Women's soccer, also known as women's football, is a popular sport in Australia. The sport has a high level of participation in the country both recreational and professional. Football Australia is the national governing body of the sport in Australia, organising the A-League Women, the Australian women's national team, and the nine state governing bodies of the game, among other duties. Women's participation of modern soccer has been recorded since the early 1920s. It has since become one of Australia's most popular women's team sports.
Some of the earliest games of soccer played in Australia were played in Brisbane in 1921.[2] Around that period, there were at least three active teams, with over 60 combined total players.[2] In September 1921, a game was played at the Brisbane Cricket Ground between a team from North Brisbane and a team from South Brisbane. The match had over 10,000 people in attendance.[2] The North Brisbane team wore red and the South Brisbane team wore blue.[3] The game was won by North Brisbane with a score of two to zero.[3] Early football outfits for women were not that different from the outfits worn today: long socks, long-sleeved football jerseys, baggy shorts, and purpose worn football shoes.[2] Originally, football was not played by girls at schools in Queensland.[2] Instead, football was played by factory workers in Queensland.[2]
In 1922, a committee in Australia investigated the benefits of physical education for girls. They came up with several recommendations regarding what sports were and were not appropriate for girls to play based on the level of fitness required. It was determined that for some individual girls that for medical reasons, the girls should probably not be allowed to participate in tennis, netball, lacrosse, golf, hockey, and cricket. Football was completely medically inappropriate for girls to play. It was medically appropriate for all girls to be able to participate in, so long as they were not done in an overly competitive manner, swimming, rowing, cycling and horseback riding.[4]
Australian women's sports had an advantage over many other women's sport organisations around the world in the period after World War II. Women's sport organisations had largely remained intact and were holding competitions during the war period. This structure survived in the post war period. Women's sport were not hurt because of food rationing, petrol rationing, population disbursement, and other issues facing post-war Europe.[5]
During the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, women's soccer saw a large expansion in the number of competitors.[6] In 1982, the first LGBTQI football team, the Adelaide Armpits, played their first season in Adelaide, and continued to play in South Australian competitions for 30 years.[7]
In April 2024, the 2023–24 A-League Women season set the record for the most attended season of any women's sport in Australian history, with the season recording a total attendance of 284,551 on 15 April 2024,[12][13][14][15] and finishing with a final total attendance of 312,199.[16]
Participation
Girls play soccer at school. Most of these school based players are not counted as registered soccer players.[17]
Since 2008, the W-League has been the highest women's football league in Australia. The W-League replaced the short dormant Women's National Soccer League, which from 1996 to 2004, was the national top tier league.
In the W-League's first year in competition, it managed to attract a number of international players including ones from Canada, New Zealand, Singapore and Sweden. Games had an average attendance of around 500 fans and games were televised nationally on free-to-air.[18] The first season was won by the Queensland Roar. Sydney FC won the second season.[19] In the league's third season, international players competed from countries including New Zealand, Taiwan, Denmark and Canada.[20]
Many of the league's players are young, and the league is used by the FA as a way of developing young players for national team selection.[21]
Girls can get anything they want out of soccer. It's a game that you can have individual as well as team achievements and it's a great environment. How many people can travel around the world and know people in so many countries?
The Matildas are Australia's women's national team.[23] The team gives female athletes opportunities to play in high level competition.[17] The national team first started representing the country during the 1970s.[23] In 1978, the team competed in their first international tournament.[24] This tournament was the World Women's Invitational in Taipai, Taiwan.[24] Prior to 1978, Australia had only ever really competed against New Zealand on an international level.[24]
In 1996, soccer made its debut as a women's sport at the Olympics.[25] However, the IOC states otherwise, explicitly recognising the United States as the winner of the first gold medals in the women's sport in 1996. Four years later, Australia hosted the Olympics and Cheryl Salisbury scored the team's first Olympic goal in their second match against Sweden. Australia finished seventh in that first Olympic appearance.[26][27] The team also competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics after qualifying by winning the Oceania qualifying tournament.[27] Their next Olympic appearance did not come until the 2016 Games, in which they advanced to the quarter-finals and lost there on a penalty shootout to the host Brazil.[citation needed]
The first FIFA Women's World Cup was held in 1991.[28] Australia did not qualify, having been beaten by New Zealand because of goal difference.[28] In 1995, Australia did qualify and finished last in the tournament.[28] In 1999, Australia finished eleventh out of sixteen.[29] In 2003, Australia finished last in their group.[29] The Matildas qualified for the first time as an AFC member in 2007, and had their best finish to date in the competition. They finished second to Norway in Group C and bowed out in the quarter-finals at the hands of Brazil. The Matildas matched that finish in 2011, finishing second to Brazil in Group D and losing in the quarter-finals to Sweden, and in 2015, finishing second to the United States in Group D and losing in the quarter-finals to Japan. The youngest player ever for the Matildas was 14.[17] The 2023 Women's World Cup was hosted jointly by Australia and New Zealand. The Matildas made it to the semi-final, finishing 4th ahead of France (5th), but behind Spain (1st), England (2nd) and Sweden (3rd).[citation needed]
The Young Matildas are Australia's women's national under-20 team.[30] The team was initially organised as a U-19 team,[24] but became a U-20 team when FIFA changed the upper age limit for its top women's age-grade competition from 19 to 20 effective in 2006. They have competed in several tournaments including the 2002 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship (predecessor to today's U-20 Women's World Cup).[24] That particular competition was held in Canada.[24] The Young Matildas finished fifth, the highest finish place in a FIFA sanctioned competition of any Australian women's national soccer team ever.[24]
The Deaf Matildas are Australian national deaf team.[32] Their first major tournament was the Deaflympic Games held in Australia in 2005.[32]
Gender parity
The Matildas have been vocal about achieving equal status and pay for women footballers around the world, urging FIFA to act on the issue of gender parity in football. In 2019, the Matildas (then ranked 8th in the world) signed an agreement with the FFA (now Football Australia), which would guarantee equal pay and several other entitlements to Socceroos (ranked 44th). They would receive the same proportion of commercial income as the men, and be entitled to equal conditions such as business class air travel and the same training conditions.[33] This made Australia the first country in which the men's and women's national teams have an equal share of the total revenue generated by both teams, with the two teams sharing 26% of the combined national income, apart from prize money.[34][35]
As of 2023[update] three-quarters of players in Australia are male. The men's game gets priority for the best pitches, as well as referees, coaches, and other officials. Football Australia, with Sarah Walsh heading up their women's football division, aims to achieve gender parity by 2027, but there are obstacles and challenges to women entering the sport at grassroots level. There is a lack of women's change facilities and toilets at many venues. Most clubs in the men's A-League has a youth academy for boys, but only two in A-League Women have similar for girls. Women playing in the A-League earn a minimum wage and have to work at other jobs, often studying as well, while the top player in the men's A-League earns round A$2m.[36]
In the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, the performance of the Matildas captivated nationwide attention and had a significant ongoing impact on the perception of women's sport in Australia.[36] A video featuring 23 Matildas was released just before the tournament began, aiming to spread the message that women in other countries deserve parity in pay and conditions.[37]
Aivi Belinda Kerstin Luik is an Australian soccer player who plays as a midfielder for Swedish club BK Häcken FF. She represented the Australia national team, making over 30 appearances.
Soccer is the most played outdoor club sport in Australia, and ranked in the top ten for television audience as of 2015. The national governing body of the sport is Football Australia (FA), which until 2019, organised the A-League Men, A-League Women, and still organises the Australia Cup, as well as the men's and women's national teams. The FA comprises nine state and territory member federations, which oversee the sport within their respective region.
Melissa Anne Barbieri is an Australian international soccer goalkeeper who plays for Melbourne City in the A-League Women. She earned over 86 caps with the Australia women's national soccer team and competed at four FIFA Women's World Cup tournaments. Barbieri retired from international football in 2015.
Alicia Ann "Eesh" Ferguson is an Australian soccer player who represented the Australia women's national soccer team at the 1999 and 2007 editions of the FIFA Women's World Cup. Ferguson debuted for Australia at the age of 15 years during the Matildas' European tour in August 1997. Initially she played as a forward and scored four times in Australia's 1998 OFC Women's Championship victory. After a period of injury she subsequently became one of Australia's most solid midfielders. At club level Ferguson enjoyed success with Queensland Sting in the Women's National Soccer League and Brisbane Roar in the W-League. In 2012–13 she played for Millwall Lionesses of the English FA Women's Premier League.
Lydia Grace Yilkari Williams is an Australian professional soccer player who plays as a goalkeeper for A-League Women club Melbourne Victory and the Australia national team.
Kyah Pam Simon is an Australian professional soccer player who plays as a striker for Central Coast Mariners of the A-League Women. In 2011, Simon became the first Indigenous Australian player to score a goal in a FIFA Women's World Cup.
Elise Kellond-Knight is an Australian international football player, who plays for Melbourne Victory in the A-League Women and the Australian national team. Kellond-Knight is a left footed set piece specialist.
Clare Elizabeth Polkinghorne is an Australian professional soccer player who plays as a defender for Swedish Damallsvenskan club Kristianstads DFF and the Australia national team. She became Australia's most capped player in February 2023.
Laura Colleen Gloria Brock is an Australian soccer player who plays for EA Guingamp in the Division 1 Féminine. She made her debut for the national team in 2010.
Caitlin Jade Foord is an Australian professional football player who plays as a forward for FA Women's Super League club Arsenal and the Australia national team. She became the youngest Australian to play at a World Cup in 2011 at the age of 16.
Stephanie-Elise Catley is an Australian professional soccer player who plays as a defender for Arsenal and the Australia national team. She can play in many positions in defence, such as left-back, centre-back or sweeper.
Katrina-Lee Gorry is an Australian professional football player who plays as a midfielder for West Ham United in the Women's Super League and for the Australia national team. Gorry was the 2014 Asia's Footballer of the Year. In October 2023, she was nominated for 'Hässleholmer of the Year' in the Swedish municipality of Hässleholm where she lived and played, following her World Cup performance.
Tameka Yallop is an Australian professional soccer midfielder who plays for Brisbane Roar in the Australian A-League Women. She previously played for the Boston Breakers in the WPSL Elite, German Frauen-Bundesliga club 1. FFC Frankfurt, Japanese Nadeshiko League club Iga F.C. Kunoichi, Swedish Damallsvenskan club Mallbackens, Brisbane Roar in the Australian W-League, West Ham United in the FA Women's Super League, Brann in the Norwegian Toppserien, and has been a member of the Australian national team since 2007.
Kim Marie Carroll is a retired Australian soccer player who played in the A-League Women for Perth Glory and for Brisbane Roar, as well as playing for Fortuna Hjørring in the Danish Women's League. She has also played over 50 matches for Australia.
The Australia women's national soccer team is overseen by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia, which is currently a member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the regional ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) since leaving the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) in 2006. The team's official nickname is "the Matildas" ; they were known as the "Female Socceroos" before 1995.
Alanna Stephanie Kennedy is an Australian professional soccer player who plays as a defender for Women's Super League club Manchester City and the Australia national team. Kennedy is recognised as being a versatile, technical player and is a right-footed free kick specialist. Known on the international level as a centre back, Kennedy also plays in the midfielder position.
Hayley Emma Raso is an Australian professional soccer player who plays as a winger for Liga F club Real Madrid and the Australia women's national team.
Mackenzie Elizabeth Arnold is an Australian professional soccer player. She plays as a goalkeeper for Women's Super League club West Ham United, where she is team captain, and for the Australia national team. She previously played for Arna-Bjørnar in Norway's Toppserien as well as Brisbane Roar, Perth Glory, Western Sydney Wanderers, and Canberra United in Australia's W-League.
Cortnee Brooke Vine is an Australian professional footballer who plays as a winger for A-League Women side Sydney FC and the Australia women’s national team. She can also play as a full-back.
Teagan Jade Micah is an Australian professional soccer player who plays as a goalkeeper for Women's Super League club Liverpool and the Australia national team.
↑ "Football Equipment and History". Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 19 May 2011. Also in 1996, women's football was introduced into the Olympic programme. Three times, the US team has been on the highest step of the podium - in 1996, in 2004 in Athens and in 2008 in Beijing. But this team was beaten by the Norwegians in the final of the 2000 Games in Sydney.
Evening Post (19 December 1922). "Women in Print". Evening Post. Vol.CC, no.147. New Zealand: National Library of New Zealand. p.7. Retrieved 28 April 2011.
Stell, Marion K. (1991). Half the Race, A history of Australian women in sport. North Ryde, Australia: HarperCollins. ISBN0-207-16971-3.
Stell, Marion (2004). Soccer. Girls in Sport. ABC Books. ISBN0-7333-1426-0.
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