Topic summary
Soccer in Australia
Soccer in Australia is the most played code of football and outdoor team sport and ranked in the top ten for television audience as of 2015. It is known as soccer (abbreviation for "associationer", from association football) to distinguish it from other codes of football.
Football Australia Limited (FA), a national administrative organisation, is composed of nine state and territory member federations. The local club soccer season in Australia is played in autumn and winter but the Australian Professional Leagues Company Pty Ltd's A-Leagues play in summer, to avoid competing with Australian rules football and Rugby league which dominate spectator and media interest in the country.
Soccer was introduced in Australia in the late 19th century by mostly British immigrants. The first club formed in Australia, Wanderers, was founded on 3 August 1880 in Sydney, while the oldest club in Australia currently in existence is Balgownie Rangers, formed in 1883 in Wollongong. Wanderers were also the first recorded team to play under the Laws of the Game. A semi-professional national league, the National Soccer League (NSL), was introduced in 1977. The NSL was replaced by professional A-League Men, in 2004. The Australian Soccer Federation was a founding member of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) before moving to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in 2006. The main professional leagues are the A-League Men, A-League Women and the Australia Cup; however, foreign leagues such as the Premier League, the Championship and the Women's Super League are also popular.
The men's and women's national teams, known as the Socceroos and the Matildas respectively, compete globally. Australia cohosted the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup with New Zealand. The Matildas finished fourth in that tournament (Australia's best ever performance at any World Cup, male or female), and the majority of Australians watched them play on television or at the stadium. It had a major impact on Australian sport, and the phenomenon is commonly known as "Matildas fever".