Everybody has their own football moment – when the realisation sets in that this sport really means something. For some, it may come at a young age, eyes glued to a World Cup TV screen; for others, it may be while standing on the terraces of a home-town club, or perhaps simply kicking a ball about on a Sunday morning in the park.
Winning the right this week to host the 2023 Women’s World Cup shapes as another for many Australians and New Zealanders. With the joint bid in pole position to emerge victorious from Fifa’s council meeting after the withdrawal of Japan, football on both sides of the Tasman has never had a better chance to galvanise a fractured community.
It is easy to forget that football is, at its core, about these moments. You can find them in your memory and pluck them out, turn them over in your hands: where you were, who you were with, the sounds and smells of the room or the terrace or the grass. They’re the moments you point to and say, “This is where it all started.”
Matildas midfielder Emily van Egmond recalls her own moment: “I remember watching the 2007 World Cup when Cheryl [Salisbury] put away the goal against Canada,” she says. “I grew up with Lauren Colthorpe – she’s another Novocastrian – so I remember her goal against Brazil. I think she scored this really weird header. I remember watching that as a young kid.
“But for me, the biggest thing was at a young age, I was invited into the [NSW Institute of Sport] program, and I just remember walking in and [seeing] the likes of Cheryl Salisbury and Joey Peters, Lauren Colthorpe and Kate Gill, Karla Reuter – that’s what really resonates with me and what really kick-started me to want to be a Matilda.”
In recent years, Australia’s and New Zealand’s romance with football has started to wane. Professional league attendances are flatlining, national team performances are stuttering and trust in football’s leaders – and in each other – has all but disappeared. What football in this region needs, then, is an opportunity to spark something new.
What is different this time, though, is that the next collective football moment will be sparked by women. That is why the “As One” bid matters. Sport still has much to do when it comes to gender equality, but we have seen in recent weeks what it can achieve – how it can shape broader conversations and affect real systemic change – when it decides to.
The greatest strength of the joint bid is that it fully embraces that responsibility, promising to use football as a cultural megaphone to send a message about the value and potential that women and girls offer not just to sport, but also to modern life.
“As One” is not just a reference to the bid’s logistics, then: it is a symbol of hope and desire that the women who have spent far too long on the game’s periphery can finally become part of its global story.
As Van Egmond observes: “It’d be great for the aspiring young girls in Australia who want to be Matildas, and to be honest, I think it’d be great for any young boy or girl watching.
“If we could host such a tournament and do it in such a great way – which I have no doubt we would do – you’d get more people coming to A-League games, more people coming to W-League games, you’d have more international games for the Socceroos and Matildas.
“If we can do it and do it in the right way and be successful in that tournament, for sure it’s going to put us on the map, and I think you’ll have more countries after that tournament saying, ‘Hey, we want to go to Australia to play them,’ rather than, ‘Hey, you come here.’”
As 25 June approaches, Australian and New Zealand football stands on the threshold of a new era with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to cement itself in the hearts and minds of almost 2 million local participants. And women’s football – as the area with the highest growth potential – has a chance to open its arms to the unconverted.
For an entire new generation of fans, the 22 players at the heart of those moments will look just like them. When it comes to the future of the sport, that is what could make all the difference.
