Matildas legend Melissa Barbieri believes A-League clubs aren’t making the most of their women’s teams
Following huge turnouts at the AFLW grand final and recent soccer games in Europe, former Adelaide United captain Melissa Barbieri believes A-League clubs aren’t making the most of their women’s teams.
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Matildas legend Melissa Barbieri says A-League clubs need to understand that its women’s teams can be gold mines.
Barbieri believes the women’s teams at AFL's Adelaide Crows, soccer's Juventus and Atletico Madrid are booming because their club’s fans are not divided by gender.
The Crows women’s team attracted a record 53,034 fans to Adelaide Oval on Sunday - a new attendance record for a domestic women’s sport contest in Australia.
This comes after Juventus women’s team broke an Italian club attendance record last Sunday when 39,027 fans turned up at Juventus Stadium to see them beat Fiorentina 1-0.
A week before that SA’s Alex Chidiac sat on the bench when her club Atletico Madrid broke a world club record when 60,739 fans saw a clash against Barcelona in Madrid.
“I think some A-League clubs are not engaging with that 50 per cent of their own market,’’ Barbieri said from Melbourne where she is coaching Haileybury, playing with Alemain in the VNPL, is a mum, public and motivational speaker and goalkeeper coach.
“What really hurts me is the fact that you seen so many families at those A-League games and many don’t turn up for the W-League games.
“If you turned up to the Juventus game and spoke to a lot of their fans, I’m sure they went to the stadium to support their club.
“I know that a lot of my soccer mates that don’t come and watch me play in the W-League but they’ll come and watch the AFLW.
“I feel like they are very loyal to their AFL backing than they are to soccer clubs.
“A Blue Bagger (Carlton AFL) supporter will go watch any team from their club play, they’re supporting their club.”
ðŸ‘6ï¸âƒ£0ï¸âƒ£,7ï¸âƒ£3ï¸âƒ£9ï¸âƒ£ðŸ‘#AtletiBarça makes history, breaking the WORLD RECORD for attendance at a women’s club match. 🙌ðŸŸâš½ï¸#LigaIberdrola#WeSpeakTheSameGame pic.twitter.com/ciyWBvGvv2
— LaLiga (@LaLigaEN) March 17, 2019
The former Adelaide United captain believes investing in an expanded W-League competition will also help rid the stigma that women’s teams are financial burdens.
“I think it’s telling us to we need have a stand-alone W-League of our own,’’ she said.
“The W-League is great it allows our players (Australians) to play overseas for a majority of the year and come home in the summer.
“But the only way we’re going to get those big crowds in Australia if we have a full home-and-away season where (Matildas) internationals can call it home.
“We already get some very good internationals that come to the W-League.
“What we now need is our teams to be affiliated with clubs there needs to be a whole restructure.
“You needs grassroots teams, academy teams for the W-League squads, so you’re building the club mentality.
“Also coinciding the A-League with the W-League season so that players choose to come to us not because we’re a good holiday destination during their off season.
“We could essentially have it.
“When you look at the players that line up for Juventus, PSG, Barcelona women’s team those are some of the best players in the world.”
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