Football Australia is pleased to announce a new multi-year partnership with LCI Education (LaSalle College International), an international community of higher education institutions that connects people around the world to opportunity.

The partnership will see LCI Education’s Australian institution, LCI Melbourne, join the Football Australia family as an Official Partner of the Subway Socceroos, CommBank Matildas, and all Australian Youth National Teams.

In a collaborative endeavour, LCI Melbourne will provide the Australian football community with bespoke creative design webinars and learning opportunities. Select LCI students will also gain hands-on industry work experience in Football Australia’s award-winning Digital Content and Marketing Teams.

LCIM students, in green and gold

This alignment in creative expertise follows global acknowledgement for Football Australia’s marketing, digital, media and creative department, whose CommBank Matildas ‘Til It’s Done’ integrated marketing campaign for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 and Paris 2024 Olympics recently won bronze at the 2024 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Football Australia also claimed the Australian Sports Commission 2023: Best Coverage of Sport by a Club or Organisation (CommBank Matildas’ FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 campaign), and TikTok Australia Sports Creator of the Year 2023.

LCI Education’s incorporation into the Football Australia partner family represents an important advancement in consolidating the links between accessible higher education and the highest participation team-based community sport in the nation. Offering bachelor-level qualifications that are different by design, LCI Education is proud to be associated with a sport and organisation that embodies diversity and inclusion.

Football Australia CEO James Johnson expressed his delight with the alliance with LCI Education’s Australian institution, LCI Melbourne, to provide further developmental opportunities for the football community.

“Football can play an important role in enriching the lives of our participants whether socially, physically, mentally and now educationally,” Johnson said.

“We are pleased to be stretching our partnerships to embrace new ties to the higher education sector, supporting accessible, affordable, and accelerated education pathways to a wider variety of students.

“The growth opportunities at LCI Melbourne are exciting as we work together to enhance sporting and educational outcomes. We will empower students to dream big, think differently, and turn their artistic passions into powerful forces for change, thanks to the collaboration between LCI and Football Australia’s award-winning Marketing, Digital, and Media Team.

“We look forward to working with LCI to elevate our sport even further through innovative and impactful storytelling,” Johnson concluded.

“Being associated with such a powerful, inclusive, and representative brand in Australia is significant for a global education community like LCI Education,” said President and CEO of LCI Education, Claude Marchand.

“We strongly believe that football, with its shared values of commitment, perseverance, initiative, and teamwork, unites our learners and staff across our 12 institutions located on five continents.

“This innovative partnership between LCI Melbourne and Football Australia will undoubtedly create a lasting impact in the community, as the union between education and sport is powerful in shaping tomorrow’s leaders!” Marchand concluded.

This expansion of the sport’s partnership footprint now sees football supported by some of Australia’s biggest values-based brands including Nike, CommBank, Subway, Qantas, CUPRA, Cadbury, LEGO, Milo, Coles, M.J. Bale and Beare Park.