Socceroos lose, but World Cup a $28m unexpected win for Football Australia

The game’s governing body didn’t expect to make it to Qatar. But it is has provided a welcome windfall. The Matildas women’s World Cup campaign next year will be even more lucrative.

The Socceroos had a tough time of it on the field against France. Things are looking better off the park. Picture: AFP

The Socceroos may have been smashed 4-1 by France in their first World Cup game but just making it to Qatar helped deliver an unexpected $28m bonus for Football Australia.

Financial accounts lodged by FA on Wednesday afternoon, obtained by The Australian, show the governing body is in its best shape since the pandemic hit at the start of 2020.

Revenue reached $88.6m for this year, well above the $60m FA had forecast when its financial year began in the second half of 2021.

“We budgeted on the basis that we wouldn’t qualify (for the World Cup), just in case we didn’t. The additional revenue we have got as a result of qualifying is a bonus,” said FA chief executive James Johnson.

The forecast had come at a time when the Socceroos were struggling to make it to Qatar, qualifying only via an unlikely play-off win against Peru after a penalty shootout.

It has resulted in at least $US10m ($15m) in prize money and appearance fees paid to FA by world governing body FIFA, of which about 40 per cent will go to the 26-man Socceroos squad.

Much of the rest of the uptick in revenue is a result of the increasingly popular, and far better performing, Matildas women’s national team, which will play at home in the 2023 Women’s World Cup next July and August in a tournament shared with New Zealand.

“There‘s a big appetite commercially to invest in women’s sport, women’s brands. And if you look at what really drives our sport as a code, it’s the national teams. If you have a strong nat­ional team, you have strong participation in the sport,” said Johnson. “Our biggest growth corridor is in women and girls. We’ve gone from about 23 per cent of total participation being female to nearly 27 per cent, over the past 12 months. That is still only 27 per cent of our total though, and I think that number is really going to grow.”

New sponsorship deals have also helped FA’s bottom line, including a $10m three-year agreement with Subway to sponsor the Socceroos and a headline deal with Commonwealth Bank to sponsor the Matildas. (The bank is also a FIFA sponsor for the 2023 Women’s World Cup.)

It has led to Johnson declaring FA to be in its “healthiest” fin­ancial state ever, and a forecast that its revenue will rise above $100m for the 2023 financial year.

That is still less than the $132m revenue it had in 2018 and 2019 under former CEO David Gallop, though the then Football Federation Australia controlled the domestic A-League competition.

That league is now owned by the clubs and private equity firm Silver Lake, which bought a 33 per cent stake in a $140m deal last year.

FA retains a small share and also received a $7m payment for the league separation, which helped it overcome a $2.4m operating deficit this year.

The separation from the league has left FA to concentrate on the national teams, with Johnson revealing the Matildas will play three home games in Australia next February ahead of the World Cup and the Socceroos are also likely to play at home against “top opposition” in March and June.

“We’ve got two teams now generating revenue, and it helps us continue to build the brand.

“In 2023, you will see a heavy focus on bringing the teams back to Australia. You need to know the players and see them, to make that connection to the community and to sponsors.”