Jim Roberts

Jim has had a life-long association with Football and Futsal (five-a-side football) across all facets of the games: as a professional player, administrator and coach. Under his stewardship the Australian Futsal Team qualified for, and competed at, three consecutive FIFA Futsal World Championships Finals (World Cups) in 1992, 1996, and 2000 – an accomplishment achieved by only three other coaches in the world. Jim is a veteran of some 66 international games as the Australian national team’s head coach. Jim had a huge impact on the development of Futsal, both in Australia and internationally. He played a key role in bringing Futsal to Australia from Brazil in 1986 and worked tirelessly to develop the sport within FIFA. He travelled extensively for 15 years on this mission, as a national coach, FIFA instructor, and senior administrator. In 1987 Jim and Charles Perkins AO devised the first Aboriginal Futsal Cup with Canada and Jim coached the first Australian Aboriginal Futsal Team. He developed and implemented five nationally televised national leagues for Futsal between 1988 and 1995 and was an official delegate to the first FIFA Congress on Futsal in Guatemala in 2000. Jim designed and implemented a successful international Futsal training program for athletes, coaches and officials, utilising international exchange programs (especially to Brazil), a key purpose of which was skills development for traditional football. He developed Futsal’s coaching accreditation courses which are used internationally. He also negotiated the partnership between the ACT Government and the Brazilian Olympic Committee for Brazilian pre-Olympic Games training in Canberra and was a member of the 2000 Olympic Games Football Taskforce. Jim is also indefatigable in his pursuit of the recognition of governments and the broader community of the benefits that participation in all sports bring to the community. To this end he devoted 17 years of service as President of ACT Sports House, which under his Presidency became ACTSport, the peak industry body for sport in the ACT. Jim was President from 1985 until 2003. Jim was awarded the Australian Sports Medal in 2000 for his contribution to the development of sport in Australia, and in the same year was presented with an achievement award by the CBFS (Brazilian Futsal Confederation) for his contribution to the development of Futsal throughout the world.   FOOTBALL/FUTSAL Born: 13 August 1948 Inducted: 2010   Associate Member