The 2017 Victorian community football season gets underway this weekend, with a total of 38,688 official competition fixtures being scheduled across all Football Federation Victoria (FFV) winter football competitions including the Sportsmart Junior Leagues, the Banking on Football Metropolitan and Masters Leagues and Aldi MiniRoos.

With the PlayStation 4 National Premier Leagues and the FFV State Leagues already underway, a total of 3,880 team entries were received by FFV this year, with many more teams due to compete in associated league matches across metropolitan and regional Victoria in 2017.

Statistics released by Football Federation Australia indicate that there are already 30,000 more registered participants nationally than at the same time last year, with a 9 per cent rise in female outdoor players to 90,000 and a 3.5 percent rise in Aldi MiniRoos participants to date, on course to top 220,000 Aldi MiniRoos players for the first time this season.

There has also been an increase in girls taking up the sport; now 26.4 per cent of players taking part in pre-season Aldi MiniRoos Kick-Off programs around the country.

Football Federation Victoria congratulated its clubs, players, parents, referees, and volunteers for their hard work in growing the world game in Victoria and wished everyone all the very best for a fun and enjoyable 2017 football season.

Fixtures are available online at www.ffv.org.au