Matildas effect 2.0? Why the Women’s Asian Cup is a huge moment for Australian soccer

The 2026 Women’s Asian Cup is the first major women’s soccer tournament Australia has hosted since the groundbreaking 2023 Women’s World Cup.

The 12-team event, which will be held in Perth, Sydney and the Gold Coast, started on Sunday with the Matildas winning their first match against the Philippines. They next play Iran on Thursday night.

The tournament also doubles as a qualifier for the 2027 Women’s World Cup and represents a chance for the Matildas to win a major tournament on home soil.

While there will no doubt be huge interest in the tournament, particularly if the Matildas continue to do well, it is also an opportunity to look at the challenges facing women’s sport in general and women’s soccer in particular in the lead-up to the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.

The impact of the 2023 World Cup

The 2023 Women’s World Cup was the largest major women’s sport event Australia has (co-)hosted.

It marked a significant moment in women’s sport in Australia.

It provided a space so welcoming that many self-described sports haters and fans alienated by the hypermasculinity of men’s sports were drawn to it.

It delivered a socially contagious collective experience that was diverse, representative, and feel-good.

It also showed investing in women’s sport is good business.

With more than 1.75 million tickets sold and with television audience figures exceeding even those of the AFL grand final and NRL’s State of Origin, the 2023 tournament set new benchmarks for women’s sport’s visibility and commercialisation.

The Matildas are now one of Australia’s most recognisable and marketable national sports brands. They sell out match after match, outsell Socceroos jerseys 2:1 and have commanded the “Matildas effect” – a byword for perception- and participation-changing influence and gender equality advancement.

The 2026 Women’s Asian Cup, which for the first time features its own mascot and with it accompanying engagement and merchandise opportunities, will want to leverage and extend that inclusiveness, brand and market.

More work needs to be done

While the Matildas specifically and women’s sport internationally – from basketball to ice hockey – have become more popular and more profitable, that hasn’t translated domestically.

The A-League women’s competition suffered a 26% attendance decline in 2024–25 and underinvestment in the league means players are unable to secure full-time, year-round employment.

While outlier top-tier Australian soccer players earn high salaries, 39% of women athletes don’t earn anything from sport.

A 2025 report from Australian soccer’s player development program showed many athletes are struggling with challenges around disordered eating, alcohol and anxiety.

Read more: The Matildas keep soaring but the league, and players, beneath them are being left behind

Women coaches also experience more adversity than men.

At a policy and advocacy level, the country’s sole Office for Women in Sport and Recreation has been disbanded by the Victorian government, and Australia still lacks a national strategy for women’s sport.

Bridging the national team-domestic league gap will be front of mind for administrators during and beyond the Women’s Asian Cup to ensure sustainability.

Areas for improvement

There will be no increase to Women’s Asian Cup prize money at the 2026 tournament – it will remain at US$1.8 million (A$2.55 million) shared between the top four teams, the same as 2022.

Compare this with the US$14.8 million ($A21 million) allocated to the men in 2023.

That 88% prize money gap signals much work still needs to be done to facilitate equality.

Media coverage is similarly lagging. While it has increased from the box-ticking “one and done” media coverage of the past, it remains largely event-based.

Social media is plugging the major media gap, raising players’ profiles and providing transformative engagement but it often entails unpaid labour to maintain an online presence.

It also exposes athletes to greater levels of online abuse.

Opportunities on and off the pitch

The 2026 Women’s Asian Cup represents a chance to prove the hype around women’s soccer is more than a one-time thing. Simultaneously, it needs to avoid counterproductive “boom time, again” narratives that emerge about every decade espousing that women’s sport has “made it”.

It also represents an opportunity to take women’s soccer in Australia to the next level.

Despite the Matildas developing a huge fan following and demonstrating much promise, not since the 2010 Asian Cup has the team been able to bring home a trophy.

The 2006 and 2010 Asian Cups (when Australia finished runners-up and champion respectively) showed the Matildas could compete.

The 2023 Women’s World Cup showed the world there was a market.

This year’s Women’s Asian Cup represents a chance to bring the two together as the Matildas seek to realise their potential and ensure sustainability by both filling stadiums and bringing home silverware.

It is a significant opportunity for the team to show it can win both off and on the pitch.