to the growth and reputation of the sport of football as a whole. These communities are reflective of the multicultural nature of Australia and the vast reach of the love for the “World Game”.

FFA celebrates diversity and multiculturalism in our game and wants to ensure that football in Australia is open, accessible and embracing of all participants from all cultural backgrounds. Every person should feel welcome, safe and included at their local football club.

The way a club identifies itself to the community (including through its name, logo, principles and actions) can have a significant impact on whether a person feels welcome and included at that club. It can also affect the broader reputation of the game.

Following consultation with independent industry experts, FFA recommends that clubs embrace broad identities that are not tied to a single specific culture. FFA understands the importance of clubs being able to respectfully recognise their heritage and the specific communities that were instrumental in establishing and developing such clubs. At the same time, clubs that celebrate diversity, promote inclusion and make people feel like they belong regardless of their cultural background are more likely to succeed.

FFA has developed the following Inclusivity Principles for Club Identity to provide guidance to clubs on how they can be more inclusive in the way they identify themselves as well as the practices and actions that clubs adopt in engaging with their members and the broader community.

Importantly, these Principles are only a part of the development of a broader FFA Inclusion and Diversity framework which will encompass other matters that are fundamental for our sport to create an open and inclusive environment, such as promoting gender diversity and accessibility for people with a disability (to name just two examples). The Inclusivity Principles for Club Identity also provide guidance on how clubs may wish to recognise their heritage in ways that are not inconsistent with these fundamental objectives.

Inclusivity Principles for Club Identity

(a) These Inclusivity Principles for Club Identity are not intended to be enforceable, strict regulations. Rather, they are guiding principles for clubs to refer to in seeking to be inclusive to people from all cultural backgrounds.

(b) Clubs are encouraged to consider various ways to recognise and celebrate their heritage while still respecting and welcoming people from all backgrounds. Clubs that identify themselves in an all-embracing and inclusive manner that is open to all participants may be perceived as more welcoming than clubs with branding that is targeted to one single culture.

(c) Club names that reflect the local geographical region they represent and do so in a way that is welcoming to people from all cultural backgrounds are encouraged.

(d) Clubs may be more attractive to a broader range of participants if their name is:

(i) in English rather than a foreign language; and

(ii) of broad appeal rather than solely associated with a particular cultural, political or religious group.

(e) Clubs are encouraged to celebrate multiculturalism and diversity and make it clear to the community that they welcome people from all cultural backgrounds. Club names that reference another country or region (outside their locality) may indicate to the community that only people from that country or region are welcome (or are more welcome) to participate at that club.

(f) Clubs are encouraged to use symbols and words in their logo or emblem that are of broad appeal to make it clear to the community that they welcome people from all cultural backgrounds.  Clubs that adopt a logo or emblem with a dominant reference which is associated with a particular culture, religion, or political group may cause people who do not associate with that background to feel less welcome.

(g) Milestone years for clubs present an opportunity for them to recognise their heritage and show the journey that the club has been on. This heritage could be acknowledged by displaying a temporary commemorative version of their old logo alongside their new current logo in marketing and promotional materials and on the club’s website.

(h) In seeking to acknowledge their heritage clubs should have regard to the FIFA Laws of the Game and relevant regulations in relation to playing kit which the club must adhere to, including any prohibition on political and religious slogans, statements and images.

(i) Clubs should be aware of their obligations under federal, state and territory discrimination laws (including but not limited to the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth)) and never give preference to one player over another on the basis of their cultural background or religious or political beliefs. The FFA Statutes (including the National Member Protection Policy and National Code of Conduct) also prohibit discrimination on these grounds.

(j) Clubs should encourage positive, welcoming and safe support at (and in connection with) Matches and take all reasonable steps to discourage rivalry with another club on the basis of any actual or perceived cultural, political or religious affiliations to that club, including in relation to their supporters.

Discrimination and other prohibited conduct

To be clear, FFA has a zero-tolerance policy in relation to discrimination, vilification, hatred and violence on all legally recognised grounds including race, nationality, ethnicity, religion and political views. FFA strongly encourages anyone who becomes aware of these behaviours, including by any club, to immediately report these incidents to their competition administrator. There are also applicable federal, state and territory discrimination laws that clubs must adhere to at all times.

Any incident of this nature may be dealt with by the appropriate body in accordance with applicable rules and regulations including any local or FFA rule or regulation, such as the National Code of Conduct. Clubs should note that, under the National Code of Conduct, they may be held liable for the actions of their supporters.

Accordingly, clubs have an important role to play in ensuring that football matches in particular are played in an open, safe and welcoming environment for all participants and spectators.

https://www.ffa.com.au/news/ffa-releases-inclusivity-principles-club-identity

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Marie-Louise Eta makes history as new Union Berlin head coach

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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.

How Football Victoria’s Opens Board Nominations will Address the Game’s Rapid Growth Demands

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Image Credit: Shutterstock

Football Victoria has opened nominations for two board director positions ahead of its Annual General Meeting on May 25, with the governing body explicitly seeking candidates with expertise in investment and fundraising, digital innovation, and people and culture to meet the modern challenges facing football administration in Australia’s most populous football state.

Nominations close at 6pm on Monday April 20. All candidates will be assessed by an Independent Nominations Committee against the requirements of FV’s 2024-2028 strategic framework, which is built around five pillars: clubs and competitions, participants, pathways, facilities, and the organisation’s future direction.

The appointments arrive at a moment when football in Victoria, and nationally, is navigating a participation boom that has significantly outpaced the infrastructure, governance and financial frameworks built to support it. The game is growing faster than the systems designed to manage it, and the people who sit at the top of those systems will determine whether that growth becomes sustainable or starts to work against itself.

A Sport at Crossroads

Football is now Australia’s largest club-based sport, and Victoria sits at the centre of that story. Participation numbers have climbed sharply in the years since the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, and more recently the successful AFC Women’s Asian Cup, with junior registrations in particular placing pressure on community facilities, volunteer workforces and competition structures that were not designed to absorb growth at this pace.

The consequences are visible at ground level. Councils across Victoria, many of which did not anticipate the scale of football’s expansion when planning their sporting infrastructure, are now confronting a facilities gap that is measurable in cancelled training sessions, overloaded grounds and clubs turning away players for want of adequate space. Drainage, lighting, changeroom access and pitch availability, have become pressure points that no amount of elite-level visibility can resolve from above.

The incoming board directors will inherit that problem directly. Football Victoria’s strategic framework names facilities as one of its five core pillars, and the organisation’s ability to make the case to government, councils and private investors for the kind of sustained infrastructure funding the sport requires will depend significantly on the financial and advocacy expertise sitting around its board table.

Football Australia and Football NSW recently called on the NSW Government to establish a $343 million grassroots facilities fund in response to the same structural pressures. Victoria faces an analogous challenge, and the director recruitment process signals that FV is aware its board needs people who can drive investment portfolios and revenue streams, not merely administer existing ones.

The Commercial Dimension

The case for bringing investment expertise onto the board extends beyond facilities. Australian sport sits within a $41.7 billion economy, and football’s share of that landscape is growing in ways that create both opportunity and complexity. Broadcast rights, commercial partnerships, digital platforms, and the expanding role of sports betting in the revenue structures of sporting codes are reshaping how governing bodies at every level think about financial sustainability.

Football Victoria’s competitions, including NPL, state leagues,  and an increasingly significant women’s program, represent a substantial commercial asset that has historically been underleveraged relative to its scale. The appointment of directors with investment and fundraising competencies is a direct acknowledgement that the next phase of the sport’s growth in Victoria will require a more sophisticated financial strategy than the one that got it here.

The digital innovation competency sits alongside that commercial imperative. Football is generating more data, more content and more participant interaction than at any point in its history in Australia, and the governing bodies that build effective digital infrastructure now will be better positioned to manage participation, retain players and engage communities at a scale that was not previously possible.

Governance and Equity

Football Victoria’s nomination process includes a constitutional requirement for 40:40:20 board composition. It translates to 40 percent identifying as women, 40 percent as men, and 20 percent of any gender.

The equity means decisions made at the board-level, about facilities investment, participation pathways, and community engagement have a direct impact on who gets to play, where and under what conditions. A board composition that reflects the diversity of the football community it governs is better placed to identify the structural barriers that data alone does not always surface.

FV CEO, along with the Independent Nominations Committee, will assess candidates against the full range of competencies outlined in the strategic framework, including governance experience, demonstrated involvement in football as a player, coach, referee or administrator, and an understanding of the broader football ecosystem.

The sport is at an inflection point. The foundations have been laid by decades of community building, volunteer labour and grassroots investment. What happens next, whether the participation boom becomes a lasting structural shift or a wave that recedes from insufficient infrastructure to sustain it, will be shaped in no small part by the quality of leadership at the governing body level.

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