Kieran Francis
Perth has been awarded the right to host Australia’s most important home World Cup 2026 qualifier next year.
Optus Stadium will be the venue for the Socceroos’ blockbuster match against Japan on June 5 – which could shape the green and gold’s journey to the showpiece event to USA, Canada and Mexico.
Australia’s final group home match for the 2022 World Cup qualifying against Japan was played in Sydney, while Melbourne hosted the final home group match for the 2018 World Cup.
The decision to announce Optus Stadium as the venue for Socceroos vs. Japan will be made public at a press conference on Monday.
MORE: Socceroos World Cup 2026 qualifying: Fixtures, results, scores, groups, squad
Tony Popovic’s team currently sits in second place – which is a direct World Cup qualification position – have four qualifiers left, in March against Indonesia (Sydney) and China (TBC) and in June versus Japan (Perth) and Saudi Arabia (TBC).
Disregarding Japan, who have all but qualified in top spot, Australia sit on seven points with the other four teams in the group on six points.
It’s likely the Perth match against Japan will have significant impact on the Socceroos’ path to 2026, with results possibly securing qualification or playoff spots in the next stage.
The schedule and results for third round World Cup qualifying is as follows:
Kieran Francis is a senior editor at The Sporting News based in Melbourne, Australia. He started at Sportal.com.au before being a part of the transition to Sporting News in 2015. Just prior to the 2018 World Cup, he was appointed chief editor of Goal.com in Australia. He has now returned to The Sporting News where his passions lay in football, AFL, poker and cricket – when he is not on holiday.
