Surging together in a renewed partnership of support for Pacific football

International football matches between Australia and Pacific nations will become a more frequent fixture in years ahead as part of a renewed partnership between the Australian Government and Football Australia, delivered through PacificAus Sports.

The four-year investment will support initiatives aimed at building up the skills and experience of players, match officials and administrators throughout the region, while enabling increased elite-level competition in men’s and women’s football and futsal - the indoor version of the game.

“Australian football has many natural connections and intersections with the Pacific through a long-shared history of the game in this region,” says Football Australia Chair, Anter Isaac. “We extend our gratitude to the Australian Government for its unwavering support of football both in Australia and throughout the Pacific region. We look forward to collaborating with our Pacific family to achieve success both on and off the pitch.”

A foundation of success

The renewed partnership builds on the success of the PacificAus Sports and Football Australia partnership dating back to 2019 when Australia’s Junior Matildas travelled to the Pacific to train and compete with talented young players from Tonga, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands. The success of that tour, and the community events and professional development activities that surrounded it, led to an ongoing program of visits from Australian men’s and women’s teams across a range of age groups.

“The Australian Government is proud to build on the success of our partnership with Football Australia, through PacificAus Sports, to provide increased opportunities for Australian and Pacific football teams to compete together at the highest levels, and to strengthen connections between our nations,” says Minister for International Development and the Pacific, the Hon Pat Conroy MP.

Australia’s Joeys meet Solomon Islands and Vanuatu

The renewed partnership was announced at the midpoint of the PacificAus Sports Football Tour, with the Australian U17s team, the Subway Joeys, gaining valuable match experience against U19s teams from Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

Joeys’ Head Coach, Brad Maloney, says playing against the more senior teams at well-attended stadium games in Honiara and Port Vila is good preparation for the Joeys as they head into the 2025 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers in October. In reflecting on the tour as a whole, which saw the Subway Joeys play two matches against Solomon Islands U19 followed by the fixture against Vanuatu U19, Maloney said that the tour was beneficial to all nations involved.

“It's been a great tour. Both games in the Solomon Islands were fantastic spectacles, the crowd was excellent and it's good for the players to play in front of big crowds and get used to that. Coming here to Vanuatu, there's different conditions, wet and slippery, where the surface wasn’t suited to playing great football, but the players did their best and stuck to the game plan; their effort could not be faulted.”

Maloney added that the success of the tour reached beyond the football pitch and enabled the strengthening of connections between the teams and fans as well as between all three nations. 

“Our impact in the Pacific has hopefully been a very positive one. The crowd in the Solomon Islands was fantastic. In both games they were very vocal, very supportive of both teams. This tour has brought a lot of positives to the region and hopefully we can visit sooner rather than later, come back and play some more games here, and hopefully other Australian national teams will be able to come and play here as well.”
 

The mutual benefits of experience

The PacificAus Sports partnership will provide national teams throughout the Pacific with increased exposure to elite-level competition, presenting ongoing opportunities for individual athletes, officials and administrators to improve their skills and grow in confidence.

Solomon Islands striker Raphael Lea’i was the nation’s first footballer to play in a professional league in Europe, and recently returned to the southern hemisphere as a recruit to Adelaide City FC.

“[The PacificAus Sports partnership] means a lot to the Solomon Islands,” says Lea’i. “We need to play games against Australia. It gives us a good test to see and play against teams from Australia.”

It’s a sentiment shared by Fijian midfielder Adi Litia Bakaniceva, who is set to captain the country’s U20 women’s team in the FIFA U20 Women's World Cup, commencing on 31 August in Colombia.

“The PacificAus Sports program gives us exposure to world-class football and improves us as players, but also brings us closer together off the field,” she says. “I look forward to many more opportunities to challenge myself against Australian teams, continuing to build relationships through football, and inspiring the next generation of Fijian girls and boys to play.”

Watching (and rewatching) the action

The weeks ahead will be full of top-quality matches from some of the Pacific’s most promising football players.

Full replays of the PacificAus Sports Football Tour matches, can be seen on Football Australia’s YouTube channel.

All games in the 2024 FIFA U20 Women's World Cup, including those featuring the Australian and Fijian teams, will be streamed free on plus.fifa.com, from 31 August.

And to keep on top of what’s happening in Pacific football and futsal, including the qualifying rounds of the 2025 AFC Asian Cup tournaments, follow the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.