World Cup: Graham Arnold aims dig at Football Australia over ‘ridiculous’ lack of funding

Graham Arnold bemoaned the lack of funding in Australian football, saying the game needs to match Japan and Saudi Arabia in terms of support if they want to perform at the World Cup.

The Socceroos qualified for this year’s tournament via the playoffs after falling behind the Saudis and Japanese in their group, with the two teams taking shock victories over Argentina and Germany respectively.

However, Australia failed to deliver a similar shock against reigning world champions France on Tuesday, conceding a 4-1 defeat to start their campaign badly, with Arnold blaming the lack of quality within his side as the reason for their defeat.

Australian boss Graham Arnold complained about the lack of money for the Down Under game

He finds financial support compared to Japan and Saudi Arabia ‘ridiculous’

He compared the values ​​of the two sides, with the French with Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé, with the Socceroos squad made up of mostly A-League players.

And ahead of his side’s crucial showdown with Tunisia, Arnold said the lack of funding in the Australian game is ‘ridiculous’ in an apparent swipe at Football Australia.

“I think the World Cup is growing people and there is more talk about football now and the stadiums are getting more and more crowded and we saw Qatar against Senegal and like I said, it’s really gaining momentum,” said Arnold.

‘I think it’s not so much the shocking results, but the quality of the Asian countries. Asia .. in Australia we have no respect for Asia and what their qualities are. We have no respect for Japan and Saudi Arabia when we played them in the qualifiers, everyone thought they were crooks.

“But the amount of money you see the Asian countries put into developing the game and what the game needs, compared to Australia, is ridiculous.”

The Socceroos take on Tunisia in a must-win match if they are to reach the knockouts

The Australian boss has been reflecting on his tactics and team selection in recent days, with the Socceroos contending with Tunisia’s physicality when they meet at Al-Janoub Stadium.

He is without defender Nathaniel Atkinson after the full-back suffered an injury earlier this week after being driven out by Kylian Mbappé.

However, the social media team did not get the message, as Atkinson was in the starting line-up for Saturday’s game.

Fans were quick to remind the admin that the full back was injured and the tweet was quickly deleted and re-uploaded with Fran Karacic instead.