Graham Arnold says Football Australia should be prepared to look interstate for a permanent home for the Socceroos if NSW doesn’t come to the table to help address what the government body believes is a clear imbalance in the way the sport is funded – particularly when compared with rugby league.
Football Australia chief executive James Johnson is seeking talks with the newly elected NSW government over not only a dedicated training base in Sydney for the Socceroos, Matildas and other national teams, but better grassroots facilities to cater for a surge in participation.
Graham Arnold is prepared to go interstate if NSW won’t provide the Socceroos and other national teams with a dedicated training base.Credit: Getty
According to figures provided by the federation, there has been a 13 per cent increase in junior boys playing football in NSW on the back of the Socceroos’ record-breaking World Cup campaign, and an overall uptick of seven per cent.
Another similar influx for girls is expected to follow the Women’s World Cup, which ticked past the 100-days-to-go milestone at a launch event on Tuesday at Allianz Stadium.
But FA says football infrastructure standards in NSW are lagging national averages in several key areas – for example, less than a quarter of football facilities in the state are classified as female-friendly – and that a “change in approach” is needed to ensure the sport can keep up with demand.
Only last week, Matildas captain Sam Kerr used her pre-match press conference to call for better funding into women’s football and for “people higher up to believe in the sport”.
Johnson has previously railed against the NRL’s very public demands for upgrades to suburban stadia as “a bit much” when other codes were crying out for more grassroots support, and again pointed to what he sees as a funding discrepancy between the two sports.
“Football is the most popular sport in NSW, with more than five times the number of players than rugby league. Yet, rugby league continues to receive multiples of government facilities funding compared to football,” Johnson said.
“With a change of government, we are calling for a change in approach to facilities in NSW, so that the grassroots football community can have the facilities they need to support their efforts and growing pressures they face to accommodate the surging demand … with more fields, good drainage or a synthetic surface, and lighting.
“In addition, Football Australia urgently seeks dialogue with the NSW Government to establish a national home for football, so that our national teams have a dedicated place to train and connect with the grassroots community.”
Football Australia’s ‘Legacy ’23’ plan has unlocked $291 million in funding thus far from all levels of government, but 79 per cent of it has been spent on tournament infrastructure for the Women’s World Cup, and the balance is not enough to address the needs of the grassroots, said FA’s women’s football head Sarah Walsh.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do, particularly in NSW,” Walsh said.
“We’re very seriously focused on 50-50 [gender] participation, and really unpacking the barriers for us to achieving that … [but] we need a significant amount of funding to be able to be able to fix that.”
A key part of FA’s ‘Legacy ’23’ plan – a training base for the Socceroos and other national teams, similar to St George’s Park in England, Clairefontaine in France or Coverciano in Italy – remains unfunded, much to the frustration of the federation and Arnold, who has been agitating for one since signing a contract extension for the next men’s World Cup cycle. Almost all other national sporting organisations have been provided with a dedicated training and administrative headquarters via government funding.
NSW Premier Chris Minns was at Allianz Stadium on Tuesday to mark the 100-days-to-go milestone for the Women’s World Cup.Credit: Getty
New NSW sports minister Steve Camper – whose seat of Rockdale includes the historic St George Stadium site, which is FA’s preferred location – is believed to be receptive to the discussion, but sources say other states have shown stronger interest in the project.
Arnold is happy to go anywhere to get what he believes football desperately needs in Australia, and said his preliminary talks with federal sports minister Anika Wells have been encouraging.
“It just hurts,” Arnold said.
“When you go to out to Homebush, opposite Accor Stadium, the NSW Rugby League have got a beautiful facility there – but no-one trains on it, no-one uses it. And it’s like, hang on, how can this happen?
“Wherever, whichever government is going to help us, great. It’s about our game. We struggle to have talent ID camps and coaching courses because we don’t have anywhere to do it. And if we do it somewhere, we’ve got to pay for it.
“If we had our own home, we’d be running talent ID camps all the time, you could improve coaching out of sight, and the people who work in the [Football Australia] office feel like they’re working in football – not at Barangaroo, where they’re just looking out at the ferries.
“The Japanese have now got a training facility in Düsseldorf, where they’re going to be closer to their players in Europe, and drag all their junior national teams across to Düsseldorf to play European teams. We don’t even have a home of football in our own country. And yet the other night on TV, you’ve got the NRL banging on that they need more resources for stadiums, for training facilities.”
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