Three months after Travis Head’s Ashes onslaught bought the WA summer time off to an explosive begin, Optus Stadium would be the launchpad for extra sporting fireworks when the 2026 AFC Girls’s Asian Cup will get below manner.
The Burswood venue, to be generally known as Perth Stadium through the match, will host the Opening Ceremony and first sport on Sunday 1 March, because the Matildas begin their marketing campaign in opposition to the Philippines.
I recall the unimaginable impression the Australia nationwide girls’s staff made through the 2023 FIFA Girls’s World Cup when greater than 11 million viewers tuned in to observe their semi-final in opposition to England.
It’s nonetheless the most-viewed TV present on document within the nation and whereas the World Cup is the game’s pinnacle, I’ve little doubt one other profitable run for the Matildas on residence soil will once more seize the general public creativeness.
Securing the celebrated curtain-raiser was a coup for Western Australia and a reward for the State Authorities’s dedication to making sure we didn’t miss out on the three-week match.
Perth, Sydney and the Gold Coast are the host cities, and 10 of the 27 video games are in WA, together with two quarter-finals and a semi-final.
Other than the 2 international locations assembly within the opening fixture, Perth followers will get to observe feminine soccer powerhouse Japan, India, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Chinese language Taipei and Uzbekistan.
This can be a terrific likelihood to showcase the most effective of our state to the 1000’s of supporters and dignitaries heading to our shores.
There are different alternatives, too, and a few that received’t make the again pages.
We see increasingly more worth positioned on sports activities diplomacy, as governments across the globe use sport as a software of nationwide energy and affect.
The Division of Overseas Affairs and Commerce launched its Australia’s Sports activities Diplomacy Technique 2023+ final 12 months, and the AFC Girls’s Asian Cup gives an excellent setting for presidency and trade powerbrokers to satisfy in much less formal environment.
There was an instance of this when Indonesian skilled facet Persebaya Surabaya performed in opposition to the Males’s WA State Group on the Sam Kerr Soccer Centre.
Persebaya is a membership with which we’ve got a long-standing bond, and simply over a 12 months in the past we signed a Memorandum of Understanding within the workplace of the then Minister of Sport & Recreation.
Final July’s sport was a part of the MoU and when it was broadcast stay in football-mad Indonesia, greater than 20 million folks watched on TV.
It was an enormous event and tied in with the 35-year sister-state celebrations between Western Australia and East Java, with Premier Roger Cook dinner, Secretary of East Java Province Adhy Karyono and Australian Consul-Common in Surabaya Glen Askew all attending.
WA’s geographical proximity to Asia is a trump card and has helped Soccer West construct thriving relationships and develop our Asian Engagement Technique.
We lately welcomed the brand new Consul Common of Indonesia to WA Irvan Buchari, and this was adopted by a go to to the Sam Kerr Soccer Centre by the Chinese language Consul Common to WA Fu Lihua, who was accompanied by Australia-China Enterprise Council President James Clarke.
It’s not simply with our close to neighbours that Soccer West operates, both. In 2024, we launched our Arabian Engagement Technique in partnership with the Council for Australian-Arab Relations and the Division of Overseas Affairs and Commerce.
This corresponds with the Federal Authorities initiative to strengthen ties with Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia by way of a shared love of soccer. Final 12 months, we despatched an Academy staff to Dubai to compete within the Mina Cup, and we are going to repeat the journey in 2026.
These excursions and tournaments provide younger footballers lifetime recollections and an perception into different international locations and cultures. However there are such a lot of different doorways they’ll open and, in a world of such uncertainty, that may solely be good for enterprise.
- By Jamie Harnwell, CEO, Soccer West
