Football en Australie

Soccer, also known as football, is the most played outdoor club sport in Australia, and ranked in the top ten for television audience as of 2015. The national governing body of the sport is Football Australia (FA), which until 2019, organised the A-League Men, A-League Women, and still organises the Australia Cup, as well as the men's and women's national teams (known as the Socceroos and the Matildas, respectively). The FA comprises nine state and territory member federations, which oversee the sport within their respective region. Modern soccer was introduced in Australia in the late 19th century by mostly British immigrants. The first club formed in the country, Wanderers, was founded on 3 August 1880 in Sydney, while the oldest club in Australia currently in existence is Balgownie Rangers, formed in 1883 in Wollongong. Wanderers were also the first known recorded team to play under the Laws of the Game. A semi-professional national league, the National Soccer League, was introduced in 1977. The NSL was replaced by professional A-League, in 2004, which has contributed to a rise in popularity in the sport. Australia was a founding member of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) before moving to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in 2006. An early match took place at the Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum, located in Wacol, on 7 August 1875, when a team of inmates and wards men from the asylum played against the visiting Brisbane Australian rules football club; the rules of the match which clearly stated that the "ball should not be handled nor carried" was a direct reference to British Association Rules. A match was recorded to be played in Hobart on 10 May 1879, when members of the Cricketer's Club played a scratch match under English Association Rules, which were adopted by the club. The game was a return match to one played on 24 May by the clubs, under a variant of the Victorian rules; to prevent the disadvantage faced by the Cricketers, the clubs agreed that that Association rules would be adopted in the return match.