The Matildas merch sales out beating Socceroos says Nike
Less than 90 minutes until the Matilda's start their campaign for the FIFA Women's World Cup. More than 80,000 people are filling Sydney’s stadium Australia to watch Australia take on Ireland. One of those 80,000 is author Dr Fiona Crawford who's written a book about women's football she says women's football has been slowly gaining in popularity for around 1-hundred years.
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TVTranscript
00:00 So in Australia we know the first ever documented game for women's football was actually played
00:06 in 1921 at the Gabba in Brisbane.
00:09 It was an exhibition match but essentially it took years and years and years for women
00:14 to actually demonstrate that there was a market and an audience for it.
00:17 Ten thousand people turned up to that first game so we know that people were interested
00:20 but the gatekeepers were not happy to throw open the doors to women's football at that
00:24 time.
00:25 Tell us about those early days of the Queensland Ladies Soccer Association, the first professional
00:31 football organisation for women.
00:34 What was the reaction, you talked about the gatekeepers, what was the reaction from the
00:38 sort of men's football world to these organisations starting?
00:43 They definitely saw it as a zero-sum game.
00:45 So instead of saying we could grow the piece of the pie or there's plenty for everyone,
00:50 they saw it as taking money and audience away from the men's game.
00:54 So yeah, they were very resistant to the game.
00:57 At best they kind of ignored women's football and at worst they tried to step in the way
01:00 of it and prevent women playing.
01:02 So we've come a long way since then obviously.
01:08 You know there's obviously hopes that this World Cup, hosted in Australia, where the
01:12 Matildas is maybe a lot of expectation around how they might sort of perform that might
01:17 help boost the sport more generally and boost women's participation in the sport.
01:21 Is there a history of these sorts of high profile events giving a boost to women's football?
01:28 We know in 1999 the US hosted it and I think this is probably, it's got the same vibe as
01:34 1999.
01:35 It was suddenly like the nation woke up to women's football and people were just 100%
01:40 on board.
01:41 And I know coming into Sydney today, I don't think you could be in Sydney and not know
01:44 that the Women's World Cup was kicking off.
01:46 There's a real energy behind it and yes, absolutely.
01:50 We've now finally got all the other pieces in place.
01:52 So you've got people who are funding the game, you're able to buy jerseys, which you never
01:57 used to be able to do.
01:59 You can actually see the games being played.
02:00 So yeah, it's going to kick it to a whole other level.
02:03 As we're talking we're seeing some live pictures from the stadium in Sydney where fans are
02:06 now really starting to turn up in significant numbers.
02:10 Football fans are obviously excited, that's a sellout crowd tonight.
02:14 Do you think the rest of the country, the sort of non-football obsessed, are they catching
02:18 World Cup fever?
02:19 They are.
02:20 Look, I've never had so many people I want to talk to about women's football.
02:23 For many, many years the players, and I moved through the world pretty anonymously, the
02:28 people who were fans were the hardcore fans.
02:30 Suddenly everyone's coming out of the woodwork and they not only know the players' name but
02:34 they actually know some of the stories behind the players.
02:36 And yeah, they're on board with it and they know who's playing, they know where the Matildas
02:41 are about to kick off.
02:42 So yeah, everyone's on board.
02:44 How much does it help to have a name like Sam Kerr, a phenomenal player that's becoming
02:51 a household name?
02:52 How much does that do for the sport as a whole?
02:56 Yeah, look, every win that she has is a win for women's football.
02:59 She has really kicked it to another level.
03:01 I don't think any of us could predict just how many awards she'd win.
03:04 I don't think any of us saw her getting her own Lego figurine.
03:08 But every time she achieves something like that it shows the rest of the world what's
03:13 possible and it means that other players might be able to follow in her footsteps.
03:17 We should let you get to the game at some point pretty soon, but before we do, you're
03:22 obviously following the World Cup closely.
03:24 How do you rate the chances of the Matildas both tonight and through the tournament?
03:30 Yeah, look, they're up for it.
03:32 They're really up for it.
03:33 They got a pep talk from Cathy Freeman the other night, so I don't think you can go wrong
03:36 with that.
03:37 If anyone understands the immense pressure that the Matildas are under as the home team,
03:41 it's her.
03:42 Yeah, look, anything can happen in a World Cup, but they're a top 10 team and they're
03:46 playing in top leagues around the world and they're ready for it.
03:48 I've heard that Cathy Freeman comparison made a few times this week.
03:54 Cathy Freeman obviously such a star from the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
03:59 Matildas are now kicking off in Sydney.
04:02 I don't know if that's a comparison.
04:03 I don't know if that's putting more pressure on the team than perhaps they would like,
04:07 but it seems like a worthy one.
04:09 It is and they've kind of come full circle.
04:11 That race actually inspired many of the players to become elite footballers.
04:16 It inspired both Lydia Williams and Kaya Simon, who are the First Nations players in the team,
04:20 but also the rest of the team like Sam Kerr.
04:22 So I think it was a full circle moment to have their idol then come and give them a
04:25 bit of a pep talk.
04:26 And yeah, I think only good things can come from it.
04:29 All right.
04:30 We'll let you go in just a second.
04:34 I just wanted to ask you one last question, which was what do you hope comes out of this
04:38 event for the future?
04:40 You know, what are you hoping the legacy of this World Cup on home soil could be?
04:45 Yeah, anyone who's been in and around women's football are definitely looking at it as more
04:49 than a four week party.
04:50 There's been so little funding, so little attention.
04:53 It's been so hard to prove that there's an audience and a market for this.
04:56 So the fact that the jerseys have outsold, as you said, the soccer roos even before the
05:00 tournaments kicked off is really demonstrating to the people, to the decision makers that
05:05 this is something they should get behind and really, really start to throw some funding
05:08 towards.
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