The Matildas are set to return to Canberra in April for the first time in eight years.
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The Canberra Times can reveal the Matildas are headed for Canberra Stadium as part of a two-game series with New Zealand in April.
The Matildas have not played in the ACT since they hosted the Football Ferns at the AIS track in June 2013, while the Socceroos have been absent in the capital for more than two-and-a-half years.
The exact date for the fixture is yet to be released, but an official announcement from Football Australia is expected to be made as early as this week.
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The match will likely take place in early April during FIFA's April 4-12 international window for women's national team fixtures. The window allows a maximum of two games to be played, with one expected in Canberra, and the other in New Zealand as part of the series.
Capital Football put the territory's hand up last October to host the first Matildas home matches in almost 600 days, before Sydney won the bid. But now, it seems a fixture has been secured.
Some 18,553 people turned up for the last national match in the capital, for the Socceroos' World Cup qualifier against Nepal in October 2019, and the Matildas will hope to beat that crowd when they face the Kiwis.
The fixture is part of the $33.5 million Throsby Home of Football project. Three games were promised to the ACT government as part of that deal but only one has been played. Two matches - a Matildas game and Young Matildas fixture - still need to be honoured.
Although the fixture will deliver a boost to the territory's most popular sport, the code's biggest development - the Throsby project - is continually being pushed back. When funding was announced in mid-2019, it was expected to be operational during late 2021.
COVID-19, engineering problems at the 28-hectare site and other assessments have delayed construction.
Despite continuous claims it would be constructed in time for the FIFA World Cup in mid-2023, to act as a training base for international teams, the government has revealed there was a "possibility construction could continue into 2024".
AT A GLANCE
Australia versus New Zealand series:
- April: Matildas v New Zealand at Canberra Stadium. Date TBC.
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Isobel Cootes
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
