Welcome everyone to the first installment of Football Whanau.  We thought it was a great time to be able to start a regular column to keep the community informed and up to date with all that’s happening in the beautiful game and what it means to the city and region.

In case you have missed it, New Zealand and Australia are co-hosting the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 in July and August. This is the world’s largest women’s sporting event and will be the largest event ever held in New Zealand. With an expected viewership of over 1.2 billion people, this is a size and scale not seen before in New Zealand.

This last weekend marked the real awakening for many, that the tournament is getting closer.  Auckland hosted the official draw, which had a massive live worldwide viewership, in addition to 1,000 attendees.

Dunedin is lucky to have the privilege of hosting six games, across 10 teams. This includes New Zealand Football Ferns playing their final game against Switzerland on 30 July.

There’s a great opportunity to take part either as officials, volunteers or as supporters. This will be the event that you will tell stories about in the years to come. With tickets starting from as little as $10 for a child, I look forward to seeing you all there.

FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 games in Dunedin: 

Friday July 21:  Philippines v Switzerland
Sunday July 23:  Netherlands v Playoff Winner
Wednesday July 26:  Japan v Costa Rica
Friday July 28:  Argentina v South Africa
Sunday July 30:  Football Ferns v Switzerland
Tuesday August 1:  Vietnam v Netherland

Article added: Monday 31 October 2022