Football Australia confirms RECORD deficit of $8.5million - after revenue grew to $124million in 2024
Football Australia chairman Anter Isaac has admitted he is frustrated after the national governing body recorded an $8.5million loss in 2024 - but is confident of future 'continued improvement.'
The substantial deficit comes despite FA's revenue growing to $124million last year, with the figure confirmed at an annual general meeting on May 23.
Isaac was also unanimously re-elected as chairman - before revealing FA has invested in 'enhanced financial strategy, management and governance systems' to address their financial challenges.
In terms of the record $8.5million loss, Isaac pointed to a myriad of reasons, notably heavier investments in national youth teams and $4.1million owed from Australian Professional Leagues, the organisation who run the A-Leagues.
'We are not satisfied and (will) look towards continued improvement,' Isaac said.
'That is our obligation to grassroots football and all our football stakeholders.'
The $8.5 million deficit also comes after James Johnson's shock resignation as FA chief executive officer earlier this month.
Former Matildas star Heather Garriock has since been appointed interim CEO at Football Australia.
Isaac believes Garriock offers 'an unmatched passion for the game, deep football knowledge, executive acumen and a clear vision for the future.'
'We are confident in her ability to lead Football Australia with strength, unity and a mindset of service that reflects the values of our entire football family,' he said.
In his chairman's report, Isaac stated he was 'happy' with the $124million in revenue - before stressing it is vital 'there continue to be opportunities to increase the value of our brands and commercial activities to help reinvestment into our game from national teams and especially to the grassroots.'
Isaac also wants to see a 'football ecosystem that is united, resilient and ready for the future.'
In the short and long term, the FA are tipped to announce Joe Montemurro as the new Matildas coach in June, support the Socceroos' World Cup qualification campaign, and deliver a successful AFC Women's Asian Cup on home soil next year.
Focus will also be placed on laying the foundation for a national second-tier competition, to be known as the Australian Championship.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Johnson was recently appointed to a new role in Canadian football as chief executive of Canada Soccer Business.
Johnson will oversee the sport's commercial operations ahead of their home World Cup in 2026, to be also co-hosted by the United States and Mexico.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
26 minutes ago
- BBC News
Gibson-Park and Keenan injury concerns for Lions
Ireland pair Jamison Gibson-Park and Hugo Keenan are injury concerns for the British and Irish Lions before their first game in Australia against the Western Force on tourists arrived in Perth after a 20-hour journey from Dublin via Doha, Qatar, with head coach Andy Farrell revealing lingering issues with scrum-half Gibson-Park (glute) and full-back Keenan (calf), who both missed Leinster's victory in the United Rugby Championship (URC) centre Huw Jones has recovered from an Achilles issue though and is available for the opening game of the tour at Optus Stadium."We'll see how they pull up in midweek," Farrell said of Gibson-Park and Keenan."Huw Jones is good, he's been training. He trained fully with us last week so he's up and running."The Lions are likely to field a side including players from Leinster, Bath and Leicester, despite players from those clubs joining up with the squad late after their respective URC and Premiership finals. Scotland wing Duhan van der Merwe was pictured with ice on his foot during the Lions' disappointing 28-24 defeat by Argentina at Aviva Stadium on Friday, but Farrell confirmed there were no fresh injury concerns."We're here to build for what's going to be a fantastic Test series. We want to play some good rugby along the way," he added."We'll find out more about each other as we keep on going. Of course we'll analyse what went on against Argentina and why, but that's all part of the journey - to understand where we need to go next."It's great to be here, this is what it's all about. We're here for a good time. Hopefully we can start this part of the tour off really well on Saturday."
The Guardian
28 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Blues get bullied by Kangaroos in horror show for Michael Voss
If you've had the acute misfortune of following the North Melbourne Football Club for the past decade, then Saturday's victory over Carlton was a long time coming. True, the Kangaroos have beaten Richmond and West Coast in the past month, but those are the only teams below them on the ladder. They were overdue a proper scalp: a win to show their longsuffering supporters that the AFL's longest rebuild was finally bearing fruit. Nine weeks ago, on Good Friday, Carlton towelled up North to the tune of 82 points. Since then, though, the Roos have improved. They drew with the Brisbane Lions in Hobart. They were within three points of ladder leaders Collingwood in round 11 before being blown away in the last quarter. They've lost three other games by less than two goals. Against Fremantle last week, far from home, they looked like they weren't quite convinced they deserved to win. That lack of conviction remained evident against Carlton. In the end, the Kangaroos did what you might call a reverse-Bradbury: after building an unassailable lead, they fell in a heap on the final turn for home, yet still had enough momentum to slip and slide over the line. They didn't register a solitary score in the last quarter. Carlton mustered five goals and five more behinds, but they'd left their charge too late. Let's pause for a moment and give appropriate credit to North. It might not have been a match for the ages, and they didn't put their opponents away, as they should have. But they are a better team than their ladder position suggests. Coach Alastair Clarkson has knitted them into a combative and awkward proposition. Toby Pink – a rookie-made-good who kept the dual Coleman medallist Charlie Curnow goalless – epitomises their hard-nosed approach. No fair-minded Carlton supporter will be blaming Curnow for Saturday's horror show, though. He might be the most poorly served key forward in the competition. It's not his fault that his midfielders keep bombing the ball high and shallow on to his head. Nor is it his fault that the Blues don't have a posse of quality small forwards at his feet. For reasons no one can fathom, they gave away their best one (Matt Owies) to West Coast last year. At the three-quarter time huddle, Carlton coach Michael Voss lined up his midfielders and publicly put them on blast. You don't see those kinds of vein-popping sprays too often in modern football, mostly because they're not considered to be very effective. Coaches risk losing their players, and ultimately their jobs for it. Voss found out the hard way when he was coaching Brisbane, the team he famously captained to three premierships. But anyone who watched Carlton in the second and third quarters on Saturday can hardly blame Voss for venting his frustrations. It doesn't matter that his team was missing two of their best in Sam Walsh and Harry McKay. As a player, Voss was an indomitable physical force who led from the front. As a coach, he has tried to mould teams in his own image. Carlton is a defence-first, contest-based team. On Saturday they were – by Voss's own admission – bullied. Patrick Cripps, the reigning Brownlow medallist, barely touched the ball in the second quarter, when North piled on six goals to zip. Ruckman Tom De Koning, who is weighing up a mega-offer to move to St Kilda at the end of the year, was rag-dolled by the bigger Tristan Xerri. At one point, Xerri crudely pushed his opponent into the fence. De Koning's teammates barely protested. Sign up to From the Pocket: AFL Weekly Jonathan Horn brings expert analysis on the week's biggest AFL stories after newsletter promotion Carlton's supporters have endured an even longer premiership drought than North's (30 years to North's 26). And the Blues don't historically tolerate long rebuilds. Voss is contracted until the end of 2026, but a contract is a mere piece of paper in this industry. He has lost a key supporter in Luke Sayers, who stepped down as club president in January. The incoming CEO Graham Wright, who is about to take over from Brian Cook, will soon stretch his legs under his desk. Wright can't measure Voss's performance without a realistic appraisal of the club's list, as well as his assistants. The club is built around an elite core of Cripps, De Koning, Curnow, McKay (when fit), Walsh (ditto) and defender Jacob Weitering. The rest – as the legendary Hawthorn coach Allan Jeans once quipped – just run around. Carlton's many role-players simply aren't playing their roles well enough; on Saturday, their leaders failed too. North supporters might have been left flat by their team's late fade out that has too often cost them victory. But they can take heart in the performances of Harry Sheezel, Tom Powell and Colby McKercher, and give thanks for the ballast provided by veteran recruits Luke Parker, Jack Darling and Caleb Daniel. They're old enough to know that sometimes it doesn't matter how you get the job done. Ask Steven Bradbury how he became an Olympic gold medallist.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Customers are missing out on bonus savings rates — and banks don't have to actively warn you
One of Australia's most popular savings account operators, ING, has ignored regulatory advice to tell customers when they are about to lose bonus rates on promotional accounts, leaving savers at risk of missing out. The practice has helped ING and other banks access customers' money at little or no cost to finance other parts of their businesses, including profitable mortgage books. Savers can be disqualified from earning the advertised rates if they do not make a required number of transactions, deposit a certain amount, grow their balance or otherwise miss their bank's list of monthly requirements. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission found in 2023 that two in three savers were missing out on bonus rates. It recommended banks be forced to warn customers at risk of breaching bonus conditions with real-time alerts and prompt savers to consider their bonus eligibility and whether other products may better suit their needs with annual notifications. An ING spokesperson did not share what proportion of customers received the company's full rate of interest, but said the bank notified savers when their interest rates changed and helped customers check whether they would get their payments with an in-app feature. 'We know that customers like having the ability to check their monthly eligibility criteria for the savings maximiser bonus rate as it's one of the most used features in our app,' they said. The spokesperson declined to comment on why ING did not alert customers in real time, as recommended by the regulator. At 5% per annum, ING's full rate is one of the highest interest rates offered to Australian households. But its base rate – given to customers who don't qualify for the bonus rate – is among the lowest. The base rate is 0.05%. Customers miss out on the bonus rate if they do not meet the monthly requirements to deposit $1,000, make at least five transactions and add to their savings. A customer with a balance of $20,000 would get interest of just 80 cents at the end of the month if they missed a requirement, when they would have otherwise expected $80. The spokesperson said the bonus rate structure was designed to encourage customers to stay actively engaged with their finances and the bank adjusted the rates on offer to respond to broader market conditions. Guardian Australian spoke to one ING customer who received nearly no interest on a large portion of his savings because he breached the deposit limit, another feature of the account. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The customer put his money in an ING Savings Maximiser account and met the monthly requirements, but was not aware the account only paid bonus interest on the first $100,000 of a balance. His account surpassed that limit in 2020 and reached $185,000 in 2025, leaving him missing out on the equivalent of $4,000 a year in interest. 'It just had never even crossed my mind that that would be something I had to be aware of, and obviously I never received any notification,' he said. 'They notify you about everything else [except accounts] sitting there with $80,000 not earning interest, which is pretty outrageous. 'When I did look back, I was like, 'Oh my God'. I felt a bit sick.' ING's spokesperson could not comment on individual cases but said the bank made it clear when customers sign up that the bonus rate was only available for balances up to $100,000. Sign up to Afternoon Update Our Australian afternoon update breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion The bank is emblematic of the sector's push towards low base interest rates, with a typical bonus account offering total interest of 4.2% overall of which the core rate is just 0.2%, according to online database Canstar. Conditional accounts make up more than half of all savings options, according to financial comparison site Finder's database. They have soared in popularity since 2010 but have grown far more complex, with much lower base rates, says Rachel Wastell, a personal finance spokesperson at loan comparison site Mozo. 'If you don't know the rate or the hoops you need to jump through, how are you supposed to get the bonus? It's like studying for a test without knowing the subject,' she said. Daniel Mulino, a Labor MP, wrote in a 2024 report that savings rates needed regulatory tightening and recommended a notification trial, before the Albanese government committed to improving awareness of bonus rates. Mulino, now assistant treasurer, said the government was still working with the banks on reforms. Each of the big four banks said they prompted customers with push notifications and emails to help them qualify for bonus interest. Olivia McArdle, head of deposits and payments at Macquarie Bank, said complex monthly conditions were the biggest barrier to Australians earning bonus interest rates. Mozo's Wastell said every bank should be forced to notify customers to improve transparency. 'Australians deserve a heads-up when they're about to lose a chunk of their returns,' she said. '[But] honestly, there's not much motivation for banks to act here because if customers miss out, the bank can pocket the savings.' Do you know more? Contact
