Soccer is just one of four beautiful football codes in Australia

Top soccer players also earn significant match fees and prizemoney for playing for the national team, as evident at the 2026 World Cup where each player of Australia's 26-man squad is reported to have received $US211,538, which represents around 50 per cent of the $US11 million earned by Australia for making the last 32 (the knockout stage).

While the A-League allows payments of $500,000 to $1 million for marquee players (which can include Australian players returning from overseas), established starters earn $250,000 to $300,000 with Regular First-Teamers ($160,000 to $240,000).

Of male footballers, the average AFL salary is now $505,691 (ranging from a minimum of $130,000 to a high of $2 million), with the NRL average being $400,000 (ranging from $150,000 to over $1 million).

Of female club players, A-League players earn an average $30,000 to $40,000 and a minimum salary of $25,000, AFL players an average salary around $82,000, and NRL players a minimum salary of $46,200 with some top players earning up to $110,000 per season.

While rugby union players earn much less than the AFL and NRL, the base wage for leading Super Rugby is between $85,000 and $100,000 with top players earning more, boosted by match payments for playing for the Wallabies or abroad for clubs in the top leagues of France and Japan.

Elite Super Rugby female players, those contracted to both Super W and the national squad (Wallaroos), earn up to $72,000 while both male and female Rugby Sevens players earn an average of around $110,000 per year.

Collectively, the four football codes, when you take account of both paid and amateur players, officials, families, fans and volunteers, make an enormous contribution to Australia's cities and towns in terms of the time and resources they spend through involvement in their chosen football codes.

According to the Confederation of Australian Sport, when also including preventative health cost savings, community infrastructure, and educational benefits, the total value of sport is estimated to be as high as $50 billion to $83 billion per year (around 2 to 3 per cent of GDP), with one of the football codes being the most important game in virtually every Australian suburb and town.

Despite some soccer supporters wishing they had their own stadiums given the heavy wear and tear caused by the rugby codes to grass fields, Australia's support of many football codes also helps gain substantial public funding to enable world-class rectangle stadiums to be built.

For example, Melbourne's decision to build a world-class 30,000 seat rectangle stadium by 2010 was influenced by a number of professional soccer and rugby teams needing their own venue to create an intimate spectator experience for fans much closer to the game action.

To conclude, Australia's love of four different football codes represents the reality that Australia has many beautiful football games, and we should celebrate this reality rather ridicule rival codes as if only one is "the" beautiful game when clearly Australia expresses support for all four football codes.

Just which football code is "the" beautiful game comes down to our own individual perspective, and SBS should remember that when it makes a dig at Australia's past just because soccer has proven to be the most successful of all football codes in international terms.