In sport, and in life timing can be everything.
Today the FIFA Women’s World Cup will start, a tournament hosted for the first time in Australia and New Zealand. It is likely to be a huge event for both countries and a chance to really showcase the sport.
As covered previously the messaging from the Australian camp and media has been more than a little upbeat. (Managing Expectations) It has been fandom from some in the media who have been caught up in the whole excitement of the event and failed to stick to facts. The Matildas themselves have been clearly caught up in the moment and understandably so, this is a huge moment in their lives and one that they will never forget. However some of the comments made have been alarming. There is a thin line between being confident and coming across as arrogant, and a team that traditionally has always been extremely humble is now making some uncomfortable with their words.
“This is the best Matildas team ever” is one that rubbed some up the wrong way. When you are a player it doesn’t pay to say such things, let others say that on your behalf. As a player to make such a comment, even if you believe it is disrespecting those who have gone before.
Every team that plays at a World Cup finals should believe that they have the ability to win the World Cup. They are after all the best 32 teams in the world at this point in time. All will need to play at their best, avoid injuries, have the odd decision go their way and also have an element of luck to lift the trophy in a month’s time. Yet while all have the chance, few will ever talk about winning out of respect for their opponents, and an understanding of what it takes to be crowned World Champion. Sadly some have already been claiming that Australia is going to win on home soil, they have even been talking about what will happen when they do!
Maybe this confidence comes from Ange Postecoglou’s Socceroos winning the Asian Cup when Australia hosted it back in 2015; but the World Cup is a very different proposition.
There are some who have openly stated that these shows of bravado have put a target on the back of the Matildas. That they have made them become the team everyone wants to beat. That may be so, and it may well bring out the best in these players. However, there will already be far more pressure than they probably realise when they walk out tonight to play their first game, and one wonders if it was wise to add more pressure. This will be unlike anything any of them will have experienced before. There is now an expectation that they will deliver, that they will progress to the final, so it will be interesting to see how fans inside the stadia react if the team goes behind, or loses. Australian sporting fans are not renowned for getting behind their team when they are down, and with undoubtedly many of those who have bought tickets not being regular football fans one wonders if that support when they need it will be there.
With the pressure building as the opening game approaches one wonders what possessed the team to come out with the video put together by the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) three days before the start of the tournament, at a time when their focus should be solely on the tournament itself.
Sure the video was no doubt recorded earlier than it was released, but one cannot help feeling that all who took part have been played by the PFA, and used as pawns by an organisation with an agenda. One seeking the limelight at a time when football should be centre stage.
While some of the content in the video has validity, there is a naivety to some of the messaging, and one feels that the PFA have played on that naivety. Football, fans are constantly told is now a business. Therefore if it is a business it has to be commercially viable. A responsible business can only pay staff based on the income that it earns after it has covered all costs. While there are few who would not not say that they would love to see women earn the same as men, the commercial reality is that at this stage in its evolution the Women’s game does not generate the same revenue to be able to offer players the same pay. This was evident with FIFAs miscalculation in relation to the price to be paid for the TV Rights of the tournament.
Media exposure has a great deal to do with helping boost the commercial viability of a sport. While we have seen so many Australian media outlets jump on the World Cup bandwagon and do stories on the team, the event, and the game, how many will be giving the sport, let alone the women’s game similar or even half as much coverage once the World Cup is done and dusted?
In the sporting world it is not about equality, it is about equity. (Equality or Equity, Which is Going to Carry Sport Forward?) The ability to offer everyone an equal opportunity. That is the key component for every sport moving forward.
The video put out by the team and the PFA finished with the players saying “this is our legacv.” A word that again is being bandied around by all and sundry, but one that is regrettably fast losing any meaning.
As one individual who is not a regular follower of football stated following the release of that video, “I was going to follow the Matildas in the World Cup but that video finished it for me. All it talked about was entitlement. This was a prime example of a generation who feel entitled to have everything.” Hearing those words was very sad, but there were many who have shared similar sentiments.
Captain Sam Kerr states in the video that the Matildas that went before “showed us how to fight for recognition, validation and respect.” However, one wonders how many of those players she refers to would have agreed to the script of this video or the timing of it being released. Those former players one feels were in the main focussed on the football and representing the nation on the biggest stage of all, doing their talking on the pitch and pushing for improvements based on results.
The messaging in the video is about jobs in football for women, the opportunity for other nations to have Collective Bargaining Agreements, and for the A-League Women’s League to become full time, so that “they don’t have to work part time jobs like we had to.”
On the surface all great things to fight for, but the commercial reality is the game has to generate the finances to be able to deliver much of this. If it doesn’t, then paying money the sport doesn’t have will have disastrous consequences.
The topics covered are only those the PFA is involved in. The only people that will benefit are those who make it to the elite level. Is that really a Legacy for the game?
Where is the talk of putting strong foundations in place to secure the future of the game for women and girls for years to come. Foundations that ensure that the words ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusivity’ are no longer used to just tick a box and satisfy a funding requirement. Football in the past 20 years is far from inclusive. The rising costs for children to play the game has made it more elitist than it has ever been. Far too many are excluded from playing because economically they cannot afford for their children to play.
Sport, and in particular football is the ideal way to help migrants settle into a new country, to make friends and become part of a team. Football is its own universal language. Yet how many of these migrants when they come to Australia can afford to play football? They are excluded due to the costs, and left to organise their own games. Their own communities working hard to use sport to raise self esteem and show them how to fit into their new environment; it is these communities in the main doing this work and not the Governing body.
How much time or money is spent educating the established clubs as to the plight of some of these people in order to make them more welcoming? How many club coaches realise that many may have only ever played football in a refugee camp, that they have not had the benefit of coaches from the age of six, and when it comes to playing 4-4-2 or 3-5-2 they have no comprehension, because they have never had it explained to them?
To have the money from this world cup invested in these areas, to subsidise those on low incomes to be able to afford to play, that is a true legacy. That is ensuring the future of the game. However, before that we need strong foundations, something the sport still lacks despite the rebirth twenty years ago.
The current set-up is seeing the talent pool dwindle as many are excluded from playing. There are very few scouts going searching for talent. Today’s coaches are lazy and hold trials hoping that the talent will walk through the door, rather than going to find it. Without this depth the game suffers. We are seeing this at NPL level and some would say also at A-League level. Ultimately that will impact the Matildas and Socceroos. If their standard drops no matter what the PFA arrange through a Collective Bargaining Agreement, it will become unsustainable very quickly.
Had the video been asking for the powers that be and the politicians to right this situation and ensure that football once again becomes a game for all to play, then the players may well have won a little more respect. Had it said that we need proper structures to be put in place, and accountability when it comes to Government funding, to ensure that that money is spent where it should be, and not on staff wages, then more people would have been applauding the players stance.
Will this world cup be a game changer? Not if all the money goes into the elite side of the game. There are thousands of others who play the game in Australia and thousands more who would like to play. They deserve the biggest slice of the pie, as they are the future, they are the ones sustaining it.
This video clip was a very sad thing to view. It did smack of an air of entitlement, but most important of all it showed the naivety of the players, and how they had been used by the PFA who appeared to be seeking a share of the spotlight, and appeared to be fighting for recognition at a time when they should be quietly working in the background and not seeking the limelight. It is almost as if there is an underlying issue of resentment about something within the PFA to have put this together and then released it at such a time.
There is no doubt the timing of the release of the video was foolish, and regrettably it has turned some people off supporting the Matildas at a time when one feels they are going to need all the support they can get. Hopefully actions speak louder than words and a statement is made on the pitch, the only place it really matters.
