Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Football Barriers – Aboriginal Under‐Representation And Disconnection From The ‘World Game’, John Maynard

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

Indigenous Australians have had some great successes in Australian football and rugby. However, this success has not been mirrored in the ‘world game’, soccer. This study examines the reasons for such under-representation in Australia. The barriers to access to soccer were a combination of racist government policy which restricted the movement of Aboriginal people, and thus their opportunities to engage with a game that was not located near the isolated reserves in which they were held. The most successful Aboriginal players were fortunate that their circumstances placed them in close proximity to locales that were soccer strongholds. Moreover, the multicultural …