[2][3] The Australian Women's Soccer Association (AWSA) was founded in 1974 and Australia's first official international match was against New Zealand in October 1979.
Prior to the World Cup, the Australian national team players had been required to go through a full-time six-month training programme.
In September 2015, the Australian women's national team was scheduled for a tour of the United States, including a couple of friendlies against the USWNT.
[14] A small handful of national team players also indicated that they would be willing to break the strike, such as Lisa De Vanna, who stated that "at my age I am not sure if the opportunity to play the world champions will come up again.
"[19] On 16 October, the ABC revealed that former players had previously had to go on welfare benefits to make ends meet while playing for the national team.
A few days later, FFA president David Gallop told the ABC that the Federation would offer the players pay equal to minimum wage, but stated that "it’s always problematic when you talk about a minimum wage because it denotes that they’re full time contracts" and that he expected that several players would still have to find second jobs to make ends meet.
"[23][24] In 2018, the Professional Footballers Australia W-League report found that more than half of players were considering retiring early because of financial reasons.
[26][27] The new CBA guaranteed equal split of all commercial revenues between the men's and women's national teams and a number of improvements to working conditions to bring the women's standards equal to the men's, including allowing business class for international travel, increased coaching support, and better parental leave policies.