Craig Foster


Craig Andrew Foster , nicknamed Fozzy or Fozz, is an Australian retired soccer player, human rights activist and sports analyst for the Stan streaming service in Australia. Foster played soccer professionally from 1988 to 2003, including for the national team, the Socceroos, from 1996 to 2000, and was chief soccer analyst for SBS from around 2002 until June 2020. He was the 419th Socceroo, and the 40th captain of the national team.
Foster is also known for his human rights advocacies, and is a vocal critic of the Australian Government's treatment of asylum seekers. He played a high-profile role in the campaign to free Bahraini footballer Hakeem al-Araibi from detention in Thailand in from late 2018 to early 2019, later co-writing a book about it, Fighting for Hakeem, which became the working title of a 2023 documentary film.
Foster was elected chair of the Australian Republic Movement in November 2022.

Early life and education

Craig Andrew Foster was born in 1969 in Lismore, New South Wales. Both sides of his family are of Anglo-Celtic descent.
He attended Kadina High School, periodically returning to speak and motivate students. Foster holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Football Business and a Master in Sport Management degree from the Johan Cruyff Institute. In 2019, he earned a Bachelor of Laws degree from the Central Queensland University Australia.

Playing career

Club career

Playing as a midfielder, Foster debuted with Sydney Croatia in 1988, playing in a losing grand final in his first season. Foster has said his time at Sydney Croatia is what began his interest in multiculturalism.
He moved to Victorian club Sunshine George Cross in 1989 before returning to Sydney to play for Avala in the NSW Super League in 1992. In 1992/3, Foster played for Ernest Borel in Hong Kong, before returning to Australia to play for Adelaide City in 1994 and then Marconi in the NSL in 1996/7.
As a 28-year-old he moved to England, linking up with Terry Venables firstly at Portsmouth in 1997–98, before moving to Crystal Palace as a free agent from 1998 to 2000.
He returned to Australia to play with Northern Spirit, based in North Sydney, until his retirement from the game in 2003.
In 2013 he was listed as a player for the Belmore United Over 35s along with Paul Okon and Francis Awaritefe.

International career

Foster represented Australia at under-16 level, reaching the quarter finals at the 1985 FIFA U-16 World Championship in China.
He was the 419th player for the Australia national team from 1996 to 2000, earning 29 caps, and was the team's 40th captain, and scoring nine goals.
As a Socceroo, he played in the following competitions and games:
  • FIFA Confederations Cup: runner-up, 1997
  • OFC Nations Cup: 1996, 2000
  • As captain, friendly match, 1–1 draw with Bulgaria, 15 February 2000)
  • Australia – Team of the Century: nominee

    International goals

No.DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1Western Sydney Stadium, Parramatta, Australia7–013–01998 FIFA World Cup qualification
2North Harbour Stadium, North Shore, New Zealand3–03–01998 FIFA World Cup qualification
3Na Stínadlech, Teplice, Czech Republic1–31–3Friendly
4Olympic Park Stadium, Melbourne, Australia1–02–1Friendly
5Stade Pater Te Hono Nui, Pīraʻe, Tahiti4–017–02000 OFC Nations Cup
6Stade Pater Te Hono Nui, Pīraʻe, Tahiti6–017–02000 OFC Nations Cup
7Stade Pater Te Hono Nui, Pīraʻe, Tahiti8–017–02000 OFC Nations Cup
8Stade Pater Te Hono Nui, Pīraʻe, Tahiti14–017–02000 OFC Nations Cup
9Stade Pater Te Hono Nui, Pīraʻe, Tahiti2–02–02000 OFC Nations Cup

Football honours

Foster still plays for Waverley Old Boys Over 35s.

Other roles related to soccer

Foster started his on-air career with the Seven Network, serving as a soccer analyst and principal commentator on their then pay TV sport channel, C7 Sport, as well as regularly appearing as a panellist on SBS' weekly soccer program On The Ball. He later joined SBS full-time, working with Les Murray and the Johnny Warren at the helm of SBS' hugely successful soccer broadcasts. He became known as "Fozz" or "Fozzy".
Following his retirement from professional soccer, Foster became the chief soccer analyst for the SBS show The World Game, from around 2002 until June 2020. He is remembered for his commentary during the World Cup Qualifier in November 2005 against Uruguay, and during the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Foster was part of the SBS commentary team from Germany.
He advocated for a more Spanish/South American style of play, as opposed to the constant use of the long ball in soccer, and was also known for his outspoken stance on the need for soccer in Australia to mature.
In 2007, Foster was invited to be the Australian representative to judge the Ballon d'Or, the highest award given to an individual soccer player.
Also in 2007, he was a coach for the team assembled by the SBS television show Nerds FC in their second season.
In June 2020, it was announced that Foster would be leaving SBS, after working for 18 years as a sports presenter. He joined Stan Sport in August 2020, in time to co-present, along with UK presenter Max Rushden, several big UEFA competitions: the Champions League the Europa League, and the Conference League.
Foster has been a strong advocate for players' rights, having served for five years on Professional Footballers Australia Executive, as a Director of the PFA's commercial wing, PFAM, and formerly as Interim Chief Executive of the Australian Soccer Players' Association. He is a life member of the PFA, and in 2016 was appointed interim chairman of the PFA.
Other roles include being an Ambassador for the Johan Cruyff Institute and a co-director/ board member of John Moriarty Football.

Human rights and social advocacy

Foster is a member of the Australian Multicultural Council, since 2018 and as of 2022. He has long been an advocate for footballers and has been human rights and refugee ambassador for Amnesty International. He has often used his position as presenter and chief football analyst at SBS to criticise unethical practices in the game. He works in a range of social programs, including Indigenous rights and self-determination; homelessness in Australia; climate change; and advocacy for refugees.
In August 2025, Foster attended the March for Humanity in Sydney, a large protest highlighting the plight of Palestinians in the Gaza conflict.

Hakeem al-Araibi campaign

Foster was vocal in campaigning on behalf of Bahraini footballer Hakeem al-Araibi, who was granted protection as a political refugee in Australia in 2014 but was detained upon arrival in Thailand in November 2018 while on his honeymoon with his wife owing to an Interpol red notice put out by Bahrain. Foster travelled to Switzerland to present a petition with more than 50,000 signatures demanding the release of the detained footballer and held talks with general secretary Fatma Samoura FIFA on 29 January 2019, spent time in Thailand speaking to al-Araibi's legal team and visited al-Araibi in prison. Foster's many tweets on the topic were widely shared. After al-Araibi's release was secured, others tweeted nominations for Foster as Australian of the Year or even prime minister. Many politicians, including prime minister Scott Morrison praised him for his efforts.
Foster said after the release of al-Araibi that the fight had just begun, and after the incident had shone light on the atrocities against athletes during and after the Bahraini uprising of 2011, what was needed is a full investigation into the matter by both FIFA and the IOC to ensure that justice is done for all athletes. He also implicitly offered criticism of Australia's current policies on refugees, saying "Australia needs to look at how we treat every human being that comes to these shores, irrespective of how they arrive... We are all equal, and should all be treated with equal dignity, care and respect", and "Australia must do better than we have in recent years".
Foster plays a prominent role in the 2023 documentary film The Defenders by Adelaide filmmaker Matthew Bate, which tells the story the campaign to free al-Araibi from prison. It was released on Amazon Prime Video on 23 June 2023, after being shown at the Sydney Film Festival and a special preview screening by Adelaide Film Festival in Adelaide on 21 June. Foster is also credited as co-writer on the film, as some of the script was based on his book, Fighting for Hakeem, which was the working title of the film.

Refugee advocacy

On 22 February 2019, Foster published an open letter to the Australian prime minister Scott Morrison and leader of the opposition, Bill Shorten, in The Sydney Morning Herald, in which, after thanking them for their assistance in helping to free al-Araibi, he addressed the issue of how Australia treats its asylum seekers. He said "I have waited until after Hakeem was safely home to explain that one of the reasons it was so difficult to garner international support was because of our own treatment of refugees. This was a constant theme throughout discussions with international stakeholders" and "The policy of indefinite, offshore detention does not uphold our international obligations...". He said that he was urging others to uphold their human rights obligations in allowing al-Araibi to return to Australia, while "we are failing to uphold our own".
He became the face of Amnesty Australia's "Game Over" campaign in late 2019, which has been supported by high-profile sportspeople such as Liz Ellis, Benny Elias, Paul Roos, Ian Chappell, Lisa Sthalekar, Paul Wade, Frank Farina, Alex Tobin, Craig Moore; musician Jimmy Barnes, actors Bryan Brown and Anthony La Paglia musicians and many others. Sally McManus, and many others. The campaign centres on the plight of asylum seekers kept in indefinite detention by the Australian Government, for many years after 2013 at detention centres on Manus Island,, and Nauru. In October 2020, as part of the campaign, Foster and NRL star Sonny Bill Williams presented a petition containing more than 65,000 signatures to federal parliament, which called upon the government to take up New Zealand's longstanding offer to resettle refugees who had been held Australian offshore detention for many years.
On 23 March 2022 Foster delivered the Australian National University's annual "Australia and the World Lecture", which had been postponed from 2021 owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, at the National Press Club of Australia. It was titled "Human Rights, Democracy and Global Citizenry - Recovering Australia's Humanity and Place in the World: 2021 ANU Australia and the World Lecture". The address looked at Australia's role in the world from the lived experience of asylum seekers and refugees, and argued that the nation should live up to its commitments as a responsible global citizen. In the talk, he said that Australia had not performed well Indigenous and refugee rights or on climate change. He bemoaned the lack of good leadership on these issues, and said that the colonisation of Australia had been underpinned by racism, and is still present in policy and media coverage; that it is a "festering sore on the national psyche". The following day, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews announced that the government would accept New Zealand's to resettle some of the refugees.