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ANGE:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ange McCormack. This is 7am.

The FIFA women’s world cup kicks off tonight, with the Matildas playing Ireland in Sydney.

The 83,500 capacity stadium is completely sold out, making it one of the biggest crowds in the history of women’s football…

But as the game’s popularity explodes, and the players cement themselves as household names, the Matildas are still fighting for basic rights - like equal pay.

Today, writer and Matildas fanatic Sarah Krasnostein on the women’s world cup - and the impact the Tillies will have on Australian sport.

It’s Thursday July 20.

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ANGE:

Sarah. Tonight, the Women's World Cup kicks off. It's finally here. What's it been like to get to this moment as a fan?

SARAH:

It's unexpectedly moving for me to move from something that I'm interested in kind of narratively as a sport to something where I'm just full of enthusiasm and joy and anticipation, and it's an unexpectedly emotional experience for me. You know, I mean, the Tilllies have always been compelling and interesting to watch, so seeing the team go from individual excellence to a collective animal that was capable of beating the best teams in the world has just been such a triumphant journey to be on. So tonight, to see that in action when we play Ireland, who has historically been another underdog team, will have, you know, the clash of styles will have a clash of kind of underdogs. But we'll also have the culmination of these years of just getting better and better and kind of forming like Voltron into this wonderful beast on the field.

ANGE:

And speaking of wonderful beasts, it’s hard to talk about this Matildas team without talking about Sam Kerr.

Archival tape -- BBC:

“...squaring it…Sam Kerr!!! Of course it is! Chelsea strike first at Wembley in the Cup final. The deadly duo combine. There could be no more predictable villain either. Manchester United have had their chances… Sam Kerr has taken hers!”

ANGE:

She’s an absolute icon and being recognised around the world. How important is it that we’re going into this world cup with a global star like Sam Kerr playing in front of us - on home soil?

SARAH:

Yeah, I mean, Sam Kerr's an apex footballer and she's an incredible role model for many children. My son wears her jersey and of course, for young girls and young women as well. And that legacy will last for many years to come.

She just comes across beautifully in all the media that she does - authentic and humble, she's always putting the collective of the team ahead of herself.

Archival tape -- Interviewer:

“...some of your dance moves. Congratulations. That must have been pretty special in the end.”

Archival tape -- Sam Kerr:

“Yeah, I mean, I think it's a sign of a great team. We honestly didn't have our best, best game today, but that's the sign of a great team when you just push through…”

SARAH:

And she’s genuinely one of the best players in the world and she’s a top earner accordingly. So she comes with a certain amount of visibility and heft that I think she's using for good.

Archival tape -- Interviewer:

“The crowd loved your backflip today. Did you know, before the game, if you scored, you were going to whip that one out?”

Archival tape -- Sam Kerr:

“You know what, a lot of people have been asking me for it and Millie asked me for it, I texted my friend and I said, “back flip incoming.” So I knew it was coming today.”

SARAH:

But there are so many more amazing characters in the team. She is supported by just a wonderful kind of range of players. We saw Mary Fowler, she's 20 years old. So, she has that same clutch quality that Kerr has, which I think we're going to see more of. And also in the rest of the team and the younger players, because one kind of inevitable consequence of Kerr being this good is that she takes up more attention and more players in the defence. So it creates an opening for kind of unsuspected players to come in and do things. Polkinghorne - this is her fifth World Cup, just an absolute stalwart veteran. Alanna Kennedy, Hayley Raso, who just signed with Madrid, Katrina Gorry, who's playing, you know, Tony Gustafsson said “the best football of her life” after returning from maternity leave with a two year old. Just the explosive speed and strength and power and the way they all work together is just the most beautiful thing to see, because we have this advantage of, that many of those senior players having played together and trained together since they were 12 or 13. So it's really coming into the peak of a really special bond that you can really see in these games.

ANGE:

They’re just such amazing characters aren’t they - the stories in that team are so strong and the friendship is clearly there. And when you think about the stories of this group, whether it's Sam Kerr or Mary Fowler or Emily van Egmond… what are they themselves hoping this world cup could mean for football in Australia?

SARAH:

So there's always been kind of a lovely flow on effect for the host nation after kind of having the game. There's a rise of enthusiasm and the possibilities here are just wonderful, given that it's already the most participated in sport at the community level. So I think it can mean definitely, you know, the validation that women's football in Australia deserves visibility that it still needs and hopefully an investment in resourcing and development that matches that already kind of live interest.

Archival tape -- Sarah:

“So I will not take up much of your time and I'll be 20 to like 25 minutes, I anticipate.”

Archival tape -- Emily van Egmund:

“Too easy.”

SARAH:

I recently spoke to Emily van Egmond, who is Matildas centurion, more than 100 games, 30 goals.

Archival tape -- Emily van Egmund:

“It's an honour to actually put the jersey on for your country and, you know, to represent your country at prestigious tournaments such as the World Cup. You can't match it. But because of how well women's football is doing now in club land, it's kind of starting to trend towards how the men do it.”

SARAH:

And she's hoping that the Cup will spark even more football fever in Australia, particularly amongst young girls, and that the full potential of the sport will be unleashed.

ANGE:

Yeah so, Emily van Egmond, she would have seen a lot of change in women's football in Australia over the past ten or so years and it sounds like we haven't even reached the peak of the sport just yet. Can you tell me a bit about the transformation she's seen?

Archival tape -- Unknown man:

“Women’s soccer - forgive us our shins, to think they’re going to waste these playing football - this is a man’s game! Football from the…”

SARAH:

Yeah so, Van Egmond just turned 30 and so she was born in 1993, which she wouldn't have been around to see the earliest Matildas in the seventies and eighties when they were literally sewing patches on their own uniforms and covering the costs of representing the nation out of their own pocket.

Archival tape -- Matilda's player 1:

“We just wanted to go out and lift the profile of women’s soccer…. even if we get a million people in Australia know who the Matildas are, we’ve achieved something.”

SARAH:

But she's seen an extraordinary amount of change in the game since she's come up.

Archival tape -- BBC:

“..an angle..van Egmond!!! Emily van Egmond!!!! Continues her wonderful tournament.”

SARAH:

So Cheryl Salisbury, who's also from Newcastle, like van Egmond is, her national career began, the year after Van Egmond was born and she became the most capped footballer in Australia in any code until Clare Polkinghorne recently overtook her. But in 1995, the Tillies qualified for Australia's first women's World Cup.

Archival tape -- BBC:

“..here’s a chance and here is a goal for Australia, right out of the blue. They take the lead through Lisa Casagrande.”

SARAH:

And while van Egmond was coming up training with the boys teams, it's a real testament to the fact that we haven't had the resources for women's footballers until very recently. So Australia only created an A-League for women in 2008. So just over van Egmond’s career as everyone else on that squad, the game is unrecognisable in Australia from when they started out.

Archival tape -- Emily van Egmund:

“So I think it's awesome and it's only going to go up and up from here. And I think you can see this year, especially with the World Cup on the horizon, the investment in the youth as well. You know, like young Alyssa Thompson, who's, you know, setting the world on fire right now in LA. We've got young getting short here and there's a boast of young talent coming through the ranks…”

SARAH:

And this would be the spark that we need to encourage more players, not just to participate in women's football per se, but that women footballers are footballers and deserve equal investment in development and resourcing as she's seen in the States where you know that investment has been at its highest level for decades.

ANGE:

And this World Cup, Sarah, it's an incredible moment, but it's happening while players are still fighting for equal pay and conditions. Professional Footballers Australia have released this video laying out the fight the Matildas have had to have to get even the most basic rights. Can you tell me about that and tell me how the battle has played out over the last few years?

Archival tape -- Matildas player 2:

“As Matildas, we are part of a special group of players. We stand on the shoulders of giants who have paved the way to afford the opportunities we have now.”

SARAH:

Yeah it’s a really wonderful video, it’s just fire. So Claire Polkinghorne in it says that 2007 was her first World Cup.

Archival tape -- Claire Polkinghorne:

“2007 was the first World Cup I played in and it was the first time FIFA awarded prize money to women, 25 years after the men..”

SARAH:

And then we're seeing that Lydia Williams, the goalkeeper, saying that in 2010:

Archival tape -- Lydia Williams:

“We fought for our first CBA with basic pay. We won the Asian Cup and went back to our part time jobs…”

SARAH:

They’re talking about how they only got, you know, the right to have their laundry done in 2013, that in 2015 they were forced by FIFA to play on artificial grass.

Archival tape -- Matildas:

“The grass was fake and the disrespect was real. Later that year, we took a stand for some real progress in our next CBA back home, just like we do on the pitch, we stuck together, refused to back down and got the result.”

SARAH:

And then all that's playing out in the context where FIFA has increased since the last World Cup in 2019, the Women's Prize money by 300%, but it still remains a quarter of what the men get for the same effort, the same achievement.

So, you know, the battle continues and it's wonderful to see them using this moment of increased visibility to make their legacy the, you know, very public fight for true recognition and fair play.

ANGE:

We’ll be back after this.

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ANGE:

So Sarah, let’s talk about the disparity in prize money, ‘cause only a quarter of the prize money is on offer to the Matildas compared to the men’s team, the Socceroos. That’s such a stark difference in this day and age, but how likely is that to change sometime soon?

SARAH:

Look, I think we are naming these things now. I think we are devoting media time and attention to them. I think it is likely to change. Very recently there was a battle FIFA got into over, you know, broadcast rights for the game.

Archival tape -- Gianni Infantino:

“Now for the women's World Cup they make us offers of 10 to 100 times less than for the men's World Cup…”

SARAH:

And the head of FIFA framed it as insulting to the women to not have, you know, higher offers.

Archival tape -- Gianni Infantino:

“So I think there is still some way they can do something. We did the first step at FIFA by significantly increasing the prize money, and our objective is to reach an equal pay situation in the next World Cup.”

SARAH:

The hypocrisy of that in the context where FIFA themselves award their female athletes at a quarter of what they award their men was called out by numerous journalists. It was worthy of, you know, story time.

And so I think that in itself is a sign that things are changing, perhaps not as swiftly as they should, I mean, it's frustrating that we're still having these conversations, but it would be hard to see things continuing at the status quo after this level of attention, I hope - this is as optimistic as I get.

ANGE:

Well let's talk about something we can be optimistic about then, Sarah - what is this world cup going to mean for the next generation of players?

SARAH:

Well, when I spoke to Emily, for example, about who are her role models growing up, she said she didn't have any female role models. She had to look to the men's sport.

Archival tape -- Emily van Egmund:

“So I grew up, you know, idolising Zinedine Zidane and Steven Gerrard and people like this, you know, Xavi from Barcelona. And yeah, I didn't really have a female role model, so to speak.”

SARAH:

It's a sentiment that's echoed in various places by pretty much all of her team-mates. So, you know, this golden generation of Matildas is also the last generation of female footballers who like to look outside their own sport for that visible role model. I think that there's a huge opportunity here. Girls can look up to boys, of course, no question. But there is something in that phrase that you can't be what you don't see. So in that light, young girls can connect with players like Kerr, Fowler or Van Egmond in a different way than they can with the male Socceroos or male stars. And they can know that on a cellular level through lived experience in front of their eyes, that these are footballers, pound for pound, same as any male footballers that's not women's football, this is football. And so I think it's exciting to think about the potential of the next generation and that impact that the Matildas are already having.

ANGE:

And even though we're seeing this new generation of future Matildas coming through, there's still a question of access to the sport, isn't there? What barriers are there for female players? What opportunities aren't being given to girls?

SARAH:

Yeah so, soccer is, in Australia and New Zealand as well, currently showing the highest participation rate of any sport, at the grassroots level. But we're still not seeing an investment that matches that potential at that kind of community level.

So it was, I think, ABC's The Ticket that recently reported on a new Tasmanian rule which bars girls from playing with boys once they turn 16. And that's a problem because not every region has an under 18 girls team. So what happens? And in those cases, who are the players that we're not seeing because of access issues, because they can't drive to training or they can't afford the costs of training or because they don't have teams in their area.

So, you know, these things matter. These resourcing decisions matter. One thing that's crying out for change is this trend in how media and administrators tend to view women’s sport as a second rate alternative to men's competition, it doesn't hold up in reality Matildas are tenth in the world and the socceroos are way down that ladder, and yet we have this operating perception that the Tillies can’t sell out stadiums they can’t sell our our largest stadiums which is nonsense, so we saw that change in venue for the opening Australia Ireland game from Sydney Football Stadium to Stadium Australia so that the additional 40,000 people could attend. As commentator Rob Gilbert has noted, when Australia plays Canada in a group match at the end of July at Aami Park, capacity of 30,000 seats, over the road at the MCG which has 100,000 seats will be empty. So I think it's time that administrators need to rethink their priorities, each allocation has been quickly exhausted, there are many people who would have gone if tickets were available, there’s a whole range of access issues with the smaller stadiums for disabled punters and its not justified by the level of interest that these players have and deserve.

ANGE:

And when we look at this World Cup, it's the world's game, it’s a chance to see the best players from all over the globe here in Australia, the scale of it is just massive. What kind of model can an event like this provide us for the development of other sports, whether that's the AFLW, the NRLW? What lessons can be learned from this by other administrators here in Australia?

SARAH:

Well, I think hopefully it would encourage a more critical assessment of priorities and who gets visibility, who gets the airtime, who's getting, you know, newspaper space.

In what other areas of women's sport do we have world-class calibre athletes playing games of global interest that could bring us not just economic benefits but social benefits and community building benefits. And it's a whole world of potential that we haven't truly begun to unlock. So hopefully it's the start of, you know, inevitable change that has been a long time coming.

ANGE:

Sarah, thanks so much for your time today and go Tillies!

SARAH:

Go Tillies!

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ANGE:

Also in the news today…

For the first time, the Matildas have sold more official jerseys ahead of the FIFA Women’s World Cup than the men’s team did during and since their equivalent of the world cup last year.

Nike, the provider of kits to both national sides, said the Matilda’s had beaten the merch sales of the socceroos before even playing a single game at the world cup.

And…

Rent rises are likely to ease next year, according to new economic analysis from CoreLogic.

The firm found that the median rent was estimated to have increased $225 per month over the year to June, but projected this would slow down, particularly if the RBA continues to hold rates or even cut them next year.

I’m Ange McCormack, this is 7am, I’ll see you tomorrow.

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