Poletti 
Melbourne City captain Rebekah Stott, and striker Holly McNamara ahead of City's AFC Women's Champions League quarter-final vs Taichung Blue Whale. Photo by Morgan Hancock/Getty Images. Supplied by Melbourne City.
On Sunday March 23, Melbourne City will make history as the first ever Australian club side to host an Asian Women’s Champions League fixture in its quarter-final match against Taiwan side Taichung Blue Whale.
Melbourne City striker Holly McNamara described the game as exciting and a good challenge, thoughts which were echoed by club captain Rebekah Stott.
“Having international club football in Australia, especially in Melbourne, is something that hasn’t been done before in the women’s game, so it’s super exciting,” Stott said.
“We really hope that we can get a lot of people out to watch it. You obviously see everyone getting around the Matildas and this, I think, offers a different kind of football.
“I grew up watching the UEFA Champions League and back then there wasn’t a women’s side of that, so to be able to have our own continental Champions League is special and something I didn’t know was possible.
“Now to have little girls be able to watch us play in that competition I think it’s really cool and gives them something to strive towards.”
The predecessor of this competition, the AFC Women’s Club Championship was all held internationally and didn’t allow Australian teams to compete at home.
An added incentive for City to do well is the prize money on offer. Should the side win the tournament, the club would receive a USD$1Million prize, and the City players would each receive an additional $50,000 per player.
Given the current salary cap for the A-League Women is AU$600,000, the minimum wage is only $25,000, and the clubs in the league still don’t offer full-time year round employment under the current CBA, it would be a sizeable boost to the pay-packet for the players.
For McNamara, who was asked whether the additional money might give an incentive to stay in Australia if other contract offers come at the end of the season should City both win this year’s tournament and qualify for next year, she was blunt in her answer.
“Personally, no,” the Matildas striker said.
“I don’t really care about the money. If I cared about the money, I wouldn’t be playing football. For me, it’s just about playing.
“Obviously, whatever prize money you can get or whatever money you can earn is nice, but for me, it’s just about playing football.”
Stott, who has been playing professionally for over a decade, reflected on her journey where she was not earning a lot of money at the start of it, and said that it was nice to finally have a financial reward of this size, and that it showed the growth of the women’s game.
Going undefeated in their three Group B outings in the group phase outings, City now move into the knockout phase.
Taichung Blue Whale are in their off-season and have not played a game since November, which makes scouting difficult, but coach Michael Matricciani said he expects to get their squad at some point next week.
“We know it’s the same manager at this stage, so maybe they might play the same way, but for us, we need to be ready for whatever gets thrown at us,” Matricciani said.
“Like any match, you can prepare as much as possible, but the coach and the team might throw different tactics [at you] come game day so we’ll be prepared [and] focus on what we can control, keep trying to improve and be ready for what comes.”
The importance of the occasion and competition as a whole is understood by all of Australian football according to Professional Footballers Australia Chief Executive, Beau Busch.
“I was recently in camp with the Matildas and this is something we discussed with the players around how important this opportunity is, so this is something that a number of the Socceroos we’ve discussed with [and] the Matildas as well, they see this as a really important moment for the sport,” Busch said.
“This is something that they’re certainly hugely supportive of. A number of them will be doing videos and the like to be able to promote and drive attendance to the match as well too, so everybody I think within the sport recognises how important this is.
“[It’s great to be working on this] with a club that really when they came into the A-League Women really elevated the level as well too and it’s an important reward for them.
“We want to make sure the players have a crowd that actually matches the occasion.”
Tickets for Melbourne City’s AFC Women’s Champions League clash against Taichung Blue Whale are on sale at Ticketek.
Listen to the latest episode of The Dubcast, Round Ball Australia’s Women’s Football podcast on Spotify, Apple, or watch on YouTube, with new episodes every Wednesday.