At a gathering yesterday at the Australian consulate residence, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women, Senator Marise Payne addressed all the invited dignitaries including Oceania Football Confederation President Lambert Maltock who is also the President of Vanuatu Football Federation and the national under-19 girls team reaffirming its commitment to sport in Vanuatu.
Recently in August 2019, the Junior Matildas under-16 toured the Pacific including Vanuatu in a Pacific Step-up tour in a partnership between Football Federation Australia with the Australian Government and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade and the Australia Pacific Sports Linkages Program.
The Pacific Step-up is one of Australia’s foreign policy priorities, highlighted in Australia’s 2017 Foreign Policy White Paper and was first announced at the Pacific Island Forum Leaders’ Meeting in September 2016 as a ‘step-change’ in the way Australia would engage the region.
The OFC President also acknowledges the Australian government for supporting sport in the region in particular the development in sports especially women’s football.
The Matildas are seen as source of inspiration for Australians, especially young women and girls and it is their hope through the experience with their Pacific opponents will act as role models for their peers and communities.
The partnership will also increase number of football development initiatives and are designed to support the ongoing work that Australia and Vanuatu do to grow football in the country.
The exchange program includes conducting coaching and refereeing workshops, as well as skills clinics, and engaging in sight-seeing as part of the tour.
Junior Matildas were the first Australian national football team to visit the Pacific since the Caltex Socceroos in 2005.
