Optus Sport is the right platform to show 2023 Women’s World Cup

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Late last week, Optus Sport announced that they had secured the Australian broadcasting rights for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Optus are believed to have outbid big players such as Amazon Prime and other international streaming companies to show the global competition in two years’ time.

The news comes after another broadcast deal was recently announced among Australian football circles, with the APL signing a $200 million deal for the A-League and W-League with ViacomCBS.

In what is a major coup for the streaming platform, Optus will showcase all 64 games of a tournament which is set to be the biggest sporting event held on Australian shores since the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

Optus have announced however, that key matches such as all Matildas games will also be co-broadcasted on a free-to-air channel.

Overall, one match a day of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia will be shown on free-to-air.

Alongside the games, the telecommunications company will produce a range of additional digital content and programming such as preview and review shows.

The rights are a major coup for Optus and Australian football fans should be satisfied that the company is showcasing the tournament.

Optus, over the past few years, have built up a strong portfolio of football rights content in Australia which includes the English Premier League, J-League and international football tournaments like the Copa America and European Championships.

Their strong coverage and care for their product offerings shine through on their streaming platform, something which hasn’t been the case in recent years for competitions such as the A-League on Foxtel.

Yes, they did have difficulties streaming the World Cup to hundreds of thousands of viewers in 2018, but since then they have learned from their mistakes and addressed the flaws on their service.

Optus also have a notable short-term history of showcasing top tier women’s football on their service, including the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France and the FA Women’s Super League, with the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 set to also be shown in the build-up to the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

Optus Vice President of TV, Content and Product Development, Clive Dickens, believes women’s football is a core element of Optus Sport’s elite football offering, resulting in unprecedented coverage that would lead to even more Australian fans to women’s football.

“We have built an unparalleled pedigree in enhancing and supporting women’s football and building unique customer relationships with football fans, from the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019 in France to being amongst the first broadcasters of the Barclay’s FA Women’s Super League, to recently securing the exclusive rights to the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 in England,” he said.

“The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 represents a huge opportunity to help drive growth and visibility of women’s football in Australia and deliver football fans the best-ever coverage.

“We are committed to changing the future children see and the importance of promoting women in sport to drive that change. It is a privilege, and an endorsement of our credentials by FIFA, to be awarded the rights to showcase this monumental event,” Dickens concluded.

The Australian football community have responded in kind to Optus’ treatment of both men’s and women’s football, with the telco currently having over 888,000 active subscribers on their streaming platform.

Those numbers will continue to lift in the years to come, especially now that they have further invested significant funds into showing the biggest event in women’s football.

“The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 is not just a football tournament, it’s one of the world’s biggest events and to host it in Australia and New Zealand is a dream come true. Young boys and girls, mums and dads will get the chance to see their role models – the Matildas – who are amongst the best players in the world,” said former Matilda and Optus Sport pundit Heather Garriock.

Optus broadcasting the 2023 Women’s World Cup seems like a move which is good for them, but also good for football.

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Build a home, create a culture: How do we secure the Socceroos as global competitors?

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Image credit: FiledIMAGE / Shutterstock.com

The Socceroos kicked off their World Cup campaign with a convincing 2-0 win over Turkey. It was an important win for their tournament ambitions, but also a statement about their quality on the world stage. It is time that we built a facility to ensure this quality is nurtured, not stifled.

Otherwise, we risk falling behind.

 

One of four…

Australia’s Men’s National Team currently sits as the 23rd-ranked team in the world in the official FIFA rankings. The Matildas, meanwhile, are the 15th highest-ranked women’s team.

This year is also the sixth consecutive FIFA Men’s World Cup featuring the Socceroos, confirming their position as a regular competitor in the most prestigious tournament in world football.

So why is it, despite these undeniably positive reflections of Australia’s growth in international football, that the Socceroos are still homeless?

At the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup in Qatar, Australia was one of four competing teams (a list featuring Denmark, Poland and Senegal) without a national base. In 2024, former Socceroos coach Graham Arnold described the team as “homeless” ahead of the World Cup qualifiers.

But four years on from the tournament’s last edition, the situations remains the same. And the world is taking notice.

 

A letter to the PM

In April this year, FIFA reportedly wrote to Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, encouraging the construction of a permanent home for football in the country.

The letter reflects concerns within the governing body that Australia, despite being so present in international football throughout the past 25 years, may fall behind the rest of the pack.

When we look at the talent in the current squad, Australia is by no means an emerging football economy. But commercial and infrastructural limitations in the landscape mean this talent is under-appreciated.

Nevertheless, it is a nation which regularly proves it can compete – and win – on the biggest stage. This we saw only a few days ago.

Which is why the players, coaches and staff representing the nation deserve a permanent facility which reflects, nurtures and inspires talent and competition. The survival of the landscape depends on it.

 

The investment question

Investment into football – from grassroots to professional levels – continues to be at the crux of national debate on how to secure football’s future in Australia.

In a conversation between Soccerscene and Melbourne-based community club, Sunbury United FC, infrastructure and facility-sharing challenges emphasised common grievances for many grassroots clubs.

The issue, therefore, is spread across the nation’s football pyramid. And prompts an uncomfortable question about future investments:

If even the Socceroos continue to share their current base, Leichhardt Oval, with various teams across rugby league and soccer, how can we ever expect clubs further down the pyramid to avoid similar fates?

The past few years, however, have fortunately seen improved investment into the women’s game in Australia – particularly embodied by the ‘Home of the Matildas’.

The result of a $101.1 million investment by the Victorian Government in collaboration with La Trobe University and the Federal Government, the facility boasts elite training features including premium FIFA-standard pitches, multiple changing rooms, a high-performance gym, a sports science lab and more.

This was a welcome and vital boost ahead of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup which took place in Australia. Now, ever-increasing participation and pride are synonymous with women’s football, and the numbers confirm it.

In 2023, women and girls represented 190,746 participants across social, outdoor, fustal and registered football. In 2025, this increased to 231,435. It proves that, with the arrival of purposeful investment at the top, comes the spread of a football culture across the nation.

 

Aligning practical and cultural benefits

But what would a potential facility for the Socceroos actually look like? And what are the benefits?

When considering similar projects, we can look to both Japan and England as distinct examples of how a national base for football can unite practical, social and cultural benefits.

St George’s Park – England

Built in 2012, England’s base at St George’s Park is a masterclass in using facilities to establish a centre for industry cohesion and community impact.

As a centre of excellence, St George’s Park holds 14 outdoor pitches, a fustal arena, and hosts coaching and medical courses. It welcomes 28 teams across men’s, women’s, youth and para football, representing a place of unity and alignment for the entire football community.

Furthermore, the ‘Play Like the Pride’ program offers grassroots participants and school students the chance to experience the elite facilities for a day, showing how facilities can serve to connect young players to the world of their professional idols and foster real passion for the game.

JFA J-Village – Japan

The J-Village – beyond being a state-of-the-art football training centre – shows why a home for football can positively impact the community.

After being used as a support base for the nuclear power plant accident following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, the venue now holds a deeply important place in the memory of Fukishima. As a result, upon resuming full operations in 2019, the facility – and the football development within it – represented a sense of perseverance, reconstruction and unity.

And through hotels and public transportation links, the J-Village also welcomes tourists and business travellers, encouraging more people to step into the world of football in Japan.

One venue, therefore, can give rise to an essential part of a thriving football landscape: culture. A culture for participation, community outreach, and elite development.

 

Final thoughts

The focus of the summer will no doubt be how the Socceroos perform on the pitch. And with homes, offices, and public spaces brimming with enthusiastic support, the sense of national pride is irresistible.

But for all the positive sentiment currently taking hold of the nation, there will come a time when Australia’s World Cup run is over, at which point an all-important question must be asked:

How do we move forward?

We move forward by transforming buzz into an aligned vision, commitment to nurturing talent, and a desire to establish a real footballing culture across the nation.

The first step to building this culture? Building a home from which it can thrive.

The A-Leagues Final Series important status also a secret hinderance

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The Isuzu A-League finals series is a huge event in the footballing calendar, though its contribution to stagnant attendance numbers in the league is something to be said.

If the 2025/26 finals series follows similar patterns to those before it, it will gather huge traction and strong ticket sales.

It is the largest event for the domestic league, bringing in massive amounts of viewership through media and gate receipts.

Finals series from years past have shown this, with the 2024/25 final, a Melbourne derby, being sold out within 48 hours and gathering significant viewership online.

The idea of a finals series lies within the Australian sporting ethos; the other sporting codes have had this tradition for most of their existence, especially in recent history.

Football, though, is different from the rest of the sporting codes in Australia, unique even. This has historically contributed to its inability to integrate into the same supported status as other codes.

Many in the Australian footballing community, supporter groups, players, coaches, and even the new Director of Football Australia, have voiced concerns over fan numbers in the league competition.

It wouldn’t be absurd to say that maybe, though profitable now, the finals series is actually taking away from the league itself.

Consider the media image: the league winner is called the “minor premiership,” and ticket sales and viewership figures reveal a huge disparity between the two parts of the A-League.

It must be said that an alternative that could work in unison with the league and possibly increase viewership of the league itself would be a great advantage.

It would allow the league to gain more jeopardy and drama, which could build greater interest in attending league games.

One alternative is already here.

No other sporting code in Australia has both a league competition and a cup competition. Football in Australia does.

The Hahn’s Australia Cup is our equivalent to the FA Cup in England or the Copa del Rey in Spain.

These are competitions that offer a finals option in a different competition entirely. They generate huge traction while never diminishing the importance of the league and, therefore, its popularity.

These cup competitions cannot be discussed without acknowledging some obvious differences.

They don’t face the same popularity issues that football does in Australia. It’s obvious the Hahn’s Australia Cup doesn’t yet gain the traction that the finals series does.

However, for a healthy footballing environment with increasing fan numbers, it should.

The idea of elevating the Hahn’s Australia Cup and scaling back the finals series is a complex question, one that is treated like a “no-go zone” by many in the Australian footballing community, and that is understandable.

Though big changes like this might, in the end, be credible options for the future of the sport in this country.

Larger plans must be set in motion, strategies that can be worked towards and refined along the way. It is the process by which all large organisations, business models and even national governments build their strategies.

Such a shift will be scrutinised and pushed back against.

Though with further fine-tuning and smart investment in development, not to mention the introduction of promotion and relegation and the possibility of changing the footballing calendar.

It could replicate the success that these two-competition models already enjoy in other leagues.

The added importance that the premiership would gain, the reality that every game matters, could alongside other strategies entice fans to more games, increase viewership and ticket sales, and create more dedicated fan bases. It works in other nations, very well in fact.

The possibility of two teams lifting a trophy, rather than one single event defining it all, sounds like a strategy that could deliver more engagement over longer periods of time.

Maybe Australian football doesn’t need to answer this question just yet. It is complex, difficult and it would require a great deal of work, including significant investment into the game, which is another issue entirely.

Yet as low attendance numbers persist in the A-League, even alongside increased media viewership, something needs to change for football in Australia.

The rise in popularity of this game and its dedicated community deserves bold ideas and forward thinking.

Ideas like this could eventually begin to change the landscape of the beautiful game in Australia for the better.

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