- The Australians will face England at Wembley
- Comes after a successful World Cup
- Matildas also hosted a successful World Cup
- Code still struggles to get funding
Socceroos coach Graham Arnold has hit out at politicians. including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who “lost” his supporters scarf after attending matches as he again denounced them for failing to properly fund sport.
Ahead of the Socceroos’ encounter with England at Wembley on Saturday morning (AEDT) for the first time since 2003, Arnold lamented the lack of financial support football received from the Australian government and admitted to being envious of the country’s national soccer hub. English team. Saint-Georges Park.
His comments follow former Socceroos manager Ange Postecoglou’s statement that soccer will never become a dominant sport in Australia.
“When you look at what the Matildas did in the (Women’s) World Cup: incredible, but you still won’t see an influx of resources into the game – I guarantee you that,” Postecoglou said this week.
Socceroos coach Graham Arnold concerned Australian rules football does not have a home training base
The Socceroos punched above their weight, enjoying their strongest-ever World Cup in Qatar last year
Arnold echoed Postecoglou’s sentiments.
“We see the Prime Minister and the governments, they love to go out to watch the Matildas and the Socceroos with scarves, but they have to lose them on the way home,” he said.
“I would love to see it (soccer at the forefront of Australian sport) but I don’t know if I will. “Many years ago there was a great Australian football legend called Johnny Warren, who said ‘I told you so’ (that football would be big in Australia) and nothing has really happened since neither.
“We have a sport in Australia, AFL… which is the biggest in the country and there’s a lot of funding and a lot of money invested in AFL, but it’s only played in one country .
“We play in a global sport and we are far from having access to the resources or support that sport provides.
“We are the grassroots sport with the highest participation rate and we don’t have a home for football at all.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accused of ‘losing his scarf on the way home’ after showing support for the Matildas at the World Cup while the code still needs funding
The Socceroos pictured during a training session at Leichhardt Oval, Sydney, as they do not have their own base of operations
“When the Socceroos come to Sydney to train, we have to train on a rugby union pitch where they take the posts down and put up the football posts – that’s the truth,” he continued.
“For the last three, four days, where has England been? St George’s Park, a place that inspires players, a place to feel at home, a place to build culture, and we have nothing like it.
“We’ve had so many great footballers who left the country because they had to earn their living elsewhere to achieve their dreams – Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka, Timmy Cahill, (Mark) Schwarzer, all those guys – and this generation that is going to be next.
However, Arnold remained hopeful that football could be “reinvigorated”, particularly if Australia were awarded the rights to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup ahead of the AFC’s preferred candidate, Saudi Arabia.
“Having a World Cup in Australia would help the sport enormously,” he said.
“We showed (at this year’s Women’s World Cup) that we are great hosts. There’s a lot of work to do, but I think with the generation of kids coming through we can reinvigorate the sport.