16 Nov How FFA has missed the boat on women’s football: Bolton

Former Socceroos goalkeeper Clint Bolton has slammed the FFA for missing the boat on women’s football “for a good 10 years now”.

The Matildas have seen a spike in popularity over the past few years, but according to Bolton, women’s football could have been advanced further if given the adequate amount of attention.

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“This is an area where Australian football has missed the boat for a good 10 years now,” Bolton told SEN Afternoons.

“We have had a women’s competition for a good 10-15 years and if we treated this area with a lot more respect and provided conditions and rights they deserve, we could have owned this space in Australia a long time ago.

“This is the lack of vision at the top. I’m not talking just from a football context, but a commercial context, we are just far too short term thinking in delivering peaks along the way to keep people in jobs. That’s what it is all about.

“If there was a long term vision 10-12 years ago with the women’s game, they would be flying now.

“There wouldn’t be a discussion about them striking about rights, the PFA having to step in and deliver outcomes.

“That’s still going where they’re fighting for just basic stuff, but that should not be happening. It’s ridiculous.”

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Bolton also added the restructured FFA board need to put an emphasis on growing the grassroots side of the game.

“For too long, we have operated from a top down approach,” he said.

“So we worry about the professional game and then the grassroots comes secondary.

“You've got to invert that. That’s ridiculous. You look after your grassroots and it’ll feed into your professional league.”