Australia Day Ambassador
Craig Foster
Ambassador for Lismore City Council
Former Socceroo, SBS Sports Presenter and Chief Football Analyst, Craig Foster, is leading the way for the round ball code in the Australian broadcasting scene.
Craig has played an integral role in presenting football on SBS and remains a valuable member of the highly respected weekly football program, The World Game, and is a columnist on the accompanying award-winning website of the same name, as well as with the Sun Herald.
Craig’s on-air duties include a regular analyst spot on the network’s coverage of the world’s foremost club competition, the UEFA Champions League, including a co-hosting role with Les Murray on the UEFA Champions League Hour show. He also provides insight for other major football events, including the FA Cup Final and UEFA Cup Final.
Craig can also be seen presenting SBS Sport for World News Australia, Sunday through to Thursday evenings.
He first came to broadcasting prominence with Channel 7’s football coverage in 2001, thereafter as an integral part of SBS’s expert on-air team for the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan, which delivered record viewing numbers as the first World Cup held in Australia’s time zone.
Four years later, Craig joined Les Murray to present daily reports live from Berlin at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, including all the action of Australia’s matches, and the team’s emotional presentation of the Australia v Italy match earned SBS a Logie for the Most Outstanding Sports Broadcast of 2006.
Then, in perhaps his toughest challenge to date, Craig signed on as coach for series two of Nerds FC, an SBS Independent initiative, which saw him convert a team of uncoordinated klutzes into football champions.
Craig also presented the 2008 Beijing Olympics for SBS, as part of his broadening on-air responsibilities.
As a player, Craig made 29 appearances as a Socceroo including as Captain, led several Australian and European Clubs, and has been a strong advocate for player’s rights, having served for five years on the PFA (Players Association) Executive, as a Director of the PFA’s commercial wing, PFAM (PFA Management), and formerly as Chief Executive of the Player’s Association. Craig remains a life member of the PFA and a member of the PFA Technical Committee.
He is currently the Chairman of the Australian Athlete’s Association, the body responsible for the interests of elite athletes across a wide range of sports in Australia, including Cricket (ACA), Rugby Union (RUPA), Football (PFA), Netball (ANPA), AFL (AFLPA) and Swimming (ASA).
In 2007, Craig was invited as the sole Australian representative to judge the prestigious Ballon d’Or, the honour awarded by the world’s most respected football magazine, France Football, to the world footballer of the year, in recognition of his standing as the game’s pre-eminent expert on all matters football.
Craig is an Australia Day Ambassador with the Australia Day Council, is Patron of Football United, a refugee youth football program which serves to assist the integration of young displaced refugees into Australian society, in conjunction with the UNSW, and has his own Football Charity which raises funds to provide football equipment and opportunities to underprivileged youth in indigenous and regional communities.
