CHAIR’S REPORT

GILBERT LORQUET

It remains a privilege to have served the Football NSW community for a second calendar year in the capacity of Chair and I firstly want to thank my fellow Board members for their support and contributions over the past 12 months.

In particular, I would like to pay tribute to Louie Apostolovski and Stephen Hayes who ended their long-term tenures in late 2022. With over six and 12 years served respectively, both Louie and Stephen have made substantial contributions to the Board and to FNSW’s overall strategic direction.

At the 2023 Football NSW Annual General Meeting, our Deputy Chair Fiona Lang will also finish her tenure on the Board. Fiona has played an important leadership role and I am especially grateful for Fiona’s tremendous support and guidance over the past few years.

After two seasons of COVID-19 interruptions, the continued resilience shown by the football family to navigate the inclement weather experienced throughout 2022 was truly remarkable. In most cases, our Associations were successful in delivering competitions in their entirety, a credit to their committed competition administrators, respective community club members and officials. Thank you to each and every one of you for helping to maximise the time our players were able to spend on the football field.

Since Australia was named as co-host of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ (FWWC2023), Football NSW had been lobbying for a substantial Legacy fund that would ensure the benefits of the international event would reach our entire football community.

In April, the NSW Government officially announced the $10 million NSW Football Legacy Program and it has been great to see the program begin its rollout in the second half of the year. Congratulations to the team who worked countless hours on advocating, negotiating and finalising the details of the Legacy Program and I am looking forward to seeing what can be achieved in 2023 and beyond.

Funding remains vital to our continued growth as a sport to ensure players of all ages, abilities and genders have access to football played in a safe and welcoming environment. In 2022, we worked alongside Football Australia on the #Equaliser campaign ahead of the Federal Election and Football NSW has been advocating strongly to both sitting Members of Parliament and local candidates during the leadup to the 2023 NSW State election. We will continue to advocate to Governments at all levels to ensure the country’s largest organised sport is sufficiently supported through infrastructure investment that can support future generations to come.

In November, Football NSW released its Strategic Plan 20232026, built around the core purpose of facilitating the best experience for all participants. Following community consultation and feedback, the final plan provides a framework for operational objectives built around five key pillars of growing female football, supporting community football, enhancing competitions, producing football talent and providing leadership. We remain committed to working alongside Football Australia towards our shared goals for football within the nation’s largest Member Federation and the Football NSW team is focused on making significant strides towards our ambitious growth goals in the coming years.

At the end of 2022, we said farewell to CEO Stuart Hodge. It has been a pleasure working with Stuart over the last two years, during which he has shown fantastic leadership through some truly unprecedented times. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Stuart was an industry leader in advocating for Government support grants for Clubs and Associations, as well as lobbying the NSW Government for the timely provision of a Return to Sport Framework.

Off the back of Stuart’s management through multiple lockdowns, Football NSW remained in a strong enough position to provide $1.5 million in fee relief to the community in 2021, something he should take great pride in. I wish Stuart the very best with his role at Sport NSW, where I am positive football will remain a beneficiary of his industry leadership in advocating to Government on behalf of all sports in NSW.

In December, we welcomed John Tsatsimas, an experienced football administrator at all levels of the game, as the new CEO. Ultimately, Football NSW exists to serve its members and I am encouraged with John’s strong focus on ensuring we are continually looking at ways to increase the value of our services to Associations, Clubs and the wider participation base.

With a new Strategic Plan in place and buoyed by both the Socceroos incredible achievements in Qatar and the final countdown to the FWWC2023, I am incredibly excited about the future of the sport in NSW and am delighted to have John at the helm to help maximise Football NSW’s growth over the coming years.

It is an honour to have been appointed as CEO of Football NSW in late 2022 and I thank the Board of Directors for entrusting me with the critical role of leading Australia’s largest Member Federation forward.

This is a sport that has played a significant part in my upbringing and my career. I have been involved in the game through various playing, coaching and administration roles with various Associations and NPL NSW clubs, before working with the likes of the Newcastle Jets and the Western Sydney Wanderers.