Football Federation Victoria will launch an exciting new program Football for Fun as part of its role in VicHealth's $6 Million Growing Participation in Sport Program.
A social, modified version of the traditional game, Football for Fun will take place at local venues targeting players who may not otherwise meet the Australian Physical Activity Guidelines goal of an hour of physical activity every day.
A VicHealth report found teenagers were almost five times more likely to be on their smartphone than being active, with the average teenager spending more than three hours a day on screens like smartphones and ipads.
FFV's dedicated participation team will roll out Football for Fun in close consultation with schools and local government areas to target teenage participants.
FFV CEO Peter Filopoulos said FFV was excited to partner with VicHealth on providing more access to football through the Football for Fun innovation.
"Football is a sport that prides itself on being the game for everyone, regardless of ability," Filopoulos said.
"Football for Fun is an initiative that will remove the barriers to young people being active, providing all the social and sporting benefits of playing the beautiful game.
"FFV welcomes the funding from VicHealth and applaud this initiative to keep Victoria's teenagers physically active."
VicHealth will provide $6 million over the next three years (2018 to 2021) and partner with a number of state or national sporting organisations who can help make the greatest impact on increasing the participation levels of less active young people.
This program will have a significant focus on engaging those young people who face health inequities, those who don’t engage in regular physical activity and those that aren’t interested in participating in existing traditional sport offerings.
VicHealth CEO Jerril Rechter said sports organisations had to try new things if they wanted to get less active teens to play sport.
“Many teenagers have told us they’re not interested in sport that’s too competitive or that takes them away from doing the things they love like hanging out with their friends,” she said.
“Some young people thrive on competition and playing to win. Yet a lot of teenagers just want sport to be fun, social and a bit of a stress relief.
“Regular physical activity is so great for teens’ physical and mental health and we need them to do more of it. If that means changing the way sport is played then we need to shake things up to benefit our kids’ health.”
The Growing Participation in Sport program aims to get close to 60,000 less active teenagers playing sport over the next three years.
For more information on Football for Fun contact participation@ffv.org.au