Abstract
Australia is one of the few countries where soccer is not the major code of football so the game’s influence on national culture and politics has been limited for much of the period since the nineteenth century. Today, it has the highest participation rate of any of the codes but has not yet translated that into equivalent financial, political or cultural clout. The internal politics of the game has been traditionally seen as one of the factors holding it back, though recent research has placed more emphasis on its governing structure. Rivalries between clubs have been a part of the game in Australia, but rivalries between the codes have been more significant. Australia’s international political relations particularly with the countries of Asia and Oceania have not matched its relative success on the field, where its men’s and women’s teams have been regular qualifiers for World Cups and Confederation champions.
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Hay, R., Syson, I. (2018). Australia. In: De Waele, JM., Gibril, S., Gloriozova, E., Spaaij, R. (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook of Football and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78777-0_29
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