The Albanese government will promise $200m to improve women’s sporting facilities and equipment after the Matildas’ historic Women’s World Cup run sparked an unprecedented outpouring of support for women’s football.
As the Matildas prepare for their third-place playoff against Sweden in Brisbane on Saturday, the government will declare the national team had “changed sport forever”, while unveiling a new funding package and flagging moves to make more major events available on free-to-air television.
After Australia’s semi-final defeat by England on Wednesday, captain Sam Kerr said she hoped the wildly successful Women’s World Cup was “the start of something new”, while Matildas coach, Tony Gustavsson, has also called for increased funding.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, will announce a new grants program, called Play Our Way, with money available for all sports. The government expects soccer will need a significant amount, given clubs have seen a “mind-boggling increase in interest” in the wake of the World Cup.
The grant guidelines have not been completed, but the government said the money would go to “promote equal access, build more suitable facilities, and support grassroots initiatives to get women and girls to engage, stay, and participate in sport throughout their lives”.
“The Matildas have given us a moment of national inspiration; this is about seizing that opportunity for the next generation, investing in community sporting facilities for women and girls around Australia,” Albanese said.
“We want women and girls everywhere in Australia to have the facilities and the support to choose a sport they love.”
The government will also release a paper on options to reform anti-siphoning laws to make more major events available on free-to-air television. The Matildas’ semi-final against England was the most-watched show since the existing rating system was established.
Optus Sport bought the rights to all games in the World Cup, while Channel Seven broadcast just 15 matches, including Matildas games and the finals.
On Friday afternoon, Gustavsson called for more investment in football so Australia could “keep up with the bigger nations”.
“The passion for the sport is there, the players are there. It’s giving them a fair chance … to make sure there’s investment in grassroots football so more can play and stay in the game for longer. Making sure there’s pathways for every single player. Make sure the facilities are there to play. It comes down to investment,” he said.
After Wednesday’s game, Kerr said: “We need funding in our development. We need funding in our grassroots. We need funding everywhere.”
According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, about 1.2 million Australians aged 15 and over play the sport – about twice as many as play Australian Rules Football, netball or cricket.
Although it is the most-played sport in Australia, critics have for a long time said it is underfunded compared with other sports.
This financial year, the Australian Sports Commission will spend about $5.3m on football, which includes money to prepare for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. There are other sources of money, such as from the Australian Institute of Sport, grant schemes, free sporting schools programs, commercial revenue streams and money from player registration fees.
Sports administrator and Women Onside chair, Kerry Harris, said the sporting landscape had changed, therefore the funding model needed to be re-examined. “We know football is the biggest participation sport in Australia. Is it based on that? Is that a useful metric? It’s only one metric,” she said.
“Everyone’s talking about funding for infrastructure, which is fine in itself, but we need to look beyond female-friendly toilets and change rooms to a holistic approach. We need women in decision-making positions around those.
“Do they have lights in the car park so it’s safe when they leave training? Is there fair and open access to women and girls at those facilities? Do they get prime-time access to training and lights or are they given 9pm on a Friday night?”
Women Onside wants government funding only given where fair and equal access to women and having women in decision-making roles is guaranteed.
The sports minister, Anika Wells, said the Matildas had “changed sport forever” and that the Play Our Way program would “help the next generation of female athletes enjoy safer sporting facilities”.
“Too often women and girls are changing in men’s bathrooms, wearing hand-me-down boys’ uniforms, playing with men’s equipment on poor fields that boys’ teams wouldn’t train on,” she said.
States and territories have also pledged more money for football and women’s sport.
Queensland committed $10m in its state budget for better access for women to community sports clubs, NSW has invested $10m for football “at all levels” as a “legacy” of hosting World Cup games, and South Australia has promised $28m to female sporting facilities, with $10m quarantined for football and matched by $10m from Football SA. The Victorian government has put $42m into a football centre of excellence. The ACT has boosted funding for Canberra United’s A-League women’s team and Tasmania has been giving grants to local clubs to improve their facilities for women.
The Coalition has pledged $250m for community sport infrastructure grants if it wins power.
The government will also announce on Saturday that it will modernise the anti-siphoning scheme to prevent national and significant events “slipping behind paywalls”.
The scheme stops pay television broadcasters from buying the rights to listed events unless free-to-air broadcasters have already bought the rights. A government review found it needed to incorporate online services, and that the composition of the list needed to be reconsidered with respect to women’s sports and para-sports.
