I am not from Australia, yet it is one of my favorite countries! Soccer is also my absolute favorite Sport! That’s why, I was thinking recently on whether the sport is actually popular in Australia or not really…
… I’ve spent many hours doing research to address this topic thoroughly and decided to put together this short post!
Hope you’ll find it useful!
So, Is soccer popular in Australia?
Soccer is a actually quite popular sport in Australia! While the game must compete with rugby, cricket and Australian rules football, soccer still claims a wide and robust following throughout the country.
One thing separating soccer from other sports down under is the fact that soccer is more or less evenly popular across the entire nation.
Aussie rules football and rugby league’s popularity is known to be divided along the “Barassi Line,” with rugby capturing fans in the eastern metropolises of Sydney and Brisbane while Melbourne and Perth being hotbeds for Aussie rules.
This leads to a lack of either of those sports being the unifying game that they seek to be.
Soccer’s popularity is not defined by any lines. All Australians will get behind the game. This puts the sport on a national pedestal that it shares only with cricket.
“We are now an authentic Australian sport, with a broad, diverse following and a national spread that no other sport can match,” told David Gallop to The Sydney Morning Herald in 2013. Gallop is the chief executive of the Football Federation Australia after jumping ship from the same position in the country’s top rugby league.
Is soccer growing in Australia?
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The sport of soccer is actually growing in Australia!
A strong connection to the motherland in Britain always kept the game at an elevated level of popularity, but the growing fusion between soccer and global pop culture has expanded the sport’s popularity down under.
The country even big for the right to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cup’s. While Australia failed to land the rights to either tournament, the effort to bring to competition to the southern hemisphere country reflects the passion Australians have for the game at a macro level.
At more local levels, the A-League is also undergoing growth. While the league is still very young by global standards, the number of clubs has expanded in recent years, with Western United in Greater Melbourne and Macarthur FC just outside of Sydney being the newest additions to the competition.
Most clubs are located in the country’s principal metropolises, but smaller markets have access to the league too through teams such as Adelaide United, Central Coast Mariners and even Wellington Phoenix in New Zealand. Drawing support from these mid-size cities is key to keeping a healthy, nationwide fanbase.
Lastly, the sport continues to grow thanks to the continued development of the women’s game.
The Matildas have made the knockout round of the Women’s World Cup each edition since 2007, and are a big force in keeping the game big as a grassroots level among both men and women.
Is soccer more popular than Cricket in Australia?
Cricket is soccer’s top competitor for the title of most popular sport in Australia. Both soccer and cricket have more homogeneous national popularity than Australian rules and rugby league football.
The top dogs in the Australian sports totem pole, cricket and soccer don’t directly compete with one another on a regular basis, as cricket is the main summer sport in the country while soccer is played primarily in the southern winter months.
The average A-League soccer match pulled in over 10,000 spectators in the 2018-19 season, with sides like Melbourne Victory and Sydney consistently pulling in more supporters than clubs such as Melbourne City and Central Coast.
Meanwhile, cricket tests like the annual Boxing Day test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground draw up to 80-90 thousand fans per day, with the allure of the national team playing a big factor in the large crowds for these tests compared to run-of-the-mill club fixtures in soccer.
The difference between club and country defines the divide between soccer and cricket.
Soccer is just as big at the professional club level, but cricket remains sovereign in grassroots and national circles. In international competitions, both the FIFA World Cup and the ICC Cricket World Cup are hugely popular among Australians, but the historical and present success of the national cricket team energizes the country like little else can.
By the way, you can also learn about Soccer popularity in Mexico compared to other sports like Boxing for example …
When did soccer start in Australia?
Soccer got its start in Australia thanks to links with the mother land—the British Empire. Just as the lines between soccer, rugby and American football were quite blurred in North America through the 19th Century, early matches of the game in Australia were often a blend between the forms of football found in both the UK and Australia.
The first match played under soccer’s Laws of the Game was played in Sydney in 1880.
The game grew on the Australian continent as more migrants came from Britain. In the 1880s and 1890s, individual states established soccer governing bodies, but it wasn’t until 1911 when the Commonwealth Football Association was founded to oversee the game nationwide.
The CFA would evolve into today’s Football Federation Australia. The country joined FIFA in 1960, was kicked out a year later for foreign player transfer violations but got readmitted in 1963.
The concept of a national league competition remains a relatively novel concept in the country. It wasn’t until 1977 that the National Soccer League was established; until then, soccer leagues were only existent at the state level.
The most recent big step the sport has taken is at the international level. Not only has the national team made each World Cup since 2006, Australians have found growing amounts of success in top global leagues.
Players such as Tim Cahill, Aaron Mooy, Harry Kewell and others are examples of Australian ambassadors of the game.
Has Australia ever won competitions?
The national team is known as the Socceroos, and have been one of the best and most consistent teams in the Asia-Pacific region in recent memory.
Before the 2010 World Cup cycle, they made the move from the Oceania Football Confederation to the Asian Football Confederation, and have qualified for each of the past four World Cups.
Australia most recently made the knockout stage of the World Cup in 2006, when they beat out Croatia and Japan to reach the Round of 16, where they eventually fell to eventual champions Italy.
Before the Socceroos made the jump from the Pacific to Asia, they won the OFC Nations Cup four times and finished runner-up twice.
Competing in a much tougher confederation since 2007, Australia still managed to win the Asian Cup in 2015, deafening South Korea at home in extra time.
How much does a soccer player make in Australia?
The salary of an Australian soccer player is highly variable. Established veterans will earn more than an 18-year-old, just like in any other business.
One area that Australia lags behind peer nations in terms of soccer is its average player wage.
According to goal.com, an A-League player can expect to make just $182,159 Australian dollars per season on average. That’s below $130,000 in American greenbacks and just over £100,000 sterling.
The biggest reason for this is because the A-League mandates a salary cap on its clubs, something common in North American sports but unheard of in Europe.
That cap stood at $3,200,000 for an entire team during the 2019-20 seasons, with a minimum wage of just over $64,000 for players over the age of 20. Some exceptions to the cap are present, including those for ‘marquee players.’
Of course, in today’s globalized soccer environment, any Australian who wants to earn more than they could at home could opt to play in an international league.
With Europe in play for those who can make it in the elite leagues as well as other lucrative landing spots located over many parts of Asia, Aussies do not have to bind themselves by the low A-League wages.
How the soccer leagues are structured in Australia?
The A-League bears more resemblance to the US’s Major League Soccer than it does to the English Premier League or La Liga.
That is no knock to either the American or Australian leagues, as they both feature more than decent quality play, albeit not on an absolute elite level.
12 teams make up the A-League, including one in New Zealand. There is no promotion or relegation, and a post-season playoff of the top six clubs determines the champion.
The league championship as well as the FFA Cup are the biggest domestic competitions in the country, and the best teams advance to the AFC Champions League.
Do they say soccer in Australia?
Contrary to popular belief, the US is not the only country that uses the term “soccer.” Many countries with other popular forms of football call association football soccer, including the US, Canada, Ireland, and yes, Australia.
Now, the governing body of the sport in the county does refer to the sport as football. That is more reflected of global trends, rather than local terminology.
Final Thoughts: How the future looks like?
The game of soccer in Australia is bright!
The nation will always have a connection with the UK, which fosters a permanent love for the beautiful game.
The country can continue to ensure that its soccer culture remains healthy by investing in future generations and continuing to qualify for global competitions.
Assuming that takes place, interest and participation in soccer will keep the sport as one of the most popular in Australia.
At the end, I would like that you check this article on how Soccer has become the biggest sport in Europe! You will find it really interesting!