Roar Guru
According to the Australian Sporting Commission’s AusPlay survey, more Australians play the world game than any other sport.
The statistics reflect that football has significantly higher rates of participation than any other club-based sport, a revelation which was welcomed by Football Federation Australia’s Chief Executive David Gallop.
“Football is Australia’s most popular club-based participation sport for adults and children because it is the most inclusive and accessible. Everyone is welcome in football regardless of gender, age, ability or background,” said Gallop.
“Football is also the biggest global sport with the world’s highest profile players and competitions and the planet’s biggest event, the FIFA World Cup.
“The combination of local accessibility and global interest is attracting more and more Australians.”
The survey stated that more than a million men, women, boys and girls are playing football, a statistic which continues to dwarf the numbers achieved by all other sports in Australia.
Golf finished second in the survey, but still more than 400,000 participants behind football.
Perhaps the most surprising statistic of the survey was the nearly 30% of all children who participate in a club-based sport play football.
That’s nearly a quarter of a million more children playing football than any other sport.
Gallop pointed to the growth of the A-League and W-League as a byproduct of Australia’s love of the sport.
The AusPlay survey is a nationwide tool used to gauge the sporting activities of the Australian population. It is the largest of its kind and uses an annual sample size of over 20,000 include over 3,500 children aged 14 and below.
The Australian Sporting Commission conduct the survey and the results are utilised by the Australian sporting industry to better understand participation and develop strategies to increase it.
In 2015, AusPlay became the only sporting data and informs investment, policy and delivery in the National Sporting Organisations as well as participation.
This news comes as a huge boost to football fans who continue to battle with lovers of other codes for supremacy in the national sporting landscape.