Future of Football 2020+ review explained and what it means for Coast clubs
BIG READ: What sweeping changes to competitions and governance mean for Gold Coast clubs, players, and administrators.
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FOOTBALL Queensland’s vision to bring the state in line with the rest of Australia is drawing closer to fruition, with the governing body this week confirming sweeping changes at all levels of the sport from 2022 onwards.
After a 12-month review of the organisation’s processes and programs, Football Queensland made public in March the resulting recommendations paper – Future of Football 2020+ – outlining key changes to governance and competition structure.
The Bulletin spoke to FQ CEO Robert Cavallucci, Football Gold Coast general manager Damien Bresic and stakeholders at local clubs to get their take on the reforms.
Why the sudden overhaul?
FOOTBALL Queensland had let itself be left behind.
The governing body’s governance structures and competitions had not been touched in two decades and, according to FQ CEO Robert Cavallucci, that left the state languishing.
“It’s been over a generation since our game has changed. Everything around us has changed – corporate and commercial partner expectations have changed, the technology and how we deliver the game has changed … all elements of our game have changed, except in Queensland,” Cavallucci admitted.
“The way our game is delivered is antiquated. We’re not agile; we’re not responsive. We’ve had little to no relations with government or the corporate sector.
“All of these systemic issues come from failures to make any changes to our governance over the past 20 years.
“We weren’t meeting the expectations of our stakeholders.
“We can be doing so much better and ultimately, the streamlined model will make the game more affordable and meet expectations of stakeholders.”
From a player development perspective, Cavallucci said the changes to competition structure (outlined below) will create more opportunities for Queensland’s youth players to progress onto higher level football.
“Our job from the advanced pathway point of view is we need to produce the next Matildas and the next Socceroos,” he said.
“That’s our role and what the advanced pathway is designed around. All of those things are designed specifically to elicit technical outcomes so we can transition players the systems (to higher levels of play).”
Those changes will not come at the cost of community football clubs whose sole focus is to provide a means of playing football for all regardless of intent to progress.
“The ultimate purpose of advanced competition is technical outcomes,” Cavallucci said.
“From a community perspective, they’ll still be absolutely driven by the local clubs, players and managers.
“All community competitions across the state will be tailored and suited to those communities.”
Key takeaways
– Overhaul of processes required to get Queensland back up to speed with rest of Australia in regards to player development and governance.
– Changes to competition structure are designed to promote player development for future higher football honours, while keeping core grassroots level outcomes the same.
Governance Changes – Lower player fees, but at what cost?
FOOTBALL Queensland CEO Robert Cavallucci promises a significant reduction in player registration fees as part of the governing body’s overhaul of its governance structures – but at what cost?
According to Cavallucci, junior players can expect to see a 31 per cent reduction in fees by 2022, while seniors will get a 39 per cent reprieve.
Cavallucci said such savings for the player base were made possible by bringing regional, rural and metropolitan centres into a more linear model of governance under Football Queensland.
When asked if that meant job cuts – because savings must come from somewhere – Cavallucci would not directly answer.
Instead, he said FQ was “fundamentally changing how we deliver the game and that means we can reduce the amount of resources required and be more efficient with the technology deployed”.
“Across the state, obviously, we will become more efficient – we’ve already gone through that process at Football Queensland,” Cavallucci added.
“It is absolutely a positive outcome of these reforms. It’s what people expect of us, to make these changes.
“We have an obligation to stakeholders and participants to deliver the game in the most affordable way possible.”
Football Gold Coast general manager Damien Bresic said he had voiced concerns to the FQ board about he and others based on the Coast losing their jobs as a result of the realignment.
“I asked Rob about this and I hope he gives the same answer I’ll give, ” Bresic said.
“They’ve already reformed their staffing at Football Queensland where a number of jobs were made redundant so the short answer is yes, it has been done already.
“Yes there might be some job losses but hopefully that will be minimal.”
Bresic said Football Gold Coast employees had “been assured we’re safe”.
“When the document first came out I was very sceptical of it to be honest,” Bresic said.
“After various meetings with FQ and getting questions answered I’m a lot more comfortable with it – still cautious, because there’s a lot of promises involved, but I had to ask myself is it just a fear of change?
“At some point we have to have faith our governing body has the best interests of the game in mind and we need to take their lead on it.
“Our job at the end of the day is making it easier for clubs to put kids on the park and how do we most efficiently achieve that.”
Key takeaways
– Governance chances across the state will bring all competitions under the same linear system.
– Junior fee reduction of 31 per cent; Senior fee reduction of 39 per cent.
– Fears fee reductions will come at a cost of jobs in the industry; Football Queensland has already handed out redundancies according to FGC.
Competition Restructure – Introducing FQPL 2 – SEQ Conference
THE GOLD Coast Premier League will cease to exist in 2022, replaced by the new-look Football Queensland Premier League 3 – Gold Coast.
Sweeping competition reforms across the state will take effect from next year, following a 12-month review process by Football Queensland.
As part of the reforms, FQ CEO Robert Cavallucci said a new competition structure would better accommodate “aspirational clubs” by way of a linear promotion-relegation system – something he said stakeholders had been crying out for.
Under the revised structure a new competition, the FQPL 2 – SEQ Conference, will incorporate teams from the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Toowoomba and Sunshine Coast.
The SEQ competition will offer a promotion-relegation structure with the already established FQPL 1 and National Premier Leagues competitions, allowing a club to “earn” promotion to the top tier by winning its way through the lower leagues.
Further down the competition pyramid, Cavallucci promised “that from a community football perspective there will be little to no change.”
“When we introduce the QPL framework, clubs on the Gold Coast will be able to play in a similar way to now, but they will also have the opportunity, should they wish, to progress into upper levels,” he said.
That means, name aside, the FQPL3 – Gold Coast will be for the most part a reskinned Gold Coast Premier League, sans clubs who leave the competition to join the FQPL2 – SEQ Conference.
The Coast League will become FQPL4 – Gold Coast and so on.
Clubs will not be beholden to promotion. If a Gold Coast club wins promotion to the SEQ Conference, for instance, it will have the right to remain in the FQPL3 – Gold Coast.
FQ is in the process of finalising which clubs will play in which competition and expects to release the full structure by early September, Cavallucci said.
Football Gold Coast general manager Damien Bresic told The Bulletin talks were ongoing with FQ about how best to implement the changes so that clubs in the lower tiers are not forgotten about.
“One of our concerns is that FQ loses focus on community football,” Bresic said.
“We’re worried our clubs might lose some attention because FQ is overly focused on the NPL and QPL.”
Key takeaways
– Football Gold Coast’s current competitions structure will change as the state shifts to the new-look FQPL and NPL system.
– A new competition, FQPL 2 – SEQ Conference, will combine teams from the Gold Coast, Brisbane, Toowoomba and Sunshine Coast in a promotion-relegation format. It will act as the third tier, underneath NPL (tier 1) and FQPL 1 (tier 2).
– Clubs will not be forced into promotion to the SEQ Conference if they do not wish to.
– The Gold Coast Premier League will become FQPL 3 – Gold Coast. Coast League will become FQPL 4 – Gold Coast. FQ CEO Robert Cavallucci promises these competitions will run almost identically to as they do now.
How do Coast clubs feel about the changes?
SURFERS Paradise Apollo senior coach Alex Morrison says travel requirements will be “the million dollar question” clubs will have to answer before putting their hands up to join the mooted FQPL 2 – SEQ Conference.
The reigning Gold Coast Premier League champions and current competition leaders shape as one of the likely contenders to move into the SEQ Conference but there’s more to consider than just results, the coach said.
“Whether people want to have the commitment and time that comes with having to travel … will be the million dollar question,” Morrison said.
“It will be interesting to see how players, coaches and clubs react and how they will provide services and put things in place to provide a good product on the field for players, knowing they might have to travel an hour, hour and a half to games.
“In all honesty I don’t know what (Apollo) wants to do … I don’t know whether the club wants to make that type of jump (to FQPL2),” Morrison added.
“At the moment I’m just focused on this season.”
The coach said from his perspective, the communication to clubs from Football Queensland and Football Gold Coast had been sufficient, but clubs were still waiting to see how everything falls.”
Football Queensland CEO Robert Cavallucci said feedback from Gold Coast clubs through multiple surveys “has been outstanding”.
“From the Gold Coast clubs … 25 out of 29 clubs responded in favour of the reforms – that was a survey done by (Football) Gold Coast,” Cavallucci said.
“We’ve had over 26 surveys and over 2000 individual pieces of documented feedback (across Queensland).
“The independent governance review spoke to every single club; every single zone. We’ve had multiple meetings with each zone and with each club.
“The level of consultation has been significant across the state and everyone has had multiple opportunities to provide feedback in multiple ways.”
Want to join the discussion? Email: callum.dick@news.com.au
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