By Kris Goman 5/8/24

Above: Football Australia CEO James Johnson. Photo: Kris Gorman

James Johnson, CEO of Football Australia met with media this morning in Leichhardt, fresh off the plane from France, to talk about the Matildas journey at the Paris Olympics, the plans for replacing Tony Gustavsson and he also responded to the criticism the team has received in the press of late.

In recent days, The Australian newspaper reported, “some players were puzzled by coach Tony Gustavsson’s tactics during the Olympics and other major tournaments.”

They drew on unnamed sources to claim he had “lost the dressing room some time ago,” that it was “ disorganised chaos” and that several players have described it privately as “four years of hell”.

The Australian had no access to players other than formal press conferences where these allegations were certainly not mentioned. They do not name the sources that are “close to the players” at all.

Given the players are pretty much in a locked environment during the tournament, it’s very difficult to understand how anyone would or could get such information.

Johnson was asked to address these claims and categorically denied them.

“No, I’ve seen some of these rumours go around but I don’t think that is correct at all,” Johnson said of the reports.

“We have systems in place.

“We’ve put feedback channels in place over the past three years so after every camp and after every major tournament there are feedback channels the players give to the federation on an anonymous basis and I can categorically say that that feedback has not come and since the loss to the United States, I’ve had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with the leadership team and that’s not come up whatsoever.”

It was also suggested that the relationship with Sam Kerr is an all-time low with Football Australia. Is there any truth to that?

“No, I’m in touch with Sam right now and she’s obviously doing her rehab at the moment so she’s close to getting back on the field for Chelsea and as soon as she’s available to come back into the team, we’re looking forward to welcoming Sam back in.”

“It’s a very good relationship.”

Johnson also hit back at accusations of pampering players. The Matildas were afforded the conditions as set out by their CBA, the same as the Socceroos but it has been suggested by some outlets that this has negatively affected their performance.

“This narrative of pampering is very disappointing to hear. 

“The reality is we’ve set the Matildas program up the same as we’ve set the Socceroos up.

“This is a great group of women and they are great footballers that play at the biggest clubs in the world and, quite frankly, they deserve to have a program as good as the Socceroos. 

“We’re very proud of the environment we’ve set up for the CommBank Matildas and we’re going to continue to invest. 

“The reality is, if you compare ourselves to the United States Women’s program, they’re investing 300% more than what we’re doing. I think we’re on the right path and there’s been a lot of good progress and I’d say we’d go the other way.

“The more we can invest in this program, the better. They are not being pampered, they are being treated like professionals.”

So it seems there’s not a lot of truth to the rumours.

It’s well documented that the Matildas did not get out of the group stage of the Olympics. Many Matildas publicly said they wanted a medal so their early exit was seen as somewhat of a shock. Johnson was not shocked but said he was disappointed with the results.

“We’ve got to remember that when you go to the Olympics, there’s only twelve teams and we were in a group competing with number four and number five in the world.

“We knew we could beat Zambia but we knew that playing against both the United States and Germany would be tough matches.”

“I think if we look at the Olympic campaign, we didn’t do as well as we wanted to and I think we need to own that as a team and as an organisation. We did go out to number four and number five in world football. 

“Both USA and Germany, as of this morning, are both in the semifinals of the Olympics. These are the games that are always going to be tough and we acknowledge that.

“I think if we look at the cycle more broadly and Tony’s era, he has overseen arguably the biggest and best ever period for Australian football. He’s seen the team go to two semi finals. The Tokyo Olympics and the 2023 Women’s World Cup, so I think, as a cycle, I would say it was a success but if you look at the Olympic campaign in Paris, we didn’t go as far as we wanted the team to go.”

Johnson reflected on the last four years with Gustavsson at the helm and while we all understand that the goals for the Olympics weren’t achieved, it was refreshing to get some perspective from Johnson across the whole period and understand the magnitude of change that occurred.

“I think if we look at Tony’s reign, it is hard to get the balance between bringing players through and going deep in tournaments. I think if you look at Tony’s reign as a whole, he’s done a very good job.

“He’s brought the likes of Mary Fowler, Kyra Cooney Cross, Charlotte Grant, Clare Hunt and Clare Wheeler in.

“ He’s brought a new group of players through on one hand and we did ask him to do that because the team needed young blood to come through. He also took the CommBank Matildas to their best ever performance twice. Not once but twice – and that happened to be the best ever performance of a senior national team.”

Johnson stated that many of the current team are approaching the age of 30 and that the new coach would need to be looking to bring the next generation through. He said that no one has specifically indicated they are about to retire but when they do they want to treat them with respect and used Lydia Williams as the example.

“Going forward, we’ve got to get that balance right again.

“The reality is that some of our players are approaching the age of 30 and while those players, I hope, will still be available for the Women’s Asian Cup in 2026, when we get to the back end of the cycle, they’re going to be mid 30s by that stage.

“So naturally the next coach will need to bring a new generation of players through.

“We believe we’ve set ourselves up well. We’ve invested twice as much over the past 12-18 months in our youth national teams than we ever have before so that’s been a huge investment.

“We’ve established on the women’s side for the first time an Under 23 team and we have a line of coaches. We have an Under 23 coach, Under 20s and an Under 17s coach. So we’re investing more on new development than we ever have and we think that that will help the next coach bring the next generation of Matildas through during the cycle.”

Johnson said there was no strict timeline to find a new coach and that they would be looking both domestically and internationally.

 “It may take one month or it may take six months but there’s seven FIFA windows before the Asian Cup, which is the next tournament, so we have plenty of time to get the right person.”

“We’ve got seven windows before the Asian cup and those windows are windows that we control. They are friendly windows, not qualification or competition windows so time is up our sleeve. We want to make sure we get the right appointment. We know the market well and we went through a very thorough process before we hired Tony Gustavsson and we’ve continued to monitor the market ever since. I think we’re further ahead than what most would be and it’s about trying to find the right coach.”

This is not so surprising as it was well known that Gustavsson’s contract expired after the Olympics. It was a matter of whether or not the contract would be renewed for another cycle rather than sacking Gustavsson, per se. 

Johnson is not planning on appointing an interim coach because there’s no matches until October. The first priority will be appointing the panel that will oversee the appointment.

He’d like to get a coach in as soon as possible.

“The reality is we want to get the right appointment and we do have time. We’re going to look locally, we’re going to look abroad and we’re going to look for someone that can set the team up for success over the next cycle. If that takes a month, great – if that takes three to six months, then that’s fine as well.”

When asked about Joe Montemurro and whether he was being considered, Johnson did not eliminate the possibility.

“We know Joe very well. He’s a local coach who’s done an outstanding job in Europe.

“He’s coached Arsenal, he’s coached Juventus and now he’s coaching at Lyon. So we’re well aware of Joe, not just because he’s Australian but because he’s an Australian doing great thingsin Europe. 

“What I can say is that any coach that is at the top of their game that are coaching at clubland or at national federations around the world, they are on the radar and we just need to find one that is available and ready and willing to come to Australia and coach the Matildas.”

“We want a coach with fresh ideas that can come in and rejuvenate the team. Naturally the coach that we choose will have his or her own ideas and style of play but ultimately what we’ll be doing is setting the strategy and the priorities and that will be to perform as well as possible at the Women’s Asian Cup but also to set the team up for the 2027 Women’s World Cup.”

“The next cycle looks very different. We’ve got a home Asian Women’s Cup in 2026.

“We then play in Brazil for the Women’s World Cup and then we have Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. Playing at home for the Asian Cup – we want to win that and that’s going to be a key priority for us and that means we’ve got 15 months to really prepare for that competition.

“We’re going to set the strategy first and decide what’s going to be important over the next cycle and then find a coach that we think will deliver on the objectives that we set.

“A major priority over the next cycle will be our performance at the Woman’s Asian Cup on home soil in 2026.”

“We’re going to look locally and globally and we’re going to look under every single rock and ultimately we’re going to look for a coach that can on one hand win us the Woman’s Asian Cup and also do well in 2027 and 2028 but that can also bring the next generation of young players through. That’s something that of course is going to be a priority over the next cycle.”