Sam Kerr is a shining star of Australian sport. What will this trial do to her reputation?

Kieran Pender

Feb. 11, 2025, 8:38 p.m.

The Matildas captain’s high-profile criminal trial has traversed complex issues and where it leaves her remains to be seen

The criminal trial of Sam Kerr has been a Rorschach test, enabling observers to reach their own conclusions about the Matildas star well before a verdict was reached. Even the jury’s ultimate finding of not guilty on Tuesday does little to quell bigger questions about the ongoing reputational fall-out, including Kerr’s future as captain of the national team and the face of women’s football in Australia.

Kerr appeared in the Kingston crown court in London over the past week, charged with causing racially aggravated intentional harassment, alarm or distress following a night-out in London two years ago. The charge revolves around four words that Kerr admits she directed at a police officer in the early hours of the morning: “fucking stupid and white.” The question on trial was whether that epithet reached the requisite threshold of criminality; Kerr had pleaded not guilty.