Football Australia's formal recognition of a women's club team from 1975 as the 'first Matildas' has divided the alumni community. Now, many of them are demanding answers.
Following the announcement on Monday, several alumni have spoken to ABC Sport to express their disappointment and anger with FA over the decision, as well as the process that led to it, which they say disrespects the more than 200 women players who were formally selected to represent Australia since 1978."Every man and his dog can come and claim one now if they've been part of something that had to do with an Australian representative team.
The AWSA was established during the first National Championships in August of 1974 in order to run women's football across the country, while the men's game was run by a separate governing body, Australian Soccer Federation .
"There were players who competed in that National Championships in 1974 who never got a look-in. They didn't even know this was happening. Players who then went on to be chosen in the first real Matildas team in Taiwan in 1978. That original panel, which included long-time women's soccer academic Marion Stell and statistician and co-author of the Encyclopedia of the Matildas, Andrew Howe, concluded that the 1975 team did not qualify as a true national team due to a lack of a national selection process. But none of the original panellists were consulted during the recent review.
FA declined to comment on what triggered the review of the original decision in the first place, who selected the four overseas experts, or what made them more qualified than FA's own historians or advisory groups to be part of the review. It instead referred back to itsMarion Stell, one of Australia's longest serving historians on women's football, was not part of the recent review process to recognise the 1975 team.
"They came up with this crazy excuse that the WA association wouldn't allow them to go. No, they were never asked. In a 1979 report on the AWSA's activities, O'Connor herself wrote that the 1975 team in Hong Kong was "an Australian XI did well as their competition were all National teams," and that they "were highly praised for being the only country represented by a club side ."
Further, because two of the players from the 1975 Hong Kong team did not play any minutes during the tournament, yet still received a cap, questions are now being asked over whether players who have only ever sat on the bench for their country — both on the women's and the men's sides — can now qualify, as well as whether bench appearances can be added to the official caps of recognised Matildas and Socceroos.
"We have so many players who would be in that same situation where we to bring them into the alumni, and they're part of the football family, but they don't have a cap because they didn't make an appearance according to the rules. As such, the tournaments organised by the ALFC were never officially sanctioned, which therefore raises questions over whether it could, or should, be used to formally recognise the teams and players who took part.With no other avenues for feedback, dozens of Matildas alumni are now organising a collective letter to send to FA expressing their concerns with the decision and the process that was undertaken to arrive at it.
Alumni 1975 First Matildas Football Australia Julie Dolan Karen Menzies Jim Selby Leigh Wardell Taiwan 1978 Anter Isaac Kevin Tellec Caps Recognition
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