Sam Kerr knows the power of a sporting moment in shaping the horizon of a generation.
The Matildas captain — along with many of her team-mates — can still recall watching Cathy Freeman win the 400m gold medal at the Sydney Olympic Games: A moment that united the nation and inspired countless young girls, including herself, to pursue their dreams.
In 100 days’ time, the Matildas want to do the same: to create their own “Cathy Freeman” moment when they host the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
“That’s the legacy we want to leave: that we inspire the nation, we move the nation to believe in women’s football, [to] believe in the Matildas,” Kerr told media last week ahead of Australia’s friendly match against Scotland.
“We already have the highest participation rate in the country, so it’s about getting the people higher-up to believe in the sport.
“You see the funding that AFL, rugby, all those sports get before women’s football. I think it’s about getting the money into football to allow girls to play, to allow girls to have the opportunities to get to where they want to be.
“With the Socceroos’ success at the World Cup, we saw the funding highlighted. So, we have the participation, we have the love for the game, but the lasting legacy will, hopefully, be that we get the funding that the sport deserves.”
Finally, the people higher-up are starting to listen.
Already, the federal government has invested tens of millions of dollars into Football Australia’s “Legacy ’23” plan, which aims to funnel funding into pillars such as women in leadership, governance, media and high-performance programs.
However, 79 per cent of government funding received so far has been attributed to the development of elite and tournament infrastructure, with far less going towards where the game needs it most: grassroots and community facilities and programs.
Unlike competing codes — such as Aussie rules and rugby league — football has historically struggled to secure significant and ongoing investment at government level, with its fractured structure: where self-interested state federations largely run and advocate for themselves, creating confusion and tension when appealing for greater investment from above.
That — according to federal sports minister Anika Wells — is what the game needs to address.
She says it needs to unite and agree upon a shared vision before approaching governments for funding that addresses chronic issues such as exorbitant participation fees, widespread volunteerism and a lack of female-friendly change rooms.
“This is a genuine discussion that I want us to have, nationally,” Ms Wells told ABC Sport.
“I have been coming at this from a suburban mum who’s looking at paying three sets of season fees [that are] $300, $400, $500 bucks a season, plus cleats, plus uniforms, plus plus plus.
“So what is soccer doing about that? I think the difficulty is [that] each sport has its own federated nature, and what I’ve said to both Football Australia and the individual state federations when I met with them all together, is it would be really great for them to land on a unified purpose and proposal.
“At the moment, my experience — as a new, incoming sports minister — has been [that] everybody comes in with their individual pitch, even if it directly clashes with the individual pitch of the next state over, or with the code that shares the stadium, and they just leave it for us to sort out.
“I would have thought that sport would want to work strategically. And that’s why I was heartened by Kieran Perkins bringing everybody together for the Sport Australia High Performance Strategy. It was the first time in ages that sports came together and settled for us, as the new government, what they wanted in that space.
“I think there is opportunity for us to have a similar discussion and approach to community sport and participation in the same way we give that focus to high-performance sport.”
It’s a fitting request, given Tuesday marks 100 days to go before the World Cup kicks off, with FIFA unveiling the tournament’s official chant, titled “Unity Beat”, which aims to get fans in stadiums to sing and clap in unison to create atmosphere before and during games.
With 650,000 tickets already sold — alongside 800,000 more that are on sale from today — it’s expected to be the most-watched women’s sport event in history, with more than 2 billion people expected to tune in from around the world.
The unprecedented influx of women and girls to the sport that will occur as a result of the Matildas’ own “Cathy Freeman” moment means that football below the elite level must be ready to capitalise on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and to ensure Kerr’s words do not simply fade into history but, rather, create tangible and long-lasting change.
“I think there has to be a national discussion about what should federal governments fund, what should state governments fund, what should clubs fund, and what should families fund,” Ms Wells said.
“Do people want the federal government to invest in local community sporting infrastructure? Or do they want us to give money to sports directly for them to work it out?
“Or do they want us to give money to families or households, almost like a voucher system that currently operates in some state governments, which helps discount the actual cost of playing during a cost-of-living crisis?
“I asked for that in Qatar, but I haven’t really experienced people coming forward in response to that yet. It has, so far, taken more the form of pre-budget bids, which makes it a question of winners and losers. But I’m very open to people giving their thoughts on what the federal government should be doing.
“We’re all aligned that no one wants to waste this opportunity.”
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