Following the annual review of fees by the Football Federation Victoria (FFV) Board, a number of changes have been made to the fee schedule to focus on girls joining the sport, the reduction and removal of fees, and the abolition of some fines.

The major fee change is the introduction of free team entry for girls teams in Small Sided Football (SSF). Not only will the girl’s team receive free SSF entry, but for every girls SSF team entered the club will receive free entry for a boys SSF team.

To encourage more girls to play football, clubs will also receive free team entry for any new junior girls teams entered in 2012.

As over half of all players registered in Victoria participate in small sided football, this will see large savings for clubs.

Over the period of 2006-2012, FFV have made sure that their fees have been kept as low as possible, with average increases lower than the annual Cost Price Index (CPI) increase in the cost of living. In fact, this year FFV actually lowered fees to avoid an increase in costs for players.

With a slight increase in Football Federation Australia’s (FFA) levy, FFV has lowered their fee to absorb the increase; in doing so allowing the combined total to remain the same as last season. For example, the total fee for a Junior Metro player will be $80.50 which is made up of the FFA’s fee ($12) and FFV’s fee ($68.50).

Since 2006, FFV’s combined registration fees have remained lower than CPI increases over the same period of time. To put this into perspective; in 2006 the fees for SSF were $44.60, while in 2012 it will be $45.50 – an increase of less than one dollar over six years!

This reluctance to increase fees, even with the increased cost of living highlights FFV’s determination to allow football to be an affordable sport for all the community – even more so with a decrease in fees for the 2012 season.

A number of new incentives will be introduced to make it cheaper for clubs to run football, hopefully resulting in cheaper club fees being charged to players.

The removal of team withdrawal fees as well as coaching registration fees will be joined by the abolition of fines for fielding ineligible players (a three point deduction will instead take the place of a fine). The late team entry fee which used to cost up to $200 will also be replaced by a standard late team administration fee of $50, the cost of which is based on the additional number of work hours required to alter fixtures.

Clubs will receive a 15% discount on player registrations for the first 20 players who self-register online for the first time as well as a 2.5% discount on invoices paid early or on time.

To encourage players to self-register, FFV will be offering 100 sporting good vouchers valued at $50 each as prizes to players who self register online.

For the full listing of the 2012 fee schedule click here.

To help further improve the sport of football, FFV are in the process of continually reviewing the Grievance Disciplinary & Tribunal By-Laws.