The Bendigo Amateur Soccer League is celebrating Australia and New Zealand's successful bid to host the 2023 Women's World Cup.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Two BASL administrators, Rebecca Fahey and Lauren Stevens, helped spread the word and increase interest in the World Cup by taking on roles as bid administrators.
Now that it has been secured, the only thing left for the fans to do now is wait three years until kickoff.
"The World Cup is an amazing opportunity for young girls and boys to see women compete at the sport's highest level," Fahey said.
"For a long time juniors only really had male role models within soccer, but now women are also front and centre."
In the early hours of Friday morning it was announced the trans-Tasman bid defeated Colombia 22-13 in FIFA Council voting to secure the 2023 event.
RELATED:
The announcement was met with absolute joy across both Australia and New Zealand, and especially back here in Bendigo.
Fahey and Stevens are passionate about women's soccer and now that the bid has been secured, the pair couldn't be happier.
"Our role was to help Football Federation Australia get the word out there by getting into contact with grassroots soccer communities," Fahey said.
"BASL will certainly be in support of the Cup and will do some stuff locally. Everyone wants to be a part of it."
Above all the pair believed the successful bid was an example of how much women's soccer and the sport in general has grown within the country.
"Soccer is now huge in Australia," Fahey said.
"It's a lot more accessible at a grassroots level and there are such great pathways available, especially for young girls.
"There's the grassroots level, WNPL, the national training program, which then leads to the young Matildas and then the senior squad.
"This is really exciting for young girls as in the last few years more and more women's only age groups continue to grow."
Stevens said the plan was to now work towards securing any potential opportunities in the lead-up to the World Cup.
"We will now see if we can lock in opportunities for any of the international teams to come and train within our region ," Stevens said.
"For fans to be able to see the players up close and personal is another step in continuing to build the future of women's soccer."
The World Cup is expected to host 32-teams with approximately 1.5 million fans across 12 cities and 13 stadiums.
Have you signed up to the Bendigo Advertiser's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in central Victoria.