We need your help!

While Australian football (soccer to some) celebrates the success of the Matildas on and off the football pitch with some segments of the game expected to achieve a significant legacy from the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, football coaches are being left behind. They have no voice at the decision-making table of Australian football, no investment from the sport’s governing bodies, and no protections for fair pay and working conditions.

Coaches play a pivotal role in Australian communities. Coaching is arguably both the most visible leadership position and the most vulnerable job in sport. Responsibilities include coaching, teaching, leading and inspiring players, effective communication, coordinating teams, providing oversight and a duty of care over the physical and mental well-being of athletes and other staff, and (depending on where they are coaching) also includes careful management of relationships with parents, fans, media, administrators, and Board Members.

Every Socceroo and Matilda produced in Australia has been developed at some stage by an Australian Coach.

Yet football’s governing bodies are not supporting Australian coaches or treating coaches as important stakeholders in the game by acknowledging and valuing their contribution. Our players, coaches and football communities deserve well-supported coaches – for the benefit of our game. Football Coaches Australia has many strategies in place to support coaches in areas of advocacy, professional development, and wellbeing, but we need your help!

Coaches not supported by Football’s Governing Bodies

Football Coaches Australia was established in November 2017 to provide coaches with a platform for a collective voice and professional support – particularly in legal advocacy, high performance, leadership, development, and well-being.

FCA’s inaugural membership included coaches and football people working across the diverse landscape of Australian football, including in the A-League, W-League, National Teams, Youth Development, Academy Development, NPL Clubs, Overseas-based coaches, Coach Education and High Performance.

Since its first Annual General Meeting, FCA’s Executive Committee has included some of Australia’s most well-known and well-respected coaches, including Rae Dower, Phil Moss, Heather Garriock, Mel Andretta, Jamie Harnwell, Andrew Clark, Catherine Canulli and Gary Cole. FCA Ambassadors have included Dr Ron Smith, Ernie Merrick and Tom Sermanni. These well-known football identities have all spoken up, calling for fairer pay and working conditions for Australian coaches, legal protections, and for coaches to have a seat at the sport’s decision-making tables.

Football Coaches Australia also has a memorandum of understanding with the players’ union Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) and the PFA Alumni to work with a unity of purpose for the benefit of the game, demonstrating the commitment of both organisations to maintain a close working relationship between players and licensed coaches.

One of Football Coaches Australia’s primary goals in its first five years was to earn full membership with voting rights on the Football Australia congress. The congress includes all of the state member associations, most of the A-League clubs, Professional Footballers Australia, and Football Australia’s Women’s Football Council. Coaches and Referees are not represented in the congress.

During the FIFA Men’s World Cup in Qatar in 2022, the Football Australia congress was invited to vote on admitting Football Coaches Australia as a full member. Despite FCA deeming it had achieved all of the prerequisite criteria of full membership, including time spent as a qualifying and provisional member, the congress voted not to admit Football Coaches Australia as a full member. So while coaches are expected to do the heavy lifting in developing Australia’s footballers, there is no support or acknowledgement of their role as a significant stakeholder in the game.

When you watch the Matildas play in this World Cup, remember that to date, there are no funded projects announced in Football Australia’s $357 million Legacy ‘23 plan to support the growth of women in coaching roles at all levels of the game across Australia Coaches are only briefly mentioned in the plan’s leadership and development pillar.

Our Work and Why We Need Your Help

Providing a collective voice and professional support to Australia’s football coaches takes an Army. For more than five years, FCA has provided this service for its members through an Army of volunteers.

Every year, more and more coaches are seeking the support of FCA at the Fair Work Tribunal and the FIFA Player Status Committee, to secure owed wages. Every one of them believed it wouldn’t happen to them… until it did. These are coaches working at various levels of football, including Australians coaching overseas, the A-Leagues and National Premier Leagues.

Football Coaches Australia has asked Football Australia to help financially support its professional development programs. Despite Football Australia earning more than $1.5 million per year on the sale of coaching licence courses, it has rejected FCA proposals to reinvest some of these funds to deliver advocacy services, professional development and wellbeing support.

Coaching can be a highly stressful job and mental health and well-being support is vital for Australian coaches. Without funding, FCA will struggle to continue to provide this important service. A lack of support in this area has a direct consequence for everyone involved in football. Our coaches cannot be at their best for our players if they are not supported to be at their best. Our coaches and players deserve support in this area.

Comparatively, Professional Footballers Australia receives funds from Football Australia each year, and the AFL supports its coach’s association to the tune of circa $800K each year and delivers funded coaching programs, including to advance the number of women coaching at elite levels.

Football Coaches Australia is also actively campaigning the Australian Professional Leagues (APL) and Football Australia to introduce regulations for fair pay and working conditions for Australian coaches. While women’s football is expected to enjoy growth in support following the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, many coaches working in the Liberty A-League are being paid below the Australian minimum wage and working without the protection of formal, written contracts. Inequity is still a major issue in football. 

Equity matters greatly to Football Coaches Australia, which has proudly achieved 40-40-20 representation on its Executive Committee since 2019. We acknowledge that you can’t be what you can’t see – and the visibility of women in coaching roles matters.

Our Fundraising Target

$500,000 would enable Football Coaches Australia to continue providing vital legal advocacy, high performance, leadership, development, and well-being support to Australian coaches through to the end of 2030, as the organisation continues to work towards its mission of securing full membership on the Football Australia congress – to give coaches a legitimate voice at the decision-making table of Australian football.

The number of registered football participants in Australia exceeds 1.4 million! A small donation ($4.66) from every participant would make a huge difference to the 45+ thousand people coaching players and teams across Australia. 

We also invite (tax deductible) donations from Australian businesses who want to contribute to our coaches – who are leaders in their communities. Football has a transformative power to bring people together and influence important social change.

Join us in making change for the coaches out there growing the next generation of Australian leaders – on and off the football pitch.

Every investment in coaches is an investment in Australian football at large. Through FCA's registration with the Australian Sports Foundation, donations are tax-deductible. So please show your support today!