Almanac Football: Writing and rewriting football history

Writing and rewriting football history

Roy Hay

 

The recent reclassification of the Australian women’s football team that took part in a tournament in Hong Kong in 1975 as the First Matildas has divided the football community. It is not unprecedented as a rewriting of Australian football history. The Football Association in Scotland determined in October 2021 that the international men’s matches against Australia in 1967 be regarded as A internationals rather than B internationals so that Sir Alex Ferguson could be retrospectively awarded a full Scottish international cap. He had previously had only the lesser award because that year the Scottish team which toured here had been denuded of most of its normal stars whose clubs were taking part in the final stages of the major European competitions.

 

There have been several other examples both here and overseas where football history has been rewritten explicitly to satisfy current concerns rather than the historical circumstances.

 

Football Australia, the national governing body, used to have a panel of historians who cast a professional eye over matters historical, including evaluating nominations for entry into the code’s Hall of Fame and Teams of various decades. The panel’s decisions were recommendations, but those were almost invariably accepted. The panel ceased to exist and now such decisions are made by administrators. Anter Isaac, the current administrative head, has good historical awareness and will be aware of what a minefield this aspect of the story of the women’s game has turned out to be.

 

The modern controversy arises because the 1975 Australian women’s team consisted almost entirely of players from one Sydney club. There was some warrant for this in that the New South Wales team, similarly limited in its club membership, had just won the first women’s national championship in 1974. But the other state teams and their players could argue quite well that their teams included some players of at least equal quality, though perhaps not enough to ensure parity with the winner.

 

Australian football has been different from many overseas countries in that it has numbered its international players. This has only been possible thanks to generations of individuals who have maintained meticulous records for representative teams and their players at state and national level. The late Sid Grant, Laurie Schwab and Les Shorrock, and researchers including Andrew Howe, Ted Simmons, John Punshon, Mark Boric, Ian Syson and Greg Wernher have reconstructed and maintained national, state and club records over the years since the game began in organised fashion in the 1880s. Association football has a much longer history in this country than most people believe. It has until relatively recently been carried primarily by the migrant communities but now its growth and development are based on the domestic population and the explosive impact of the Matildas.

 

In the wider world of football, the relative performances of the men’s and women’s teams have fluctuated. At time of writing, the Matildas’ FIFA-ranking is 16, while the Socceroos are at 26. Both are participating in the qualification process for their respective World Cups. This also the case for players at Youth and Olympic levels. The former draws on Under-17s and the latter largely on Under-23s. A few over-age players have been allowed sometimes. The governing body of football had a case for public support as it was required to maintain all these teams when only the national senior men’s team generated a significant income. The recent success of the Matildas has had an impact and hosting the Asian championships in 2026 will surely reinforce it. The 2015 men’s Asian championship, which Australia won, was successful on and off the field and the women will surely improve on that. Having such a diverse multi-cultural population Australia provides an opportunity for many of them to share their support between their country of origin and the one in which they live now. Matches will be played on the Gold Coast and in Sydney and Perth.

 

15 April 2025

 

 

More stories by Roy Hay can be read Here.

 

 

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