Matildas coming to Perth for 3 Olympic Qualifier matches
A festival of football will be held in Perth as part of the Asian qualifying rounds for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, with the Matildas set to play 3 games at Perth Rectangular Stadium.
Match fixtures have been updated following the publishing of this article.
The Australian national women's soccer team is currently captained by Perth-born football mega star Sam Kerr, who is expected to lead the Matildas in the matches, which will take place across three days between 26 October and 1 November 2023.
The games are part of round 2 of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women's Olympic Football Tournament Paris 2024, for which the Matildas automatically progressed to round 2 based on their high placing in the 2020 Olympic Qualifiers.
The Matildas will only play in Perth as part of the round 2 qualifiers.
Australia was announced last week as the host nation for Group A of this round of the Asian Qualifiers, with 6 matches proudly brought to Perth by the State Government through Tourism WA, in partnership with Football Australia and supported by VenuesWest.
The Australian squad will face off against round 1 winners from IR Iran, Chinese Taipei and the Philippines, with thousands expected to travel to WA to watch the 3 matches, supported by the recently launched new direct flight between Perth and Manila.
The Matildas have played in Perth once before — in 2018, in a friendly match against Thailand. That game drove leagues of football fans to Perth.
Six round 2 games will take place in Perth overall, across three huge double-header days, with matches played back-to-back:
- Thursday 26 October: Australia vs Iran and Chinese Taipei vs Philippines
- Sunday 29 October: Iran vs Chinese and Taipei Philippines vs Australia
- Wednesday 1 November: Australia v Chinese Taipei and Philippines vs Iran.
Group winners and the best-ranked runner up from round 2 matches played in Perth and across the People's Republic of China and Uzbekistan will advance to the third and final round of the qualifying tournament, to be held in February 2024.
The winning teams will take the two spots reserved for Asia in the Women's Olympic Football Tournament to be held at the Paris Olympics from 24 July
to 10 August 2024. 12 women's national teams from 6 continental confederations will compete overall.
The Asian qualifying round matches will follow 5 FIFA Women's World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 matches in July and August at Perth Rectangular Stadium.
General public tickets for round 2 matches will be available soon at the Matildas' website.