Football Federation Australia boss David Gallop has urged Canberrans to "vote with their feet" to prove the city deserves more international games after announcing the the Socceroos will play Kyrgyzstan in a World Cup qualifier at Canberra Stadium in November.
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The November 12 fixture will be the first time the Socceroos have played in Canberra for four years, and Capital Football boss Heather Reid wants it to become an annual event.
Fairfax Media revealed in July that Canberra was the leading contender for the fixture, and there is a chance the ACT government will bid for more World Cup qualifier games in the new year.
The success of the Asian Cup in January, where 82,000 fans attended the seven Canberra games, was a major factor behind convincing Gallop the city deserved its first-ever World Cup qualifier.
The last Socceroos game in the capital was a friendly against Malaysia in 2011, when Australian fielded a second-string side.
Gallop stopped short of guaranteeing Canberra an annual Socceroos fixture, adamant the numbers have to stack up financially.
"It's hard to predict how often you can do it, we want to share the Socceroos around the country but we want to make sure we're doing it in places which make commercial sense," he said at Monday's announcement at Canberra Stadium.
"These early games of World Cup qualification do allow us to play some of the smaller nations, and therefore we can bring them to smaller capacity stadiums and smaller cities.
"It's an opportunity for people to vote with their feet. We want people to come out and support the Socceroos and if they do that, then of course there's an opportunity to do it again," Gallop said at Monday's announcement at Canberra Stadium.
"It's a serious game for points and Ange [Postecoglou, Socceroos coach] and the boys will be playing the game with full intensity.
"[We don't expect] necessarily a sell-out but we certainly expect to see close to that.
"The Asian Cup games showed it's a great stadium for football and the pitch is high quality."
Reid hopes the match is a catalyst for a more long term arrangement with the Socceroos and Football Federation Australia.
"There's no doubt we want more Socceroos games here and this type of match is ideal for Canberra Stadium," she said.
"Certainly we'll be pressing the [ACT] chief minister [Andrew Barr] for another of the World Cup qualifiers.
"I'd like to think there's at least a match here every year. We've seen other codes have games here and we want the Matildas, Young Matildas and Young Socceroos here as well.
"We definitely need the full roll up of Socceroos here. I'll be quite frank, it was disappointing we didn't get the key players here for Malaysia, and it was only a friendly.
"This is serious business, three points are on the line."
Gallop said who Australia faces in the second phase of qualifying will be a major factor in whether Canberra hosts another match early in the New Year.
"It'll depend how the draw goes, and this is an opportunity [for Canberra] to show us they want more games," Gallop said.
Tickets will go on sale on to the FFA Football Family and Capital Football Members on Tuesday, September 22 and the general public on Friday, September 25.
