There is nothing wrong with promoting an event. There is also nothing wrong with being caught up in the emotion of an event, but the way the hosting of the FIFA Women’s World Cup is being used by some is beginning to become a little nauseating.
Australia has hosted many a major sporting event, Rugby World Cups, Cricket World Cups, even the Olympic games but through all of those rarely has there been so much chest thumping and propaganda.
It would appear that we have moved on from hyping up the players and the team. What we have witnessed has been very different to fans believing in the team. It is natural to have high hopes for the Matildas, but the job of the media is to report facts and give a balanced view. Regrettably some have forgotten that is their role.
Now it would appear it is time to pump up the head honchos at Football Australia, in particular CEO James Johnson. There can be no doubt Johnson came into the CEO role at the then FFA at a bad time. He took over during the Covid Pandemic, and at a time when the FFA had lost some key sponsors in NAB and Hyundai. Not only that, Fox Sports had opted to use a clause in their agreement to withdraw from being the partnering broadcaster for the national teams and the A-League.
From what reports have been written this week the finances at Football Australia were ‘dire.’ Just how poor they were has not been revealed. The question that should be asked is why were they so dire and what has been done to ensure the sport doesn’t end up in the same predicament again?
Johnson is being credited as having won the 2023 Women’s World Cup hosting rights for Australia. However, if one looks at the timeline related to this the story doesn’t quite ring true.
FIFA invited expressions of interest to potential host nations in March 2019. The deadline to submit the completed bidding registration to FIFA was in April 2019. In August a circular was sent out for current bidding member associations to reconfirm their interest, and any other eligible member associations to express their interest in bidding. In September FIFA dispatched the updated bidding registration and overview documents to all interested parties. By the 13th of December 2019 all the hard work behind the bid had been done and the submission of the bid book, along with the signed hosting agreement and all other hosting documents were presented to FIFA.
It was on the 6th of December 2019 that the FFA – as it was then – announced that James Johnson was to be the new CEO, and he commenced work in his new role in the January of 2020. He was in the role just in time to host the venue inspections from the member associations in the January and February.
Many have said this was where he did manage to have an influence, following his three years with the Asian Football Confederation and five years at FIFA. However, it has to be said that all of the ground work and documentation for FIFA had been completed before he had started work as CEO. So to give him the credit is gilding the lily.
In addition to ease the pathway for Australia Japan withdrew its application to host to try and help Australia, after all Japan had already hosted the tournament, and had to suffer the postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games. Brazil did the same to try and assist Colombia’s bid. So it became a two horse race, one that Australia and New Zealand won.
One article claimed possibly coincidentally, that “over the past three years Australians have fallen in love with the Matildas.” Where has the writer of this article been prior to James Johnson’s appointment? The Matildas were well and truly established as one of Australia’s best loved teams before he was appointed. In fact since he became CEO the Matildas World Rankings have actually dropped.
Ask any football fan and they will tell you that it was during the Alen Stajcic era that the Matildas were at their peak. That was a time when after Tom Sermanni had led the team into the top ten teams into the world Stajcic consolidated that position, and even took the team to number four in the World rankings. Only after his controversial sacking has the team slipped down the world, rankings and heading into the World Cup sits in tenth.
There is no doubt that Football Australia and James Johnson have hitched their wagon to the Matildas. Some are asking at what cost?
If ever sports fans were in any doubt that top flight sport is now all about big business, rather than the actual game look not further. It should come as no surprise when one looks back at Tim Cahill’s selection for the 2018 FIFA Men’s World Cup when his career was effectively over. The coach allegedly did not want him in the squad, but again allegedly a deal was was done with Caltex that was linked to Cahill, and the FA needed the money.
At every turn the FFA are looking to cash in on the Matildas brand. While that is totally understandable it is also extremely risky.
Football has witnessed similar gambles in the past. Soccer Australia would plough everything into one game to qualify for the World Cup. They failed. John O’Neill the first CEO of the Football Federation of Australia came across to the sport from Rugby Union. O’Neill had been the CEO of what is today Rugby Australia when in 2003 Australia hosted their World Cup. It was reported that he left the sport with $30 million in the bank from that event. He resigned with a year left on his contract and a week later was unveiled at what is now Football Australia.
There are some in Rugby who have said that O’Neill got out while he was ahead, only those really close to the sport can be the true judges.
At football it was vital that Australia qualified for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. They did. O’Neill rode the wave again. However, the cost was huge. Bonuses paid to the coach, Guus Hiddink and to the players ate up all of the money the team had earned the game by finally qualifying for the World Cup Finals. Soon after the end of the World Cup O’Neill announced he was not going to seek having his contract renewed and left football to return to rugby.
There are some who will tell you that O’Neill was a brilliant sports administrator, others have a very different opinion. One has to wonder whether the A-League would have been stronger had he listened to the advice given in relation to the league’s composition in year one.
What is it they say in business? Perception is everything.
One article wrote “Johnson says acquiring the World Cup has allowed Football Australia to inject about $300 million into local women’s football through a program called Legacy, which aims to improve facilities participation and gender parity.”
It implies that Football Australia and Johnson have this money and are investing it in this area. However, when one looks closer one discovers that the FA’s own website admits that this is in fact “Federal and State funding secured across Stadium Infrastructure, High Performance & Participation programs and Community Facilities.” In other words much of this money has come from Federal and State Governments to upgrade the stadia across the country for World Cup games and training facilities for the visiting teams. That money will have been paid by the governments to the relevant parties rather than the FA paying them. No doubt in order to justify the spend Football has had to show Federal and State Government that it has programs that will see this investment utilised long after the World Cup is over. The crucial thing to remember is the State and Federal Government’s had already committed to the World Cup bid before Johnson was appointed the CEO, so the most of the money being talked about was already committed and allocated.
Rumours have already started to circulate that despite in August 2022 having his contract extended until the end of 2024, Johnson too is looking to move to pastures new following the World Cup. He will have left money in the coffers of the FA, possibly more than they will ever have had before. Hopefully if he is leaving before he does he will have put in place a plan that sees that money filter down to grass roots. For if the cost of playing football in Australia is not reduced soon who knows the damage it will have on its long term future.
What would have been nice to see with Australia hosting the biggest Women’s football event is more recognition given to those who have been a part of the Matildas in the past. Those who have helped build the brand to what it is today. Those who sold Lamingtons to pay to attend tournaments, and who can forget the players who posed naked for a calendar in 1999 to raise awareness of the team, and raise funds. By involving these past players you are celebrating the history of the women’s game and how it has evolved to be where it is today. Are these past players being recognised in the coming weeks and being hosted at games? I expect some are but could more have been involved? How you respect your history and treat those who have contributed in the past is often the best way to judge an organisation and its long term motives.
If the current Matildas do manage to buck history and the odds Johnson’s employment stock will rise even more.
He has been quoted as saying that “the Matildas program is now world class and they will be prepared as possible to kick off.”
Yet as a former player he must have the some concerns now that the final squad has been announced. He will know having played in a FIFA U17 Junior World Championship that it is vital that heading into a tournament of such magnitude everyone is in peak condition. World Cups are rarely won purely on reputation.
You can possibly afford to take one player who is almost back to peak fitness into the tournament in the hope that by the time it is underway they are back to at least 95% of their ability.
Two months out from the World Cup the Matildas had 11 experienced players under injury clouds. The word was that the Women’s game in Australia now ‘had depth,’ there was no need to worry because they ‘had cover.’. When the squad was announced this week eight of those 11 players were named. Cynics have questioned whether some were tied to sponsorship deals as the FA looks to make every post a winner; remember Cahill’s selection.
Let us hope that all are fully fit and ready to play, as if they are not, and break down it sends a very negative message to those who missed out on selection who were fully fit. One has to ask why a coach would make such a call if players were not fully fit? As ultimately if they are not, it is going to hurt the coach’s reputation considerably.
The sooner the tournament starts and the football becomes the sole focus the better, as hopefully the spin and posturing will then become secondary. Only once it is over can people really judge whether it has been a success, and who deserves credit.
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