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The Queensland Government has announced that an extra $37 million of funding is set to be spent on women’s and girls facilities as part of the World Cup legacy project – but football fans have been blowing up, as the bulk of the cash is set to go to other sports.
Among the major beneficiaries of football’s World Cup will be $15m to Ballymore Stadium – home of the Wallaroos and Queensland Reds in rugby union – and $18m for a dedicated stadium for women’s AFL.
Queensland will kick in $2m more to the Queensland Women’s Football Legacy Fund, which has seen improvements made to facilities that were used as training bases during the World Cup, including Perry Park, home of Brisbane Strikers, who do not have a women’s team.
The disparity in funding between sports has long been a sore point for football fans, particularly north of the Tweed.
Football is by far the largest participation sport in Queensland, but receives $42 per participant from the state government, compared to more than $650 in rugby union and more than $380 in AFL.
Netball, also a sport predominantly played by women, fares little better, and rugby league and cricket, by far the most popular sports in Queensland, are around half of what AFL gets and a third of the funding allotted to rugby union.
Stefan Mauk, the former Brisbane Roar midfielder now based in Japan, took to Twitter to point out the huge gaps in how different sports are allocated money by state governments, especially when it came to creating the Centres of Excellence that turned recreational players into elite players who could go on to represent the Matildas and Socceroos at World Cups.
According to graphics shared by Mauk, all AFL clubs have received funding from state and federal government for CoEs, as have 12 of the 16 Australia-based NRL clubs. The A-League, on the other hand, has only had limited state government funding and no federal support.
“When NRL/AFL get these handouts, they are talking about the growth in their game,” he wrote.
“Yet, on the back of the Women’s World Cup, we have governments giving it to women’s sport, not just ‘football’.
“On the back of the Women’s World Cup and Men’s World Cup, the government should realise how many people like football (if the participation numbers didn’t make them realise this) and when you see the funding over the past 10 years, it doesn’t make for good reading.
“Grassroots funding is most important because this is where participation is highest. But without a quality league for the Australian players to play in, we reduce the chances of being able to compete at an international level. We have just seen what success does to the country!
A further $200m in women’s sport funding has been announced by the Albanese government following the Women’s World Cup, though again, it has not been specified how much of this will be dedicated to women’s football, which has twice as many participants as AFL, netball or cricket.
Both captain Sam Kerr and coach Tony Gustavsson pointed out the infrastructure problems that football faced in Australia in their interviews following the tournament.
“We need funding in our development,” said Kerr. “We need funding in our grassroots. We need funding everywhere.”
Gustavsson pointed out that Australia lagged behind England, who have the St George’s Park set-up for elite talents in Women’s and Men’s football and that Australia needed to ‘keep up’.
“The passion for the sport is there, the players are there,” he said.
“It’s giving them a fair chance to make sure there’s investment in grassroots football so more can play and stay in the game for longer.
“Making sure there’s pathways for every single player. Make sure the facilities are there to play. It comes down to investment.
“I want to be very clear that I want to see investment now, I really do. I want to see investment. And I mean like a real investment that we’re serious about what we’re doing.”
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk also announced that a statue would be built at Suncorp Stadium to honour the epic penalty shootout victory over France, with NSW also adding a mural of the Matildas to Accor Stadium in celebration of their acheivements.
Naturally, many pointed to the expense of such installations, and wondered if it mightn’t be better spent on producing the next generation of Matildas – not to mention that it celebrates a team that, ultimately, came fourth.
“Matildas did well,” wrote Aussie NBA star Andrew Bogut. “Statue? No. A Gold/First Place is a statue and over the top celebration worthy achievement.
“Anything below is good, have a celebration or two, then move on. This goes for all Sports btw. A for effort, N for No statue.”
Nick Kyrgios replied, adding: “Agree. Great effort! Statue for fourth is nuts but they had us all on the edge of our seats! Next time.”