Eastern Suburbs FA announce significant milestone Women’s Football
The Eastern Suburbs Football Association (ESFA) have announced the introduction of prizemoney in its Women’s Premier League (WPL) competition for the 2022 season.
In a monumental move for ESFA, the association noted several key notes in lieu of this decision.
- Prizemoney is being introduced in WPL for the first time in 2022
- Methodology and calculation of prizemoney to be identical for both Men’s and Women’s Premier League competitions
- In 2022, ESFA will run a 9 team WPL competition and 8 team Men’s Premier League (MPL) competition
- This represents the first time in ESFA history where more teams have nominated for WPL than MPL
- ESFA believes this is the only instance of a larger single Association WPL than MPL in Football NSW (FNSW) history
- There will be a larger prizemoney pool for WPL than MPL (due to teams entered)
In speaking to the addition of prizemoney and general growth of Women’s football, ESFA General Manager Bill Kostandas said, “It is exciting to see the growth of Women’s football in the Eastern Suburbs.
“Many of our Club representatives and volunteers have put in a lot of hard work culminating into this great milestone for our sport.”
The announcement forms an important component of ESFA’s key strategic pillars for 2021-24, which outlines a focus on elevating Women’s football in the local community and delivering high-quality football experiences for more members of the Eastern Suburbs community.
ESFA Director, Lisa Thorn said; “At ESFA, we believe it is important that sporting bodies reflect the diversity of the communities they are a part of.
“This is a huge step forward and we are thrilled that our Clubs have made this commitment into 2022 and beyond. This is the latest in a series of initiatives that ESFA and its constituent Clubs have undertaken to showcase our female participants, including: ESFA Inclusion and Diversity grants, equal programming footing, Female only grassroots coaching certificates, Club Come and Try sessions, and the upcoming “Football for Me” program launching in late April.”
ESFA President, Nigel Singh said, “The movement beyond parity is important, not just for ESFA but the game more broadly, and I would like to thank and recognise the many advocates who have worked tirelessly for years to advance women’s football within ESFA.
“It highlights the fantastic job our Clubs are doing in growing the game at all levels of the game from MiniRoos all the way through to WPL and beyond.”