Australia hosting a home football World Cup is a dream that alters the sport’s reality in this country
A World Cup in Australia will cast bright sunlight over a game that seems to have taken up residence in the shadows. It has the power to transform the very landscape of sport in this country.
Football
Don't miss out on the headlines from Football. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- ‘We freaking did it!’: Kerr leads World Cup celebrations
- Tom’s 10: Cahill, Messi and a peno that changed everything
Football fans across the country will wake on Friday morning, wondering if it was all just a dream.
The idea of hosting a World Cup has long been seen as a fantasy, with bitter memories still lingering of the one vote garnered by the last attempt a decade ago.
Fabulously, jaw-droppingly, it’s no longer just a dream. The Women’s World Cup is coming here in 2023, like a tornado with the power to change the landscape forever.
Watch European Football with beIN SPORTS and ESPN on Kayo. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >
The sheer scale of what is to come will slowly sink in over the coming days – 32 teams in a newly expanded format playing 64 games, creating heroes and legends across Australia and New Zealand. If you thought football’s participation numbers were strong before this, just wait for the surge that the sheer excitement will engender.
This tournament has the power to transform football at all levels. The fact it is just three years away lends a relative sense of urgency, a feeling that this thing is real and is coming quickly.
In the process the World Cup will bathe in sunlight a game that seems to have taken up residence in the shadows. Governments will suddenly want to be associated with a sport that can bring such a show to town.
Seriously, the World Cup alone will be a major boost to the tourist industry reeling from the COVID-19 ramifications. Football can suddenly be seen as a force for good.
After all the negative headlines of recent years, watch the confident step return to football as it moves forward. Where the sponsorship cupboard was close to bare before, now the halo effect of a World Cup on home soil can – if managed properly – make the whole of football a vastly more attractive commercial proposition.
There is much work to be done in the meantime. The clock is ticking already on the organisational challenges of organising a World Cup, let alone on dreams of using this as a catalyst for the sport.
Me right now. pic.twitter.com/SDSNNuEbgi
— Sam Kerr (@samkerr1) June 25, 2020
But you just know it will be a brilliant tournament, because the bid book showed how good this country is at embracing sporting events and showering them in stardust.
The Matildas will be dreaming of winning it, the fans will dream of the football they can see. Children can dream of the heroes they will watch.
But that’s the thing. None of this is just a dream anymore.