Women’s W-League Gets Major Push!

By: Daniel | July 30th, 2008

The most exciting period in Australian Women’s football is here!

Sports Minister Kate Ellis confirmed that two payments of $16m will be made to the FFA over the next four years, upon certain conditions being successfully met. These conditions being that the FFA establish a football league for women and that the league be televised.

You thought that was big? ohh no. On Monday, the FFA and Westfield announced an agreement in support of women’s football.

The Westfield Group’s support involves women’s football ranging from the Westfield Championship for Girls, the establishment of a new national women’s league known as the Westfield W-League, and the national women’s team to be known as the Westfield Matildas.

The Westfield W-League will comprise teams from each of the seven Australian Hyundai A-League clubs as well as Canberra, and will kick off at the end of October.

What an exciting point this is for Women in this country. Finally they can aspire to play regularly in front of crowds Australia wide and get the recognition they deserve.

Personally i think that this is absolutely massive for not only the Women’s game but Football in this country in generally. If the FFA can negotiate a television deal that will show games on Free-To-Air television, it could have the same effect on women’s sports as Netball did. For those who don’t know, until recently, Netball hadn’t been on the forefront of a lot of peoples minds. However after a FTA deal, people have been watching and flocking to the courts!

I believe the same thing can happen with women’s football. If we can get this onto FTA television, believe me people will watch, sit up and take notice. We will see people coming along to the games and give aspiring footballers a chance to be professionals and earn a decent wage!

However to do this we need to keep the game on FTA channels ABC or SBS. If 7,9 or 10 get a hold of this league we will see its quick demise. The anti-football culture is still rife and if either of the big three FTA channels get a sniff of the game they will do all they can to drive it into the ground with bad commentary and fuked up midnight replays of the games. Trust me it will happen, if you don’t believe me just watch the way channel 7 is going to disgrace the Olyroo coverage a this years Olympics.

At least we will be safe with SBS and ABC. SBS is a renowned football station and will show it to the best of their ability as would the ABC who are owned by the government and would not want to see their millions go to waste.

A landmark point in Women’s football will only work if money is poured in and people like you and me get behind it.