“Unsafe” change rooms a risk to female footballers’ personal safety
FEMALE footballers are being forced to change in cars, under verandahs or in public toilets as exploding numbers in women’s comps push crumbling facilities to the brink.
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NINE out of 10 South Australian amateur football league change rooms are non-compliant for female players, prompting calls for the worst ones to be upgraded or demolished.
An SANFL audit recommended 530 out of 580 change rooms across the state's 29 football leagues were well below AFL unisex guidelines and would require $162 million to make them compliant.
Some change rooms in the audit were described as “outdated”, “undersized", “unsafe”, “depleted” and needing “immediate attention”.
The football community is pleading with the State Government to commit more funding in next week’s Budget to address the infrastructure pressure from a 624 per cent increase in female football since 2016.
Sports Minister Corey Wingard yesterday announced a $24 million fund for sports infrastructure and building upgrades, to be spent over the next two years. He said the fund – replacing a $10 million female facilities program – would still have a key focus on women’s facilities.
The State Government will provide $10 million to the fund, with councils and clubs required to also tip in $10 millon. The AFL will also spend $2 million, and Cricket Australia and the SA Cricket Association each will put in $1 million.
Greenacres Football Club's off-site change room was identified as one of the worst in the 2017 SANFL audit. The audit says it should “be knocked down and rebuilt” — “it is a terrible change room area … no club enjoy playing here.”
Greenacres FC women’s president Teena Leicester said female players reported feeling unsafe using the off-site change room.
"The biggest problem we have is that our senior women's team play many of their matches at night. The girls have to walk back and forth to the off-site change room with very poor lighting,” Greenacres FC president Duncan Tilley said.
Greenacres FC is waiting for Port Adelaide Enfield Council and state government funding dependant on a master plan upgrade of the precinct.
Mt Lofty District Football Club president Kym Welsby said “iIt really is a problem we need to fix”.
“Our change rooms are not fit for female participation, particularly as we have girls under 18 playing in the seniors,” she said. The club’s 500 male and female players share one change room and umpires have had to share the away change room with female players.
Mr Welsby said the untenable situation saw the Hills Football League earlier this year threaten not to provide umpires at home matches.
Mt Lofty A-Grade women’s captain Madeleine Dufek said the situation “needs to be addressed as more and more junior female and male players take up the game.”
Adelaide Lord Mayor Martin Haese said he was aware of women needing to change in their cars or having to walk hundreds of metres away from their teammates to get changed in public toilets due to a lack of female facilities in the Park Lands.
“Not only is this inequitable, it is a real disincentive for people who want to give sport a try around the city,” he said.
Six of the Park Lands 35 sport pavilions/change rooms have been assessed as appropriate for female use.
SANFL planning and infrastructure manager Casey Grice said the current level of recreational sports funding from federal, state and local governments had certainly improved the establishment of female friendly facilities. However, he said there remained significant pressure on facility owners and sporting bodies to provide unisex facilities to support female football.