Inclusion in sports – Why it matters more than anything

In today’s society, flexibility is key.

As a journalist, it’s about being able to fulfill multiple roles such as commentary, writing, reporting, interviewing and so on.

As a soccer player, it’s about being able to play multiple positions when called upon, even if it’s a position you’re not comfortable with.

As an event manager, you need to ensure your patrons have access to your events, even if they are impaired in some way.

Take for example, the Australian Open. A worldwide event that attracts fans from all across the globe. Different types of fans flock to Melbourne Park every year to watch the best players in the world.

However, for some, getting to Melbourne Park and then watching stars like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams and many more isn’t as seamless as it may seem.

Physical impairments, in the past, have restricted some fans’ ability to watch world class tennis live. To say it’s a shame puts it lightly, it’s downright unfair. Fans should be able to watch tennis live and enjoy it just like everyone else.

That’s why Tennis Australia acted, as well as Wheelchair Tennis champion and Australian Dylan Alcott. Alcott is the men’s wheelchair first seed and is a modern-day Australian tennis icon.

He is the co-founder of a company called Get Skilled Access which, in accordance with Tennis Australia, has made access to all grounds at Melbourne Park 10 times easier.

All stadiums have lifts that can easily take people up to their seats. All showcourts now have certain entrances that have ramps instead of stairs and designated seats for those with disabilities.

Even getting around Melbourne Park has been made easier with more signs directing those in need to where they specifically need to go.

Now, those with physical impairments can enjoy the tennis just as much as everyone else, which is fantastic and a great reward for effort by TA and especially Alcott.

In saying that, sometimes it’s not a physical impairment that limits the enjoyment of sporting fans.

Deafness and blindness affect millions of people worldwide and as unfair as physical impairments are, being able to listen and/or see is just as unjust.

The ability to hear and to ability to see are things in life we often take for granted. For some, they dream of the ability to one day, be able to see or hear. But now, measures are being taken to ensure that they can still enjoy sport, like everyone else.

As another example, there have been videos making the rounds recently of groups of two people at soccer venues with someone who is unable to see. Between these two people is a mini soccer pitch, most likely made from cardboard. Using the blind person’s hands, they place them at points on the mini soccer pitch and tell them who has the ball and what’s happening.

Combined with the atmosphere of the stadium and its fans, it allows for the blind men and women to still enjoy the game and the memorable moments to its fullest extent. It’s a beautiful thing to see, especially when these videos are taken during important moments of important matches (e.g. Champions League).

It’s more than just great to see these people being able to enjoy sport, but it’s just plain awesome to see people committing themselves to helping those in need. It’s not just a credit to them, it’s life affirming for anyone else.

In conclusion, anyone who is anyone should be able to enjoy sporting events the way anyone else could. Inclusion is the most important thing about sports. Ensuring that everyone is involved, and everyone is treated equally in this respect is critical. It’s all a part of why sport is so loved worldwide. It brings people together but most importantly, it brings the best out of people, on and off the field.

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How Australian Support for the World Cup Has Changed Since 2022

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Federation Square 2022; Image Credit: AFR

Sodden, rowdy and 7,000-strong, the crowd that gathered at Federation Square before dawn on Saturday for Australia’s clash with the United States offered a vivid illustration of how much, and how little, has changed in Australian football support since Qatar 2022.

The scenes themselves were familiar: fans queuing from 2am, flares lit during the anthem, a barrier breach as the precinct hit capacity within minutes of opening. But the fact the screening happened at all says something about the shifting institutional weight football now carries in Australia.

Just this May, the Melbourne’s Arts Precinct had decided not to screen Socceroos matches at Fed Square this tournament, citing crowd damage and arrests during a 2022 World Cup screening. Football Australia publicly pushed back, and the Victorian Government ultimately overturned the decision, with security and police presence increased to manage the risk. That a state government intervened to guarantee a public screening reflects how central these gatherings have become to football’s standing in Australia, not just as a peripheral fan event but a piece of cultural infrastructure worth a premier’s political capital.

A Tournament Inherited, Not Just Attended

The scale of public interest now sits on a different foundation than it did in 2022. Football Australia’s most recent National Participation Report recorded an 11% increase in total participation to 1,911,539 people, with women and girls’ participation rising 16% to 221,436. Industry analysis attributes much of that growth to the “Matildas effect” following the home Women’s World Cup in 2023, projecting 407,000 new junior participants by 2027 on the back of that tournament and Football Australia’s broader infrastructure strategy. Whatever happens to the Socceroos in the United States, the crowd at Fed Square this year is drawn from a participation base substantially larger than the one watching from lounge rooms and pubs in Qatar.

That shift shows up in how fans say they’ll engage with this tournament regardless of results. New industry research found 79% of intended Australian viewers plan to keep watching the World Cup even if the Socceroos are eliminated, an 11-point increase on 2022, suggesting interest is becoming less tied to the national team’s results than it once was. The same research found television remains dominant, with 88% of viewers planning to watch on TV, rising above 90 per cent for evening and weekend matches, even as audiences increasingly split their attention across streaming and second screens.

Crowd Behaviour as the Unresolved Question

What hasn’t shifted is the tension over crowd conduct at public screenings, and what it costs football’s civic standing when things go wrong. The Melbourne Arts Precinct’s chief executive was explicit in 2026 that damage and behaviour during 2022 screenings were the basis for initially declining to host watch parties this time, despite trouble-free crowds during the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

Saturday’s flares and barrier breach will likely feed that same debate going into the knockout stages, even as the broader numbers tell a story of a sport with a far deeper public footing than it had four years ago. The Fed Square images from 2022 prompted other Australian cities to scramble together live sites once the Socceroos reached the knockout rounds, reflecting a pattern likely to repeat if Australia progresses from Group D, with Friday’s match against Paraguay now carrying outsized weight for a campaign that began with what fans, by their own description, considered horrible refereeing and a result short of expectations.

WA Government and Virgin Australia Partner to Bring Discounted Flights for Italian Football Series in Perth

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Image Credit: Shutterstock

The Western Australian Government has partnered with Virgin Australia to offer discounted airfares to Perth ahead of a three-match series featuring AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus and Palermo, in a move that reflects how state governments are increasingly using major sporting fixtures as tools of tourism and economic strategy.

Subsidising travel costs rather than simply promoting the matches signals a shift in how state governments are approaching major sporting events. WA Tourism Minister Reece Whitby positioned the series within the state’s broader Winter of Unmissable Sport strategy, framing the partnership as a way to fill hotels, support local businesses and generate visible economic activity across a single week of programming. That logic places football alongside other major events states have used to justify public investment in visitor attraction, where the return is measured in tourism spend rather than ticket revenue alone.

A bet on Australia’s appetite for European football

Touring Italian clubs is not a routine occurrence in Australia, and Sport and Recreation Minister Rita Saffioti’s comments point to an underlying assumption behind the investment: that the existing fan base for European football in Australia is substantial enough to justify a state government underwriting travel costs to fill a stadium on the other side of the country.

Australian audiences for international football have grown considerably over the past decade, driven by streaming access, diaspora communities and the rising visibility of leagues once difficult to follow locally. State governments positioning themselves to capture economic value from that growth, rather than leaving it to broadcasters and travel operators, marks a change in how football’s commercial footprint in Australia is being treated by policymakers.

It also raises a question likely to recur as more international club fixtures are scheduled in Australian cities: whether public subsidy for travel around marquee football events delivers economic value beyond the host city, or whether the benefit is concentrated narrowly within the host state’s tourism and hospitality sectors. Virgin Australia’s involvement reflects the commercial logic on the airline side, with the partnership forming part of a broader push to connect Australians with major domestic and international destinations.

For the domestic football industry, the series is a reminder that international club football is competing for the same audience attention as the A-Leagues and grassroots competitions. Whether that competition proves complementary or extractive, in terms of where football-related spending in Australia ultimately lands, is a question state and national football bodies are likely to watch closely as similar fixtures become more frequent.

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