Ambitious Australia aims to put Women s Asian Cup on global map

MELBOURNE – When former Australia forward Sarah Walsh recalls their 2006 Women’s Asian Cup final defeat by China, she remembers a sea of red-clad Chinese fans outnumbering locals in a crowd of about 5,000 at Adelaide’s Hindmarsh Stadium.

Now chief operating officer of the 2026 edition, she is envisioning an 80,000 sell-out crowd for the title-decider at Sydney’s Stadium Australia in just over a year’s time.

“The Women’s Asian Cup historically hasn’t been a big drawcard on the international global football calendar. But we think it should be soon,” the 42-year-old said.

“It should be much like the (women’s) Euro in Europe. This tournament – and us setting the benchmark for that here in Australia – is really important to us.”

The 12-team continental showpiece will kick off about 2½ years after the country co-hosted the Women’s World Cup, a tournament that generated record crowds and viewership in Australia as the Matildas made the semi-finals.

The Asian Cup is a notch or two lower in prestige and profile but Football Australia (FA) jumped at the chance to host it, in part due to the massive popularity of the women’s national team.

The Matildas, having toiled in obscurity a decade ago, are now dubbed “Australia’s favourite team” and they generated an extraordinary run of 16 sell-out home matches up to December.

While FA can bank on big crowds for the home team’s matches at the Asian Cup and have scheduled their tournament-opener at the 60,000-seat Perth Stadium, games that do not involve the Matildas will be a tougher sell.

Walsh and her team will be working hard on engagement with Australia’s Asian communities in the host cities of Sydney, Perth and Gold Coast.

They have a narrow window to build momentum, however.

Australia aside, only defending champions China, Japan and South