Matildas star Alanna Kennedy has disputed the suggestion not enough people are watching women's football, after the squad's recent video calling out a gender prize money gap ahead of the FIFA Women's World Cup.
The almost three-minute collective statement was put together by Professional Footballers Australia – the players union that represents both the Matildas and Socceroos.
When asked about the argument behind differences in revenue between the men's and women's game, Kennedy was strong in her assessment.
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"The argument is fair in some cases, I think for us it's just trying to shed the light on the positive side of it and how we can continue to elevate our voices and the talent we have and how people support it," she said.
"You always get 'the no one's watching women's football' (comment), those things they're just water off a duck's back, for us it's not true.
"We've sold out our game and there's so many people coming to watch, you always have to take the positives out of it rather than look at it from a negative lens."
FIFA recently announced the 2023 Women's World Cup prize pool would be increased to $161 million, up from just $44 million at the 2019 World Cup in France. Each player will also be paid $44,000 from the governing body for group stage participation.
FA has committed to paying the Matildas stars the same percentage of prize money as the men.
The men's World Cup last year had a prize pool of nearly $644 million. FIFA has stated it intends to reach parity at the 2027 Women's World Cup, but the PFA claims they have no formal policy or commitment to achieve it.
Kennedy added there's a need to "shed light" on the current situation.
"It'd be a missed opportunity not to shed light, obviously the football on the field is going to be amazing but I think there's going to be so many important things we can continue to build for our game moving forward," she said.
"I said earlier, we've got a great relationship between the players, the PFA and the FFA, and I think we've made some huge steps forward towards equality in Australia and if we can shed some light on that and help other national teams as well (that's great).
"The video was very strongly about the legacy we want to leave for the next generation and how we can inspire so many young Australians, girls and boys, through this World Cup and I think it'd be a missed opportunity not to use our voices for positive change."
Fellow defender Clare Hunt doubled down on the importance of using the World Cup as a way of bringing focus on the current pay issues.
"I think the legacy video that got released was more of a push, and we know what a wonderful position we're in currently and we want to use this to our advantage and show what Australian women, and women all over the world who are playing football, are capable of in this sport," she said.
"We want to be able to pave the way for our players both in Australia and other nations to have the support, and have the resources to be world class athletes."
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