Matildas coach rips A-League Women 'professionalism' in presser tirade, calls for competition 're-think'

Matildas coach Tom Sermanni has unloaded on the professionalism in the A-League Women, calling for a "re-think" into how the competition is played.

Speaking ahead of his side's first friendly against Argentina, Sermanni was asked how important the competition is for the national side.

"How long have you got?," was his immediate reply.

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"It's been vitally important. We started the A-League Women, or W-League as it was in those days, in 2008. One of the things that were important were to give more players more opportunities to play against national team players to get opportunities in the national team. At that time it was at the forefront of women's leagues to be perfectly honest.

"It's still very important and coaches and staff are doing exceptionally well but the league itself is in need of significant improvement in its professionalism. I think there are three clubs that are suitably staffed and that's Melbourne City, Melbourne Victory and Wellington Phoenix and the rest of the clubs are completely inadequately staffed."

Sermanni went on to note players in the A-League Women are on 35-week contracts where the minimum wage is $26,000.

The Matildas coach then made reference to Canada's domestic league where the minimum wage is $56,000. The salary cap there is $1.8 million compared to the ALW's $600,000.

"We really need to have, at A-League level, a re-think," Sermanni continued.

"The A League separated five years ago and what we have done then, is we have home and away which is an improvement but we're still grossly underinvested in the women's game here and I don't know if it's a thought process going forward about where they want to take the league and what they want to do but there's a huge amount of work that needs to be done.

"It's even more irritating when you think we had the most successful World Cup two years ago and the A-League Women are in the situation they're in now, it's just not good enough."

Sitting next to Sermanni was former Adelaide United player Charli Grant who was nodding her head along.

Since leaving Australia, Grant has played in Sweden and now represents Tottenham Hotspur.

She admitted the difference is stark.

"Especially at Tottenham. I think seeing the resources there compared to Australia was very mind-blowing," she said.