Recently appearing on the ABC’s ‘Offsiders’ program, Socceroos coach Graham Arnold has reiterated the need for a dedicated home of football for the Socceroos in Australia.
With the Matildas soon to move into a permanent base at La Trobe University in Melbourne, the Socceroos are yet to receive a similar deal.
Journalist Caroline Wilson asked Arnold on the program whether he’d been ‘coaching with one arm tied behind his back’, after the success of the Socceroos campaign at the recent FIFA World Cup had not translated to considerable government support.
In recent times, the Australian Federal Government has injected $230 million to build a new stadium in Hobart for the AFL’s newest expansion team based in Tasmania.
On the program, Arnold claimed: “I’m really happy for the AFL to get what they get, and the rugby league and the NRL in New South Wales to get what they get, but we get nothing at the end of the day. We don’t get any high performance money off the government, we don’t have a home for the Socceroos.
“I’m bringing players back from Europe that are top class players and they’ve got the best training facilities in Europe,” he said.
“They come back, we stay in a hotel, we’ve got no recovery centre. The boys have to get an ice bath, get ice, put in their own bathtub in their rooms to recover from the flight and get ready for the game.
“So it’s something that I believe that the only way forward for Australian football is we need a home of football that we can build the pathways for the kids.
“We’re just looking at the elite level of the Socceroos and the Matildas but the pathways are the most important thing and unless we fix the ingredients in the cake and get that right, well, then the game will suffer.”
The Socceroos return to action on June 15 against Argentina in China.
