FFA’s Women’s Football Council instigates 10-year business case planning to unlock new funding to drive women’s football in Australia

FFA and its Women’s Football Council have today announced the development of a 10-year business case plan to drive significant investment in women’s football in Australia from new sources of funding.

Building on FFA’s Gender Equality Action Plan 2019 and Long Term Women’s Football Plan, the business case plan will create a roadmap of KPIs, benchmarks and timelines towards achieving full equality in football for women and girls to be integrated into FFA’s overall strategic plan.

“The business case plan will be a world leading approach and will be informed by global strategy from organisations including FIFA, UEFA, the FA and CONCACAF,” Women’s Football Council Chair Ros Moriarty said.

“The world is showing us that women’s football is more than sport, football has the power to strongly impact social agency for women.”

“The recent Matildas-Socceroos parity deal is genuine structural change at the top of the game. We now need everyone involved in Australian football to take that mentality to the game at every level, to drive ground-up equality in football for women and girls.

“The escalating global power of women’s football is seeing rapidly rising investment and performance in Britain, Europe and the USA. To keep pace, the Council has identified and acted on the need for an innovative, time-lined, evidence-driven and data-backed plan with an ambitious funding rationale for growth,” added Ms Moriarty.

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FFA Chairman Chris Nikou said: “This business case plan will demonstrate how serious Australia is about sustainably growing participation by women and girls in football.

“It is no secret internationally that women’s football represents very significant value for the game, and this plan is an important legacy piece for our 2023 Women’s World Cup Bid.”

Initiated by FFA’s Women’s Football Council, the planning project will be a highly collaborative one involving FFA, the PFA, Member Federations and other key stakeholders.

In a mark of cooperation and recognition by all stakeholders that the FFA Women’s Football Council has a role to play across the whole of the game, the business case plan will also dovetail strategically with the new professional Leagues management entity, taking a vital interest in how the plan’s outcomes fit with best practice for W-League and girls’ Y-League.

FFA’s Head of Game Development, Sarah Walsh, believes that this collaborative approach will drive important outcomes for the future of women’s football in Australia.

“Strong partnerships are the foundation of effective strategy and that is what we have here. Both the FFA and our Women’s’ Football Council share a vision to make football the sport of choice for women and girls in Australia,” Walsh said.

“The new collective bargaining agreement for the Socceroos and the Matildas, which delivers equal pay for men and women playing for Australia, is a perfect example of what can be achieved with such whole of game leadership.”

The business case plan will touch all keystones of the game from grassroots to youth, semi-professional, professional and national teams.

The plan will reflect the Women’s Football Council’s priorities of increasing representation of women in all aspects of the game and nurturing the talent pipeline.

Of key interest will be affordability and equality of access to opportunity. For instance, comparative quality of pitches and parent-friendly, girl-safe training times and facilities, or consistently high quality local, state, national and international development structures that will assure the game of the next generation of talent.