Privacy Policy

1. Football Australia

Football Australia Limited (ACN 106 478 068) of Level 9, 1 Shelley Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia is the governing body of the sport of football in Australia.  This Policy applies to Football Australia and each of its related companies and subsidiaries (referred to in this Policy as Football Australia, we or us).

2. About this policy 

2.1  This Policy sets out the way in which Football Australia collects, uses and discloses personal information and also explains your rights and how to contact Football Australia. Football Australia is committed to protecting your personal information in accordance with Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). Please read the text carefully.

2.2  We may modify or update this Policy from time to time by publishing a new version of the Policy on the Football Australia network of websites (including footballaustralia.com.au, socceroos.com.au, matildas.com.au, a-league.com.au, playfootball.com.au, myfootball.com.au and any related websites, mobile websites or applications which link directly to this Policy (collectively, the Football Australia Sites)). We will indicate any changes by updating the date of this Policy.  If you have any questions about this Policy, please contact the Football Australia Privacy Officer using the details in section 13.

3. Summary 

3.1  Football Australia may collect, use, hold and disclose personal information that we collect from you or from third parties for a variety of purposes, including to provide or promote our services to you (see sections 4 – 6). You can opt-out of receiving marketing materials from Football Australia at any time by utilizing the unsubscribe feature on any electronic marketing communications that you receive, or in the case of other direct marketing materials by contacting the Football Australia Privacy Officer in accordance with section 13.1 below.

3.2  Football Australia may disclose your personal information to third parties in the course of our operations, including to other football organisations. From time to time, we may also provide personal information to third parties outside Australia (see sections 7 and 8).

3.3   Football Australia may collect information in relation to your use of our websites, including through the use of cookies. Such information may be used to optimise or maintain our website, as well as for advertising purposes (see section 9).

3.4  Football Australia takes reasonable steps to protect the personal information that we hold. This includes using password-protected systems to store personal information (see section 10).

3.5  You have a right to access and/or correct personal information that Football Australia holds about you, or to make a complaint about our handling of your personal information. You can do so by contacting the Football Australia Privacy Officer using the details set out at the end of this Policy (see sections 11 and 13).

4. What kinds of information do we collect? 

4.1 In the course of its operations, Football Australia may collect, use and disclose the personal information of players, ticketholders, administrators, participants and other individuals for the purpose of governing and administering of the sport of football in Australia, as described in this Policy. The precise nature of the collection, use and disclosure of personal information by Football Australia depends on the services you request and receive from, and your interaction with, Football Australia.

4.2 Personal information collected and held by Football Australia may include your name, address, phone numbers, email address, date of birth, gender, occupation and social media details. 

4.3  Depending on the services you receive from Football Australia, we may also collect and hold details about your participation history, your favourite Club and membership history as well as your emergency contact information, credit card information, driver’s license details, reference check information and details of items ordered or purchased from Football Australia. 

4.4  In certain circumstances, Football Australia may collect information about your health or other sensitive information about you (for example, information about your racial or ethnic origin or physical health). Football Australia may use health information about you to ensure that football programs in which you participate are run safely and in accordance with any special health needs you may have and for insurance purposes. Football Australia may also use health information as required by the Football Australia Statutes, including medical and anti-doping testing and investigations.

4.5  In addition, Football Australia may use de-identified health information and other sensitive information to carry out research, to prepare submissions to government or a government body or to plan events and activities.  

4.6  If you choose not to provide certain personal information, Football Australia may not be able to communicate with, or provide services to, you. For example, you may not be able to register to play football or participate in some of the activities on the Football Australia Sites if you do not provide certain personal information.

5. How do we collect and hold your personal information? 

5.1  We may collect your personal information from you or from a third party.

5.2  For example, Football Australia may collect personal information from you:
(a) via the Football Australia Sites;
(b) when you provide it to Football Australia by filling in forms approved by Football Australia from time to time (including when you register for an Football Australia Football Account);
(c) when you contact Football Australia;
(d) when you engage with Football Australia via social media;
(e) when you subscribe to receive football related newsletters or other information; or
(f) when you enter a competition that is being conducted by, or on behalf of, Football Australia.

5.3  Football Australia may also collect personal information about you from third parties, including:
(a) a Member Federation, association, club and/or a competition administrator registered with Football Australia from time to time (Football Administrators);
(b) your representatives;
(c) Football Australia corporate partners, licensees, sponsors, suppliers and broadcasters (Football Australia Partners);
(d) ticketing agents and event organisers, when you purchase tickets to a football related event;
(e) vendors, when you purchase football related merchandise; and
(f) the organisations identified under section 7 below.

6. For what purposes do we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information? 

6.1 Football Australia may collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for various purposes, including: 
(a) to verify your identity;
(b) to ensure compliance with Football Australia Statutes, including the administration and development of football;
(c) to organise, conduct and promote football competitions, matches, programs and other events (including for the purpose of distributing newsletters, providing information and making ticket offers);
(d) to develop programs, activities, events, products, services and merchandise relating to football;
(e) to provide you with information about our products and services, including information about tickets, merchandise and special offers, or which we reasonably believe may be of interest you;
(f) to investigate and take action in the event that applicable laws or regulations are breached, including terms of admission and codes of conduct;
(g) to carry out market research and surveys;
(h) to contact you if you win a prize in a competition you have entered and to send the prize to you;
(i) to administer, manage and improve the Football Australia Sites and to provide you with, or optimise your, access to those Football Australia Sites;
(j) so that Football Australia can provide you with direct marketing communications in relation to products, services, tickets, merchandise and special offers made available by Football Australia or our Football Australia Partners that we think will be of interest to you. You will be able to opt-out of receiving direct marketing communications from Football Australia at any time if you so choose, by utilising the unsubscribe feature on electronic marketing communications, or in the case of other direct marketing materials by contacting the Football Australia Privacy Officer in accordance with section 13.1 below;
(k) where permitted by Football Australia, to enable Football Australia Partners who have a relationship with Football Australia to market and promote their products and services to you. You will be able to opt-out of Football Australia disclosing your personal information to Football Australia Partners for the purposes of direct marketing at any time if you so choose, by utilising the unsubscribe feature on electronic marketing communications, or in the case of other direct marketing materials by contacting the Football Australia Privacy Officer in accordance with section 13.1 below; and
(l) for any use that is reasonably apparent at or around the time the information is collected or that is otherwise notified to you from time to time.

6.2 We may collect, use or disclose information about you in order to combine the information that we hold about you with information about you collected from or held by other trusted partners or from public sources. We do this in order to enable the development of consumer insights about you so that we and those other trusted companies can serve you better. This includes being able to better understand your preferences and interests, personalise your experience, enhance the products and services you receive, and to tell you about products and services. We may also use trusted service providers to undertake the process of creating these consumer insights.  

7. To whom do we disclose your personal information? 

7.1 We may disclose your personal information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy to:
(a) a Football Administrator that you have registered with or expressed an interest in, which may then use your personal information to administer the game of football and keep you updated with information about them.
(b) Football Australia’s related bodies corporate;
(c) Fédération Internationale de Football Association and its members, including the Asian Football Confederation;
(d) the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority, Australian Institute of Sport and/or Australian Olympic Committee;
(e) Football Australia’s insurers;
(f) Football Australia’s professional advisors, including our accountants, auditors and lawyers;
(g) third party service providers, suppliers and partners, such as ticketing agents;
(h) government agencies, regulatory bodies and law enforcement agencies, or as required, permitted or authorised by law or where we have a public duty to do so, including for purposes of safety and security; and
(i) where you have consented to your personal information being disclosed to others;
(j) anyone to whom our assets or businesses (or any part of them) are transferred; and
(k) specific third parties authorised by you to receive information held by us.

7.2 Football Australia Partners or Football Administrators may have separate privacy policies which apply to their collection, use and disclosure of your personal information. You should refer to that privacy policy for further details, including how you can contact the relevant Football Australia Partner or Football Administrator if you have any queries, or wish to make a complaint, about their handling of your personal information.

8. Do we disclose your personal information outside Australia? 

8.1 Football Australia will store personal information on data servers that are controlled by Football Australia and are located within Australia where reasonably possible. However, in some circumstances, we may disclose your personal information to third parties located outside Australia, including in the USA.

8.2 In all cases, by providing your personal information to us or using our services, you consent to the disclosure of your personal information outside Australia as set out in this Policy, and acknowledge that Football Australia is not required to ensure that overseas recipients handle your personal information in compliance with Australian privacy law.  However, where practicable in the circumstances, Football Australia will take reasonable steps to ensure that overseas recipients handle personal information in a manner consistent with this Policy. You may have rights to enforce such parties' compliance with applicable data protection laws, but you may not have recourse against those parties under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) in relation to how those parties treat your personal information.

9. Using a Football Australia Site

9.1 If you visit a Football Australia Site, Football Australia may record information such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type, Internet Service Provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, the Football Australia Site pages accessed and any information downloaded.  This information is used for statistical, reporting and website administration and maintenance purposes, including identifying usage trends, to track users’ movements around the Football Australia Sites and to gather demographic information about Football Australia users collectively.

9.2 Like many other websites, the Football Australia Sites may use ‘cookies’ from time to time. A cookie is a piece of data that allows us to identify and interact more effectively with your device. The cookie helps Football Australia to maintain the continuity of your browsing session and remember your details and preferences when you return.  You can configure your web browser to reject cookies however some parts of our website may not have full functionality in that case.

9.3 In some cases, Football Australia and its third-party service providers may use cookies and other technologies such as web beacons and JavaScript on an Football Australia Site in connection with online services like banner advertising, website analytics and surveys to collect information about your use of an Football Australia Site.  The use of these technologies allows Football Australia and its third-party service providers to evaluate a user’s use of an Football Australia Site, deliver customised advertising content, measure the effectiveness of the advertising and provide other services relating to website activity and internet usage.  The services we may use from time to time include Google Analytics, Nielsen, AdTech, Omniture and Facebook.  You can find more details in the privacy policies for those services, including information on how to opt-out of certain conduct. 

9.4 When we send you emails or other electronic messages, Football Australia may record where you open the message and click on particular links. This helps us to better understand what information is of interest to you.

10. Protecting your personal information

10.1 Football Australia takes the security of personal information seriously. Football Australia has appointed a Privacy Officer to oversee Football Australia's management of personal information in accordance with this Policy and the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

10.2 Football Australia uses a number of physical, administrative, personnel and technical measures to protect the security and privacy of your personal information. For example, all electronic data that is held by Football Australia is stored on password protected systems.

10.3 If you are considering sending us any other personal information through a Football Australia Site or other electronic means, please be aware that the information may be insecure in transit, particularly where no encryption is used (e.g. email).  Any transmission is therefore at your own risk.

10.4 Where Football Australia has given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of an Football Australia Site, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. Football Australia suggests that you do not share the password with anyone and to change it regularly.

11. How can you access and correct your personal information? 

11.1 Football Australia takes reasonable steps to ensure the personal information that Football Australia collects, uses and discloses is accurate, complete and up-to-date.  However, the accuracy of that information depends on the information you provide.

11.2 You have the right to access the personal information we hold about you and can request the correction of your personal data if it is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date.  If you would like to do so, please contact the Football Australia Privacy Officer to submit an enquiry to access the personal information Football Australia holds about you. The Football Australia Privacy Officer's contact details are set out in section  13 .

11.3 If you provided your personal information via a Football Australia Site, you can also update that information at any time by logging onto the relevant Football Australia Site and submitting the updated information.  

12. Can you opt out of direct marketing communications? 

You can opt out of receiving marketing messages from Football Australia at any time by following the unsubscribe instructions on electronic marketing communications, or in the case of other direct marketing materials, by contacting the Football Australia Privacy Officer in accordance with section 13.1 below.

13. Contacting the Football Australia Privacy Officer and Making Complaints

13.1 You may contact the Football Australia Privacy Officer by writing to privacy@footballaustralia.com.au or The Privacy Officer, Football Australia Limited, Level 22, 1 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, NSW 2010.

13.2 You may complain about our collection, use or disclosure of your personal information by contacting the Football Australia Privacy Officer using the contact details above with your full name and contact details, together with a detailed description of the complaint. We will respond to your complaint within a reasonable period of time and inform you of the next steps we will take in dealing with your complaint. If we are unable to resolve your complaint, we will inform you of the further steps you can take. 

Updated 17 December 2020