Antonella Care, President of Football Victoria, talked to 3XY Radio Hellas about the cancellation of the football season and looking forward to new projects for clubs.
She agreed that certainly it was no doubt a difficult decision.
There was a series of scenarios that were put forward that all of the clubs were aware of because there was a consultation process. Obviously the extension, due to lockdown, didn’t help, it ruled out a significant number of options.
At the start of the April season, there were no rules in place to allow for an interrupted competition. This was the biggest mistake that was made at the end of last year, and we weren’t prepared and did not have anything in place, but we will guarantee will be changed for next season. We just want to ensure that everybody has a fair shot in 2022.
They are planning on putting forward consultations with the clubs and putting in place some options. This will incorporate opportunity for relegation within that interruption. “We can’t just make that up as we go along, there is nothing in place for it now, unfortunately.”
With a lot of talk about maybe opening up around October or November for competition for Mini Roos and Juniors during December or January, the competition teams are doing an excellent job to come up with scenarios for when they do open for either cup competitions with an opt in, opt out policy with no penalties for anyone that can’t participate.
There are many challenges coming up like Covid-19, Women’s World Cup, home of the Matilda’s and many facility projects at club level, as well as the 50/50 gender strategy, they want to see more girls and women on the park. The relationships with local government has never been stronger as it is now especially given the greatest amount of funding provided to Football Victoria for the home of the Matildas.
There is a historical facilities deficit compared to other sports and now it is time to move forward.
The governance improvements that Football Victoria has done, in the seven years that Antonella has been there and from the leadership from Kimon Taliadoros, previous and current Board, are leading the way to ensure they always have good governance in place, creating more comfort from all of our funding partners from Federal, State and local governments to ensure things are getting done.
With the Women’s World Cup coming up this has been a driver especially for the 50/50’s strategy and they’ll get an influx of girls/women playing.
