It takes a lot of work to start a new football club, especially in a corner of the world where football isn’t necessarily the sport that the majority of the population lives and breathes. Auckland FC is a new edition to the Australian A-League this season, joining the Wellington Phoenix in being the only teams from New Zealand.
The club’s arrival was of much excitement to fans last year, as it made our continent’s top-flight league accessible to the greater crowds outside of Wellington. In the past few months a stadium has been booked, logos, kits and branding have been designed, players have been signed. Just yesterday the team sold out Go Media (Mount Smart) Stadium for their first match ever, which they won 2-0 against Brisbane Roar.
One thing is missing though. No women’s team was created for an Auckland FC entry in the Women’s A-League.
Auckland’s New Zealand counterpart only introduced their women’s team in the 2021-2022 season. This came 14 years after the Phoenix first formed as a club, and 13 years after the W-League’s inaugural season. However, it may not have even happened so soon if not for the FIFA Women’s World Cup. The popularity of football for girls that came with the tournament held down under allowed the A-League Women to expand to include three more teams (Western United, Central Coast Mariners and the Phoenix).
Last season, each A-League club had a men’s and women’s team (with the exception of Macarthur FC, which is replaced by Canberra United FC in the women’s league), meaning that the leagues were even in the number of teams featured and thus areas represented.
However, with the addition of the new Auckland team, it meant that the men’s league had one more team than the women’s. While this doesn’t seem like a big deal, the message that underlines this move is.
The way that Auckland FC have marketed their club to only present a men’s team for this season completely neglects recognising the success of the A-League, and also misses a huge opportunity for history in sports gender equality to be made.
With the exception of the NWSL in the US, many women’s football clubs only form as part of an existing men’s club. Every single club in Europe’s top five women’s leagues has a men’s team that formed years before the women’s. Auckland FC had a chance to make a statement by introducing both a men’s and women’s team at the same time.
Although the club has confirmed the entry of a women’s team into the league by 2025, a message about equality could have been delivered if the women’s team was entered just a year earlier. It would’ve proven equality by presenting both teams as important, without one taking prevalence over the other. However, by presenting the men’s team first, Auckland FC is showing the world yet again that men’s sport will continue to be prioritised over women’s, which is shameful with how much progress we have made with gender equality in sports so far.
What does this say to little girls who want to support a club in their hometown? We’ve brought a new club, but it’s just for boys sorry. Sorry women, you had to wait 13 years for ONE professional team to represent the whole of New Zealand, and now you have to wait again.
What disappoints me even more is that many of Auckland FC’s press statements continue to thank the Women’s World Cup for making football more popular in New Zealand, yet they are failing to represent those involved.
Andrew Pragnell, Chief Executive of New Zealand Football, made a statement to the A-League last year, thanking the tournament for allowing Auckland FC to form:
“The relationship between New Zealand Football and Football Australia has never been stronger and it has been great to see the benefits of co-hosting the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 spread far and wide. This expansion has been in part made possible by these positive trans-Tasman football relations and we look forward to this continuing over the coming years.”
At the start of this year, One News found that the number of girls and women playing football in New Zealand increased by 25% in 2023. Pragnell also responded to this, stating that “Prior to the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 we were already seeing significant increases in playing numbers across the board, especially for girls and women.
“While these figures represent the hard mahi of our football community prior to the event in the build-up to the tournament, 2024 will be the year where we begin to see the true impact of hosting the event and our continued efforts with legacy programmes.
“The 2024 community football and futsal seasons look likely to be our biggest ever as the game continues to go from strength to strength as the largest team participation sport in the country.”
These increasing numbers means that an increasing number of players demand development opportunities. Those with a real chance have few choices: they either have to go to Wellington or go abroad. Having an Auckland women’s team would mean that more talents would be provided with the opportunity to make it professionally, and furthermore would develop more players ready to represent our national team in all age groups.
If Auckland FC truly wanted to wave the ride of the Women’s World Cup and represent girls in the local community, a women’s team would’ve been formed to play this season. However, the club only succeeded in proving that we have a long way to go until equality is reached in the sports industry.
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