After years of underfunding, football is racing to meet an expected tidal wave of interest surging off the back of next year's Women's World Cup, to be held in Australia and New Zealand.
With the sport's showpiece event taking place on our shores in 2023, football clubs across the country expect interest in women's soccer to reach an all-time high, resulting in a major influx of girls signing up to play.
But after decades of disproportionately low government assistance for the round-ball game compared to rugby league, rugby union and AFL, many clubs are still lacking the basic facilities to accommodate female participants.
There are 26,357 women and girls currently signed up to play, with that number already increasing rapidly.
Laila Ah Mau who, along with her sister Payton plays for Oxley United Football club in south-west Brisbane, says it's her dream to be a famous soccer player.
They started playing football because they thought it looked "interesting" and would give them a chance to run around.
"We were a little nervous to start because there's lots of boys here — we were worried we'd be in a team with lots of boys instead of girls," Laila says.
When asked who their favourite player is, Payton and Laila respond in unison: "Sam Kerr!"
"She's an inspiration. She never gives up. And my parents always tell me never to give up," Laila said.
President of the 113-year-old Oxley United Football Club, Claire Aziz, says the upcoming World Cup is already having an effect.
"We've already had an increase in numbers across our junior and senior girls this year – more than we've had in the last, probably, 10 years.
"So I'm hoping next year those numbers can double again. There's definitely going to be way more junior girls playing football, I think, with the excitement of the World Cup."
But that growth in the women's game will only exacerbate the strain clubs like Oxley are facing.
"We definitely feel well underfunded," Ms Aziz says.
"We're constantly looking for grants and stuff from the community, different councils, all the way up
"Hopefully with the World Cup coming there's a little bit more money out there to be given to community clubs to help promote the game and get women and girls playing football."
Ms Aziz says Oxley's major issue is change rooms at the clubhouse that have been there since the 1970s.
"We're really looking to get two more change rooms and new rest facilities.
"We've got girls refereeing who have to go into the same change room as male referees.
"We've got only two change rooms here, so if we've got a clash of games between men's teams and women's teams, the women normally don't get a change room. Or we turn up in our gear and get ready to play.
"So our major issue is trying to get a place for everyone to feel comfortable to change.
"Not everyone wants to get undressed out here in the middle of Dunlop Park," she joked.
Ms Aziz says high fees to play football are a deterrent for some people.
"I know AFL and rugby league, their fees are a lot cheaper – it's just what it is.
"But it would be amazing if we could get support to bring those fees down."
Girls' team disbanded in Logan due to lack of facilities
Logan Roos Football Club in Woodridge, south of Brisbane, has more than 30 nationalities making up its playing ranks.
But not enough funding means once again the girls miss out.
While boys as young as five help set up the nets and traffic cones for training, several girls set off for 12 laps around the oval — highly talented athletes who have enjoyed success at a state level in running, but don't have a football team to join.
The young club's president Abdul Khan said he had 30 girls lined up to play last season, but the team had to be disbanded — the lights don't work in the temporary women's change room supplied by Logan City Council.
Not only that, floodlights damaged during heavy rains took months to be replaced, and when they were they pointed upwards, not down towards the playing fields, meaning it was too dark to play.
"The girls were training at the futsal arena, at the school, and we were ready to have them in the competition," Mr Khan says.
"But unfortunately we didn't have proper facilities for the girls, and the amenities. As you can see we just have the small portable change room there.
"Maybe in the future the council will put in better facilities for the girls, we are positive that we will have a team."
Mr Khan says female players, especially from varying religious and ethnic backgrounds, require more privacy than the males, so proper change rooms with individual shower cubicles are critical.
Though the club does get funding through grants, it's "not very easy".
"There is a struggle, there are quite a few clubs, it's challenging, everyone wants to have good facilities."
When girls have taken part in mixed teams, they've been "very successful", Mr Khan says.
"We had a mixed team … a female was the captain and she won the league and the grand final.
"Even our U14s had about five girls in there, and they represented their school too.
"Parents are very excited [at the thought of having a girls' team]. They come and ask me."
Mr Khan points to one girl playing behind the nets, saying she repeatedly asks for the forms to sign up to play.
"Hopefully soon," he says.
A critical time for the women's game
The game's governing body in Queensland says there has never been a more critical time to invest in football.
A Football Queensland's spokesperson says there has been a significant growth in women's and girls' participation in the game in the past year, but "clubs across the state face a lack of infrastructure to support this growth".
"Forty-five per cent of football facilities in the state have no female or unisex change rooms, presenting a huge barrier for the future of our women's game," the spokesperson says.
"In 2021, Football Queensland oversaw a 30.6 per cent increase in MiniRoos Girls participation (aged 4-11) with 3.9 per cent growth in MiniRoos Boys."
This surge in female participation is expected to continue as a result of the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023.
Comparing the Queensland government's funding contribution to infrastructure in six major sports since January, 2015, in relation to the current participation rates in each code shows football, cricket and netball are lagging far behind the rugby codes and AFL.
Figures include major infrastructure projects that largely benefit one code, such as Browne Park redevelopment (rugby league), Ballymore redevelopment (rugby union) and Brighton Homes Arena (AFL), but not multi-sport major projects (Sunshine Coast Stadium, Great Barrier Reef Arena).
Sport |
Participation in QLD |
Infrastructure funding |
Infrastructure funding per participant |
|---|---|---|---|
Rugby league |
64,566 (2022) |
$50.8m |
$787 |
Rugby union |
29,901(2021) |
$22.3m |
$745 |
AFL |
55,500 (2022) |
$30.5m |
$550 |
Netball |
68,257 (2022) |
$13.2m |
$193 |
Cricket |
103,912 (2021/22) |
$12.2m |
$117 |
Football |
182,326 (2021) |
$21.2 |
$116 |
Participation rates were sourced by the ABC from each federation, include junior codes like Auskick and MiniRoos and represent the most up-to-date figures available.
The Department of Tourism, Innovation and Sport said the Queensland government has invested more than $35 million to support football and futsal across the state since January 2015, as well as the $21.1 million spent on infrastructure.
"The additional funding for football and futsal includes subsidies of $8.8 million to increase junior player participation and more than $5 million in spending for non-capital expenses," a department spokesperson said.
"The more than $35 million invested by the Queensland government to football is in addition to the costs to government of hosting the FIFA 2023 Women's World Cup, the Queensland Champions Cup featuring Aston Villa, Leeds United and the Brisbane Roar and the soon to be hosted Socceroos and Matildas games at Suncorp Stadium."
A spokesperson for Queensland Sport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said: "The Queensland government works closely with all Queensland sporting codes and clubs.
"As the community expects, all applications for infrastructure funding are assessed against the objectives and criteria of each funding program.
"One of the Queensland government's priorities is the delivery of shared and multi-sport infrastructure that can be used year-round.
"Governing bodies of most Queensland sporting codes often co-contribute a portion of the cost to taxpayers of delivering new or upgraded sporting infrastructure.
"The Queensland government continues to work with Football Queensland on shared funding arrangements."
Female sport gets a raw deal: Senator
Federal Labor Senator Nita Green is part of the Legacy 23 committee charged with ensuring the World Cup has long-lasting positive impacts in Australia.
She says the World Cup is going to be "huge" but that there's a need to "really build off the momentum it brings".
"I'm a little bit biased, because I love football.
"But there is a disparity in the way that funding has been distributed in the past. And I think part of that comes down to the fact that in football there is a huge female participation there.
"More women play those sports and traditionally, women haven't been taken as seriously when it comes to the types of sports that women like to play.
"And we have seen underfunding of female facilities.
Senator Green says there has been a realisation among governments in recent years that more funds need to be directed to the women's game.
"What we are seeing over the last couple of years and leading into the World Cup, is governments really understanding that they need to make sure that there are facilities for women.
"I hope that then the next Sam Kerr is watching this World Cup and is there in Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium, watching one of the semi-finals that will take place and decides to commit herself to be a footballer, because long gone are the days where women couldn't make professional sport career out of football.
"That's what the World Cup will show the next generation and Matildas, that this is a potential career for them. It is an option for them to be a part of the dream.
"And we need to have our clubs ready to meet those dreams of our young Matildas."
