After an extended absence, we’ve been thrilled to see football competitions returning to pitches at Clubs across our state.
Junior Girls and Boys NPL competitions continue their successful 2021 seasons, while NPL Men’s competitions have returned to jubilant crowds and strong online viewership.
The State League Men’s competition has commenced and pre-season matches/tournaments including GO Football Cups, Boys & Girls FC, FFA Cup and Nike F.C. Cup have been taking place across the state, for male and female players of all ages.
We look forward to the commencement of NPLW, VPLW, State League Senior Women, Community Seniors & Juniors and Miniroos in April.
It’s been a long and difficult road for everyone involved in our game, but seeing hundreds of referees and thousands of players, coaches, administrators and parents enjoy the thrill of live football is heartening for us all.
Whilst we are pleased that many Clubs are well advanced in their planning for the return of organised football, we have, understandably, received enquiries for further information in relation to COVID-19 contingency planning for 2021.
FV has been working diligently in the background with Clubs, to help to alleviate the impacts of the cancelled 2020 season. Applications for our $650,000 Debt Relief Package are now closed, with all proceeds from the fund allocated to Clubs.
Importantly, we have also released our 2021 fee refund policy.
While we all hope this policy will not need to be activated in 2021, it provides further clarity on the principles FV will use to underpin a fair refund to players and to Clubs, if our seasons are impacted. The policy can be found here, along with FAQs that may assist with enquiries.
Football Victoria (FV)’s advice to all Clubs remains that all players must be registered in Play Football, to be covered by FV’s player insurance policy.
Our community should be aware that, in the unfortunate event of Government restrictions preventing any games of football being played in 2021, minimum payments will be charged as a reflection of the unavoidable costs incurred by FV in providing insurance and competition administration for the football community. Please refer to the policy document for details.
Should some (but not all) matches of football be able to be played, a cost apportionment model will be used to calculate the refund.
Impacts to our competitions
FV has completed a significant amount of work to ensure that should our season be impacted, we are able to follow a clear process that ensures the integrity of our competitions at all times. This process was communicated to our football community with the release of our ‘Guiding Principles for the Resumption of Football in Victoria’ which can be found at this link.
Whilst all of the initiatives contained in the principles released in 2020 would be required to be ‘reconfirmed’ for 2021 (I.e. relegation removed at all tiers of football) the 2020 COVID-19 re-start principles provide our football community with guidance on the process FV will follow, should the season be impacted in any way in 2021.
The team at FV are looking forward to a safe and inspired 2021 season that has our entire football community once again enjoying our beautiful game.