Australian football alleged abuse claims: There’s no more hiding, and that includes players as well, writes Robbie Slater

The surging popularity of the Matildas and the fact Australia will co-host the 2023 Women’s World Cup emphasises the importance of getting right this test case, writes Robbie Slater.

Lisa De Vanna has told her important story. Picture: Getty Images

Yesterday I asked my seven-year-old daughter who her favourite footballer was.

Her answer? Sam Kerr.

Undoubtedly, a similar response would come from the mouths of most girls playing junior football. They all want to be the next Sam Kerr.

But following Lisa De Vanna’s allegations of grooming, bullying, indecent assault and sexual harassment in Australian women’s football, parents of these kids are now rightly asking themselves if they should take their girls away from the sport.

You can’t blame them if they do decide their girls would be better off concentrating on another sport, so bad are the allegations De Vanna has made.

And why would anyone suggest what De Vanna has said isn’t true? She is an ornament of our game, a bona fide superstar of women’s football, who deserves much better for her incredible service.

Lisa De Vanna should be applauded for her brave revelations. Picture: AAP Images

Football Australia must stamp these shameful acts out the women’s game right now.

This is a real test case for Australian football. Now, more than ever, the eyes of the world are on us because we’re co-hosting the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

If we stuff that up, there’ll be no legacy to leave.

The Matildas are one of the most popular teams in all of Australian sport, and that’s where we want them to stay,

However, their popularity means expectations of them, on and off field, have grown.

Incidents that De Vanna has brought up may have been wrongly swept under the carpet when the Matildas’ following was small.

But there’s no more hiding, and that applies to the players as well.

The silence from Matildas captain Kerr and her teammates – particularly the squad’s senior players – has been deafening.

Where is their support for De Vanna?

Matildas captain Sam Kerr. Picture: Adam Head

The longer Kerr and her national teammates say nothing, the more it calls into question the so-called grand culture that supposedly exists in Australian women’s football.

While the Matildas are embroiled in controversy, our national men’s team continues to do us proud.

The Socceroos’ record-breaking achievement of winning 11 successive matches in a single World Cup qualifying campaign cannot be underestimated.

Let’s not forget that 10 of those 11 wins have been outside of Australia, and plenty in the Middle East, where the Socceroos have historically struggled.

It’s a phenomenal achievement, and one the Socceroos and their coach Graham Arnold deserve much more credit for than they have received.

The Aussies can take a huge step towards sealing a berth in next year’s World Cup in Qatar by making it 12 in a row with a win over Japan on Tuesday night

It’s another away game, but Arnold’s men won’t complain. The spirit in the Socceroos squad is enormous and has carried them through this remarkable streak at the toughest of times.

Lisa De Vanna has said she had been the victim of sexual assault, harassment and bullying during her career.

Damning indictment: How FA botched previous Matildas review

– Julian Linden

If Football Australia is serious about providing players with a safe way to report serious abuse problems within the game, then they need to start by owning up to their past failures.

It’s one thing for FA to applaud Lisa De Vanna and Rhali Dobson and all the other brave women who have put their necks on the chopping block by lifting the lid on the game’s darkest secrets by offering them all the support they need.

But that’s cold comfort when they are already being hounded on social media by gutless trolls and being undermined by self-serving critics twisting the narrative by questioning their motives.

These courageous women deserve better and FA has to share the blame for the added abuse they have been copping because the real shame in all of this is that they should never have had to go public in the first place.

FA was warned about this two years ago when it completely botched the last inquiry into what’s really going on inside the national teams after the messy sacking of then Matildas coach Alen Stajcic.

Rhali Dobson.

To this day, FA has still not properly explained the real reasons why Stajcic was forced out but there’s no doubt it is part of the reason why the Matildas’ alleged cultural problems are back in the headlines again.

The three investigators who conducted the last review did a thorough job, making a series of important recommendations to help protect players from having to turn whistleblower, but they never got to the heart of the matter because of all the roadblocks that were put in their way.

Incredibly, Stajcic was never questioned at any stage during the last review but now it’s been revealed that none of the Matildas were interviewed either.

Liz Ellis, who was on the review panel, let that slip during an interview with the ABC when Tracey Holmes asked her if any other Matildas players had raised complaints similar to De Vanna’s explosive allegations.

“Nothing specifically was said to us,” Ellis replied.

“We weren‘t able to speak to any of the Matildas players.

“You can read into that what you like.

“But it probably speaks to the fact that over the years the Matildas players really hadn’t felt there were proper communication channels between them and the hierarchy at the FFA.”

Lisa De Vanna has spoken out about decades of problems in Australian football.

The astonishing revelation that no Matildas players were ever interviewed is confirmed in the summary and recommendations from the review, along with a scathing explanation as to why.

“Athletes were wary to speak to us directly,” the summary said.

“Evidence is that their voice is not consistently listened to by administrators and those governing the sport.”

That’s one of the most damning indictments made against any Australian sporting body but the message hasn’t sunk in yet, with new chief executive James Johnson this week boasting about the reforms that have already been implemented.

“Players and officials can be assured that any matters they raise will be taken seriously and investigated thoroughly and in the strictest confidence,” he said.

“While we will deal with any issues that may arise from any potential investigations, we can‘t lose sight of the fact that Australian football has taken huge strides in recent times when it comes to providing a safe and inclusive environment for women involved in the game.”

The one thing that FA has got right this time is agreeing to hand over the running of the investigation to Sport Integrity Australia because it’s clear that sports can’t be trusted to investigate themselves.

This is a watershed moment for Australian sport, which is on the verge of crisis.

In the past 12 months alone, the Canberra-based watchdog SIA has received over 600 integrity matters across 61 sports so nothing can be left off the table.

SPORT’S UGLY TRUTH: ABUSE SHAME GOES BACK DECADES

The time is up for all Australian sporting bodies to stop burying their heads in the sand about the disgraceful unchecked abuse that is still continuing within our own sporting programs.

The notion that the mistreatment of athletes is something that occurred years ago – or only happens in foreign countries that have no regard for human rights is the biggest myth in Australian sport.

Let’s stop kidding ourselves that it doesn’t happen here because the abuse of athletes has been taking place in Australia for decades, right under our very noses.

And it is still happening right now in our most believed teams – the Dolphins, the Hockeyroos and the Matildas.

Too many of the darkest secrets have never come to light because administrators have been able to sweep things under the carpet when survivors don’t feel safe enough to tell their stories.

That needs to change.

Like the courageous Australian gymnasts, swimmers and female hockey players who went public with their accounts of the problems in their sports after their complaints fell on deaf ears, Lisa De Vanna should be applauded for her courage in coming forward to reveal the abuse and harassment she experienced during her distinguished career as a Matilda.

There’s not a parent or budding footballer in Australia who won’t be shocked and angry when they read her harrowing report of what allegedly happens inside the team dressing room.

Lisa De Vanna while playing for the Matildas. Picture: Getty Images

But it should have never come to that because while De Vanna’s allegations may be news to some, many of the sport’s insiders will shrug their shoulders and mutter ‘I told you so’ because this is football’s worst-kept secret.

Football Australia has already publicly acknowledged this after conducting an investigation two years ago into the sport’s culture but that probe never went far enough because it clearly didn’t address the elephant in the room that De Vanna exposed when she claimed she was assaulted by her own teammates.

Now under new leadership, FA has given every indication that it wants to get to the bottom of what really happened, describing the allegations as shocking and handing over the running of the investigation to Sport Integrity Australia (SIA).

This is the right play by FA because no matter how good their intentions, there’s not a sporting body in Australia that should ever be allowed to investigate itself whenever allegations of abuse surface.

That all ended earlier this year when the Australian Human Rights Commission handed down its report into Australian gymnastics.

The findings were a national shame but a game changer for how Australian sports need to deal with historical and current abuse claims.

The investigators found that for decades, young Australian gymnasts, mostly girls, were molested, abused and bullied by the same people who were supposed to protect them.

Gymnastics Australia and the Australian Sports Commission both issued formal apologies and copped a roasting – blamed for either turning a blind eye to what was happening or failing to recognise the familiar warning signs.

But they were also lauded for setting a new standard in the way sports deal with abuse claims by agreeing to an independent investigation.

The findings were ugly and the fallout brutal but that’s a price worth paying to restore integrity within sports.

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