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Opinion
In just over two weeks Australia and New Zealand will host the biggest sporting event to hit these shores in years, and there are a few lessons we can learn from the way women’s football is supported.
The Matildas’ opening clash with the Republic of Ireland at Stadium Australia on July 20 is officially a sell-out, with more than 80,000 fans set to descend upon Homebush for Australia’s first game of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
That comes on the back of Australia’s final friendly with France on July 14 in Melbourne, which looks certain to break the current women’s football attendance record, given more than 40,000 tickets have already been sold for the clash at Docklands.
Officials are less confident that every game in New Zealand will be well-attended, with the Football Ferns currently in the midst of a 10-game losing streak, while the nation has been smashed by months of bad weather.
Even so, officials still expect the ‘sold-out’ sign to go up when the tournament officially kicks off on July 20 as New Zealand hosts Norway at Eden Park in Auckland – a couple of hours before the Matildas get their own campaign under way.
There’s no doubt the FIFA Women’s World Cup is big business, and the explosion in popularity of women’s sport in recent years means this looks set to be the biggest edition of the tournament yet.
Sam Kerr of the Matildas celebrates with teammates (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
But for all the feel-good factor around the Matildas heading into the tournament – and it’ll be interesting to see how the rarely convincing Tony Gustavsson handles the pressure of Australian expectations – there’s no doubt we’re also about to be subjected to some of the more grating elements of Aussie sporting culture.
You see less of the rank sexism in the comments sections on social media these days than you used to, but it’s always there lurking beneath the surface – ready to be unleashed the second someone compares Sam Kerr’s international goal-scoring record to Tim Cahill’s, or whenever a player makes an unfortunate mistake.
It’s up there with the tedious brigade of Aussie sports fans who simply must use every single news article about football to remind everyone in the comments of their undying love for the NRL and/or AFL.
Aussie rules fans are usually the worst for it – and seem convinced that all it takes to convert rusted-on football fans into card-carrying AFL club members are to hector them at every opportunity – and given the way the league carries itself, you can’t be too surprised.
The AFL will never miss an opportunity to try and sabotage football – even if it’s an unpopular move with their own fans and players – choosing last year to schedule an AFLW Finals game at the same time as a Matildas friendly at AAMI Park, thereby disadvantaging many supporters who follow both sports.
And one prominent Australian football personality messaged me during the week to point out what a coincidence it was to see Bruce McAvaney named in the AFL Hall of Fame less than a month before he’s due to helm Channel Seven’s Women’s World Cup broadcasts.
There’s no doubt McAvaney is one of Australia’s most accomplished commentators, but as Seven said themselves, he’s “synonymous with the AFL Grand Final and Melbourne Cup”.
Yet if there’s one thing we can take heart from in the build-up to what promises to be a memorable tournament, it’s surely the fact that such a sizeable and robust support has built up organically around the Matildas.
With Gustavsson set to name his final 23-player squad later this afternoon, there’s a palpable sense of excitement building ahead of the month-long extravaganza.
You get the sense that mainstream Australia still doesn’t quite understand the magnitude of the event – but that will all change once the football kicks off.
And with the Matildas having transformed into one of the nation’s most popular teams, perhaps the biggest lesson we can take into the build-up of the World Cup is simply to jump on the bandwagon and enjoy the ride.