Craig Foster
Former Socceroo, Broadcaster, Adjunct Professor Sport & Social Responsibility and Human Rights Activist
Profile
Following a celebrated football career as Australia’s 419th Socceroo & 40th Captain,
Craig enjoyed an 18-year, triple Logie winning career with Australia’s multicultural broadcaster, Special Broadcasting Service (SBS).
Current Work:
A member of the Australian Multicultural Council, Craig is an Adjunct Professor of Sport & Social Responsibility with Torrens University and works across a vast range of social programs from indigenous rights and self-determination, homelessness, climate action along with refugee advocacy as: an Ambassador for The Big Issue Street Soccer Program; Amnesty Australia; Australia Committee member with Human Rights Watch; Advisory Council member of the Australian Human Rights Institute, UNSW; and the Affinity Intercultural Foundation.
Previous Experience:
Craig is a former Chairman, Life Member and CEO of Professional Footballers Australia (PFA), Australia’s representative body of the Socceroos, Matildas and professional players where, as Chair, he oversaw the introduction of a gender equality quota at Board level, is a former Director of the Council on Australia Latin America Relations (COALAR) with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and has led a number of sport and business missions abroad with the NSW Government and Australian Government.
His humanitarian activism extends to several high profile, global campaigns including #SaveHakeem to free Bahraini refugee Hakeem al-Araibi from a Thai prison for which he was a Finalist for the Australian Human Rights Commission Medal, #GameOver to call for the resettlement and freedom of over 400 refugees and asylum seekers indefinitely detained by Australia in PNG and Nauru for eight years and #PlayForLives which is a humanitarian response by sport to the COVID-19 pandemic which began in Australia and expanded internationally. Today, Craig is a key driver behind #RacismNotWelcome encouraging action on racism by all Local Government Associations Australia-wide to normalise acknowledgement of, and action against, racism in Australia.
Author: He is an author and co-author of several books including ‘Fighting for Hakeem’ by Hachette Australia and writes for the Guardian, The Age and other publications.
Recognition and Awards: In 2019, the Australian Financial Review recognised Craig as a ‘True Australian Leader’, the Sydney Morning Herald as one of the ‘People that Defined 2019, he was the recipient of the 2020 NSW Government Humanitarian Award for his work with sport and human rights, an Australian Human Rights Commission Medal finalist, was awarded the Australian Muslim Council Abyssinian Medal and was a finalist for NSW 2021 Australian of the Year.
In 2021, Craig became a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the Australia Day Honours List.
Academic: He holds a Bachelor of Laws, Master’s Degree in International Sports Management and a Postgraduate Degree in Football Management.
Media
Feedback
Thanks for your time yesterday. It was a great day, made all the better for your involvement. Just wanted to let you know that everyone, and I mean everyone, thought you were fantastic. We snuck the lunchtime speaker onto our feedback form and you received 5 out of 5 from every delegate (even from people who know nothing about soccer). Thanks again! It really is the beautiful game.
It was again a pleasure to have you with us in Hobart for our gala diner. Supurb insight, intense passion for the game and encyclopedic knowledge. It was amazing to see how you could capture the people in the room, and I'm sure most of them do not remember the food they had!
Your presentation was captivating and so much more than expected.
Craig was a pleasure to work with, very engaging and passionate and has some great insights around how teamwork can impact on an organisation's culture.
Craig was great, on time and delivered what was expected. A very good presenter who kept the crowd’s attention all the time and his videos were great too.
