Matildas and Socceroos ranked high for emotional pull on fans, leaving A-League in shade
The Matildas have again been named as the national team which fans feel most emotionally connected to, while the Socceroos also rank high. But A-League sides lag well behind.
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It’s the double-edged sword for football in Australia – the emotional links that explain why the Matildas are our favourite team, but the A-League clubs are struggling for fan engagement.
The Matildas and the Socceroos are the most popular and third-most popular national teams according to new research which explores the emotional connection between fans and a host of sports teams at club and national level.
The second most connected national team is the Australian Women’s Rugby 7s team and fourth is their full-sided equivalent, the Wallaroos.
The Wallabies are sixth, while the men’s cricket team is seventh – up from bottom of 13 national teams a year ago in the wake of the sandpaper scandal.
In rugby league, meanwhile, this year’s State of Origin win has helped the NSW team to climb one place above Queensland.
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The findings come from the third iteration of True North Research’s Benchmark EC survey that ranks teams for emotional connection across five key criteria: respect, enjoyment, trust, pride and bond.
The bi-annual research measures national teams each time, and club sides one a year depending on whether they are winter or summer sports. Almost 4300 people were surveyed, all of whom had to be at least “somewhat familiar” with each of the teams involved.
A-League clubs were ranked six months ago, and the findings show how fierce the battle for supporters and views has become for football clubs – by contrast with the success of the national teams.
Despite having their coach sacked in turbulent circumstances in January, and losing in the round of 16 at the World Cup in July, the Matildas were ranked first for the second survey in a row, ahead of any other elite sporting team in the country.
The Socceroos also climbed to third place despite losing in the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup earlier this year, rising one place on six months ago and four places from this time last year.
The A-League teams will find out in six months’ time whether a $1m social media campaign launched last week has helped to improve their standing, with figures from July making stark reading as the clubs move into an independent era.
Only Sydney FC (24th of elite club teams) were ranked above par for the emotional connectedness respondents felt towards them, while the others (from Perth in 34th spot to Adelaide United in 43rd) were ranked “average” – except for the Mariners in 44th, rated as below par.
“It’s true that all national teams tend to do better than club sides in terms of emotional connection, because there’s a broader section of support that has that bond,” said True North director Georgie Maynard.
“But I’ve looked at the A-League teams against other top-ranked club sides and they are underperforming. In terms of the core values that this research measures, their scores are lower than the top tier clubs of other sports.
“We do know that the driver of connections is different between sports, some fans rate performance high but others inclusivity.
“The A-League clubs need to widen their appeal in the criteria we measure.”