Soccer is just one of four beautiful football codes in Australia

As is the case for Rugby Union where Australia's four Super Rugby teams averaged just 11,140 for 20 games in 2026 while the Wallabies have attracted crowds of over 80,000 since 2023 when playing the British Lions and New Zealand, Australians also embrace our national soccer teams with 95,103 attending the MCG in 2006 when the Socceroos played Greece, while 75,784 attended Stadium Australia for the Matildas semi-final against England during the 2023 Women's World Cup.

Of television audiences, important soccer internationals also attract numbers on a par with the biggest AFL and NRL matches with a reported 7.13 million watching the Matildas' 2023 Women's World Cup semi-final against England and 4.8 million Australians watching the Socceroos' FIFA World Cup 2026 matches against Türkiye and Paraguay.

In terms of participation, soccer is the most popular football code in Australia by far with Ausplay noting in 2024 that there were 1,232,726 adults and 632,249 children playing the sport, including a growing proportion of females (around 25 per cent).

Soccer also has the most registered club participants with 640,000 compared to 500,000 for Australian Rules, and over 200,000 for the rugby codes where participation is mostly confined to NSW and Queensland.

Despite the choice of four different football codes, along with many other important team sports like basketball, netball and hockey, many Australian parents encourage their children to play soccer to avoid the prospect of major head injuries when compared to collision-heavy Australian Rules and rugby codes, albeit soccer also carries a high risk for knee/ankle sprains and injuries.

While Australia's four very different football codes create many more opportunities for Australians of different shapes and sizes to play and excel in, soccer relies less on brute strength and more on skill and mobility with Argentina's superstar Lionel Messi being just 170cm tall with the average size of Premier League players being around 182-183cm and 76-77kg bodyweight.

In contrast, AFL and NRL players are taller (188-190cm) and weigh more (87kg and 99kg) with the AFL having 50 to 60 players that measure over 198cm while the NRL has 45 to 50 active NRL players that weigh 110 kg or more.

Having four different football codes also give Australians many opportunities to be involved in a community sport, with such interaction helping to break down cultural barriers between Australians from different ethnic backgrounds.

Soccer, which from the 1950s had many clubs with substantial representation from migrants from Southern and Southeast Europe, now involves many Australians from Middle Eastern and African backgrounds with 34 Africans playing in the A-League by the 2020-2021 season.

The AFL also has around 15 per cent of players with international backgrounds or multicultural ancestry, while the NRL has representation from 65 different national heritages with around half of Pasifika and MÄori descent, with both leagues having many Aboriginal players.

The four different football codes in Australia also provide an opportunity for many young Australians to earn substantial income from their chosen code.

Of soccer, with around 200 males and females playing overseas in 2025-26, many earn salaries from $500,000 to $2 million per season.