At the end of July, the FIFA Women’s World Cup kicked off with the Australian Matildas taking on Ireland. In the days leading up to the match, there were only hints in Sydney’s central business district that a major international sporting event was about to take place. The media had barely promoted the competition and, as one commentator pointed out described it, there was “barely a hint of excitement in the air.” It was emblematic of the neglect of women’s sport.
Just three weeks later, the Matildas sensationally transformed the Australian sporting landscape with their quarter-final victory on August 12 against France.
Today, on the eve of the Matildas’ semi-final against England on August 16, there is an electricity in the air that can only be generated by an international football tournament. Thanks to the scintillating performances of Mary Fowler, Hayley Raso and Mackenzie Arnold, women’s football moved from the periphery to the center.
Indeed, if the Matildas win, there’s a good chance we’ll all have a day off in their honor. It will be a historic victory for women’s sport and emblematic of the talent of the Matildas, their commitment to solidarity and their open stance against sexism.
Football has never really been an accepted part of the Australian sporting landscape. Historically, it has struggled to compete with Australian rules football and rugby. This was partly due to institutional racism which saw football as a sport reserved for European migrants.
It’s also because football simply doesn’t fit into the ultra-macho tradition of charging at another player at full speed, knocking them down and calling them soft if they don’t get up and give you don’t hit. With a few honorable exceptions, men’s football has not challenged these regressive attitudes, but rather adapted to them.
Robbie Slater – a former player for the Australian men’s team, the Socceroos, and now a Fox Sports pundit – is a good example. In 2022, Matildas star striker Sam Kerr broke Socceroo Tim Cahill’s record for the most goals scored by an Australian player in international competition. Slater wrote an article in the Today’s telegraph arguing that because she is a Matilda and not a Socceroo, Kerr’s achievement is “not equal”, as if a goal in women’s football is literally worth less than a man’s.
Slater’s sexism is not an aberration. Rather, it reflects a misogynistic status quo maintained both locally and at the highest levels of international football.
In the early years of the Matildas, players had to do their own laundry and hand out flyers to attract the public. Indeed, women’s football was so marginalized that by 2015, the team’s contracts – valued around the poverty line, at AU$22,000 – had expired, leaving the players unpaid and without medical insurance. The Matildas went on strike for two months to save their football careers and to demand collective agreements that gave them pay parity with the men’s team, a demand they ultimately won in 2019.
The Matildas have also taken their commitment to solidarity and against sexism to the world stage. In a video Produced by their union, Professional Footballers Australia, the players recount previous battles with FIFA, such as in 2015, when the league tried to force them to play on fake grass pitches.
Addressing her call for solidarity to the 736 footballers participating in the Women’s World Cup, midfielder Tameka Yallop explains that “collective negotiation has allowed us to now ensure the same conditions as the Socceroos”. As she points out, there is “one exception: FIFA will still only offer women a quarter of the amount of prize money as men for the same performance.”
It’s this kind of discriminatory reality that underpins attitudes like Robbie Slater’s. And it’s the Matilda’s commitment to sticking together and speaking out that explains their popularity.
Indeed, August 12 proved that the Mathildas enjoyed overwhelming popular support. Australian audiences filled Federation Square, stadiums and local pubs to watch the match, while millions more watched at home or on their smartphones. With a estimated at 4.17 million viewers across Australia, the quarter-final against France was the most-watched televised event in Australia since Cathy Freeman won the 400 meters at the 2000 Olympics.
The global game is said to unite people across seemingly insurmountable boundaries. The success of the Matildas proved this, with almost everyone cheering them on. Yet when it comes to creating a public holiday to celebrate a Matildas World Cup victory, the class divisions are as clear as day.
Small business owners in particular have gone crazy at the prospect, reminding us that “vacations cost us money“, either because work stops or because employers are required to pay penalties to workers who work on public holidays. Paul Zahra, chief executive of the Australian Retailers Association, complained that Australia already has a number of sporting holidays, and one more would leave businesses out of pocket.
Coalition parties rushed to their side, despite the fact that on Saturday disgraced former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce managed to watch the wrong game. As millions across the country watched the Matildas’ victory against France, Joyce found herself accidentally watching a replay of a friendly match they played in July. Meanwhile, in a bid to shore up his party’s waning popularity with women, Liberal leader Peter Dutton tagged Vacation demand is a “stunt” and “ego trip” that could cost up to $2 billion.
The business argument against a public holiday is beyond hypocritical. Since penalty rates were reduced in 2017, businesses have benefited from significant reductions in their public holiday payroll. And the Matildas have boosted the national economy by at least $7.6 billion, which will go mainly to retail and travel.
Either way, we face a cost of living crisis. Where are these frugal heroes when workers face rising utility bills and groceries, or rising rent and mortgage payments?
In contrast, Labor has taken up the demand for a public holiday – but only with numerous apologies, warnings and appeals to the plight of business owners. For example, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns insisted there be a public holiday and a parade – but not the day after the World Cup because that would be too disruptive. And not if the Matildas lose, because it wouldn’t be worth praising the team’s efforts if they fail.
Other Labor prime ministers have been even more hesitant to commit. The South Australian government has suggested the state not follow New South Wales’ lead in granting a public holiday, but instead increase funding for grassroots women’s sports by $18 million. The Labor premiers of Victoria and Queensland, Daniel Andrews and Annastacia Palaszczuk, took a more cautious approach, saying they did not want to jinx the Matildas. At the risk of sounding cynical, we can’t help but think that they simply don’t want to promise workers a day off.
But fortunately, that’s a moot point. Australia’s strong federal system will ensure that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese – who supported the holiday campaign – whips his state colleagues into shape and gives us this holiday.
This raises a question, however: If it is so easy to circumvent states, why is it refusing to force them to cap rent increases?
If the Matildas win we should introduce a public holiday and increase funding for women’s sport. Any politician or business leader who disagrees is a killjoy and a scoundrel. And more importantly, after mentally celebrating, we should go and take stock of the monumental achievement happening before our eyes.
The success of Matilda is not guaranteed. They are national heroes, and they are heroes who understand that workers must unite against discrimination and exploitation at the hands of their bosses. The Matildas are strikers on and off the field and staunch opponents of sexism. They are the antithesis of the machismo and conservatism that have plagued Australian sport, and with every victory they challenge yet another establishment bias.
Tonight the ‘Tillies face our old rival England. And although it is just one opponent among others, the English team nevertheless enjoys the support of the Australian head of state, King Charles III. Having won the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022, the Lionesses are the only England national team to win a major international trophy since the men’s team won it in 1966.
Led by Manchester City’s Chloe Kelly, they will be hard to beat. Which is why former footballer Craig Foster is absolutely right to point out that a Matildas victory against England will demonstrate the growing need for an Australian republic.
The winner tomorrow will face Spain, whose players went on strike against their coach last year, calling for his resignation. The Royal Spanish Football Federation has backed the coach and the players are now refusing to celebrate with him. This is why, if the Matildas lose, the correct internationalist position for Australian socialists is to support Spain.
