Australia's Sam Kerr against Philippines captain Hali Long in the group stage of the AFC Women's Asian Cup 2022. AFC/File.
The AFC Women's Olympic Football Tournament Asian Qualifier between the Philippines and Australia has been moved to a bigger venue due to "soaring demand," it was announced on Monday.
Originally set to take place at the Perth Rectangular Stadium on October 29, the match will now be played at Optus Stadium, which has a capacity of over 60,000.
The Philippines and Australia are part of Group A of the second round of the qualifiers, along with Chinese Taipei and Iran.
All other matches in the group will be played at the Perth Rectangular Stadium in Australia, which has a capacity of over 20,000.
"Leading into and during the recent FIFA Women’s World Cup, we have witnessed the enormous drawing power of the CommBank Matildas, with almost 450,000 supporters attending the team’s Send-Off Match and World Cup fixtures," said Football Australia CEO James Johnson in a statement.
"The CommBank Matildas are one of the strongest sporting brands in the country, and it has become strongly evident that passionate support for this iconic team continues to grow and, for the second time in 12 months, because of the popularity of the CommBank Matildas, we need to relocate to a venue with a higher capacity to accommodate the demand," he added.
The Matildas, bannered by Sam Kerr, became rock stars in their home nation during the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023 where they reached the semifinals. Their quarterfinal match against France, which went into penalties, was attended by nearly 50,000 fans at the Lang Park in Brisbane and over 75,000 fans attended their semifinal against England at the Stadium Australia in Sydney.
The Filipinas, meanwhile, are coming off their first-ever appearance in the World Cup where they scored an upset of co-host New Zealand in Group A.
They reached the second round of the Olympic qualifiers after sweeping Group E in the first round last April, wherein the matches were held in Tajikistan.
The Filipinas will open their campaign in the second round against Chinese Taipei on October 26 before playing Australia on October 29 and Iran on November 1.
The top team in the group will progress to the third round of the qualifiers. Meanwhile, the best team among the runners-up will also progress. The third round will take place in February 2024.
In their previous matches, Australia routed the Filipinas, 4-0, in the AFC Women's Asian Cup in January 2022 before the Philippines pulled off a 1-0 upset against a youthful Australian side in the AFF Women's Championship later that same year.
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