FA and the ABC partner to cover AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2026™

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Football Australia and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) have announced a partnership ahead of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup Australia 2026™, which will see the tournament made accessible to listeners through live audio of all CommBank Matildas games.

What will the partnership include?

Australians looking to follow the tournament throughout the coming weeks will be able to do so with ease, now that Football Australia and the ABC have entered into partnership.

Through ABC Sport and ABC Listen, audiences can follow a minimum of 17 matches. This includes every match played by the CommBank Matildas, as well as selected key fixtures during the Group Stage, and all matches in the knockout stages.

Further, Football Australia CEO, Martin Kugeler, outlined the value of making the tournament and the Matildas’ matches available to the nation.

“This is an important partnership that ensures live audio coverage of the CommBank Matildas and the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2026™,” said Kugeler via official press release. 

“The CommBank Matildas are one of the most supported teams in the country, and the live audio broadcast on ABC will allow everyone in the nation to get behind the CommBank Matildas and follow their quest to become Asian champions.”

Ultimately, this partnership is not simply about broadcasting football matches; it is about making the tournament accessible and encouraging all across the nation to support the CommBank Matildas and women’s football as a whole.

 

Growing and sustaining the buzz

While many will remember the disappointment of the quarter-finals in the tournament’s last iteration in 2022, this year’s build up contains immense optimism.

“The AFC Women’s Asia Cup is a significant tournament on the global football calendar, and the ABC is pleased to bring it to audiences across Australia as the exclusive audio partner for the event,” explained ABC Managing Director, Hugh Marks.

“With Australia playing host, it’s even more important that audiences across the country can follow the tournament to cheer on our mighty Matildas.”

The partnership between Football Australia and the ABC ensures that football fever can spread to audiences across the broader ABC network, which includes eighty metro stations, 40 local stations and over 60 station on ABC Listen. 

Indeed, Australia’s role as host is a huge opportunity for players, fans and the game’s governing bodies to create a real, nationwide buzz for the women’s game. What remains important, however, is that this buzz continues to grow long after the tournament ends. 

 

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Victory unites with Roasting Warehouse in culture-led partnership

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The Melbourne-based anf family-owned business will join the Victory family, uniting two institutions which represent the city’s culture and identity.

A partnership with local roots

As the newest partner of Melbourne Victory, Roasting Warehouse joins forces with a vital part of the city’s sporting landscape.

The club’s Managing Director, Caroline Carnegie, outlined why the partnership bears so much value to both parties.

“We are excited to collaborate with Roasting Warehouse, a community-oriented destination for high-quality coffee, proud of its foundations in Melbourne,” said Carnegie via official media release.

“Football and coffee sit at the epicentre of Melbourne’s culture. The two go hand-in-hand, consistently at the centre of the conversation that stirs Melburnians, which is no different to the conversation sport and Melbourne Victory stir in the State.”

Indeed, this is a partnership which combines the identity, passions and culture of an entire city, therefore giving it the foundations required for long-term, mutual success.

Representing the best of Melbourne

Both Victory and Roasting Warehouse are hugely successful in their respective industries. They are institutions with community-oriented philosphies, who pride themselves on craft and quality.

“We’re incredibly proud to partner with Melbourne Victory, a club that represents the heart, passion, and ambition of Melbourne,” revealed Roasting Warehouse Head of Brand, Alexander Paraskevopoulos.

“As a Melbourne-founded, family-run business, supporting a team that means so much to the local community feels very natural for us.”

Furthermore, through their high-quality blends, Roasting Warehouse will look to prepare Victory’s players and staff for high performances on the pitch as the seasons nears completion.

But this is about far more than just fueling athletes.

This is a partnership which embodies and unites two of Melbourne’s greatest strengths and cultural markers – a connection forged from the city’s very own DNA.

 

For more information about Roasting Warehouse, click here.

Football NSW supports Female Coaches CPD as Women’s Football Surges

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Football NSW has used the platform of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup to deliver a targeted professional development workshop for female coaches, bringing together scholarship recipients for an evening of structured learning and direct engagement with elite women’s football.

Held at ACPE last month, the session was open to female coaches who received C or B Diploma scholarships through Football NSW in 2025. Coaching accreditation carries a financial cost that disproportionately affects women, who are less likely to have their development subsidised by clubs or associations operating in underfunded community football environments. Scholarship access changes that equation at the point where many women exit the pathway.

Facilitated by Football NSW Coach Development Coordinator Bronwyn Kiceec, the workshop focused on goal scoring trends from the tournament’s group stage, with coaches analysing attacking patterns and exploring how those insights could translate into their own environments. The group then attended the quarter-final between South Korea and Uzbekistan at Stadium Australia.

The structure of the evening mattered as much as its content. Female coaches in community football rarely have access to elite competition environments as a professional resource. The gap between the level at which most women coach and the level at which the game is analysed and discussed tends to reinforce itself. Placing scholarship recipients inside a major tournament, as participants rather than spectators, closes that gap in a way that a classroom session cannot.

Female coaches remain significantly underrepresented across all levels of the game in Australia. The pipeline that will change that depends not only on accreditation access but on the professional networks, peer relationships and exposure to elite environments that male coaches have historically taken for granted.

The workshop forms part of Football NSW’s ongoing commitment to developing female coaches through scholarships and structured learning opportunities.

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