So, the company I work for is the front-of-shirt sponsor for Kyoto Sanga as well as having the naming rights for their home ground.

When I got into the office today, I found this in the break room/kitchen. After asking around a bit, I was told that head office in Japan had sent this over last week and the fact that it arrived yesterday was pure coincidence. Somehow, I find that just a little hard to believe...

Confirmation Paramount has the rights to the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil

FT: 90' - Kyoto Sanga 5 vs 2 Newcastle Jets

Stadium: Sanga Stadium by Kyocera, Kyoto

Weather: 15.8°C, Clear, Wind: 24.8 km/h

Fixture Date: 27/10/2026, 09:00 pm AEDT

Referee: Kim Jong-hyeok

Home Lineup:

Formation: 3-4-2-1

Substitutes: H. Arai, Y. Ishida, H. Morooka, S. Nagasawa, K. Nagata, R. Nakano, M. Okugawa, G. Ota, Ko Sakai, Y. Suzuki, David Da Silva Costa, Alex Negueba

Away Lineup:

Formation: 4-1-4-1

Substitutes: N. Vergos, Nicholas Badolato, J. Baylis, E. Debono, W. Dobson, J. Goodwin, A. Grant, Jesse Hill, A. Nunes

###Match Events:

8': Penalty confirmed - Newcastle Jets - Zane Schreiber

13': ⚽ (P) Newcastle Jets - Patrick Wood

21': 🟨 Kyoto Sanga - João Pedro (Foul)

37': 🟨 Newcastle Jets - Julian Recchia (Foul)

43': Penalty confirmed - Newcastle Jets - Joe Lolley

46': 🟨 Kyoto Sanga - Takaaki Shichi (Foul)

47': ⚽ (P) Newcastle Jets - Patrick Wood

51': ⚽ Kyoto Sanga - Hisashi Appiah Tawiah (Takaaki Shichi)

45': 🔄 Kyoto Sanga - Alex Souza replaces Everton Maceió

54': 🟨 Newcastle Jets - Joe Shaughnessy (Foul)

56': ⚽ Kyoto Sanga - Alex Souza (Marco Túlio)

60': ⚽ Kyoto Sanga - Marco Túlio (Alex Souza)

60': 🔄 Newcastle Jets - Nikos Vergos replaces Patrick Wood

60': 🔄 Newcastle Jets - Will Dobson replaces Joe Lolley

64': 🔄 Kyoto Sanga - Haruki Arai replaces Marco Túlio

65': 🔄 Kyoto Sanga - Hiroto Morooka replaces Shimpei Fukuoka

67': ⚽ Kyoto Sanga - Rafael Papagaio (Haruki Arai)

69': 🔄 Newcastle Jets - Ethan Debono replaces Julian Recchia

72': 🔄 Kyoto Sanga - Ryuma Nakano replaces João Pedro

72': 🔄 Kyoto Sanga - Masaya Okugawa replaces Rafael Papagaio

82': 🔄 Newcastle Jets - Alex Nunes replaces Xavier Bertoncello

84': ⚽ Kyoto Sanga - Alex Souza (Masaya Okugawa)

94': 🟨 Newcastle Jets - Zane Schreiber (Foul)

###Match Statistics:

Last Updated: 27/10/2026, 11:02 pm AEDT

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Kyoto Sanga 5 vs 2 Newcastle Jets

###Match Statistics:

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Highest attendance for this round - 4,162 (South Melbourne v Sydney United).

Lowest attendance for this round - 511 (Sydney Olympic v Bayswater City).

Average - 1,376 (down 715 or 34% from Round 1).

Source.

Another Aussie made a return from injury over the week.

Former Sydney and Brighton boy Cam Peupion featured off the bench for ADO Den Haag. Got 24 minutes in the tank against Heerenveen. Hopefully he can get back to full fitness.

Brisbane Roar vs Perth Glory - 6497
Newcastle Jets vs Macarthur FC - 7293
Western Sydney Wanderers vs Auckland FC - 8283
Melbourne Victory vs Melbourne City - 19008
Wellington Phoenix vs Central Coast Mariners - 5301
Sydney FC vs Adelaide United - 10773

Total - 57155
Average - 9525

Rough week, salvaged a little by a rained out Melbourne Derby. Thoughts?

Source: Austadiums

Love Josh Mansour's interviews that he does with footballers. He clearly loves the sport and knows it well.

We all know Irankunda has his great moments, but what I saw this morning convinced me that his future is enormous.

His output for Sporting today was extremely professional. He was prolific in creating very dangerous chances with vision and precise passes. He showed extreme confidence and competence in beating every defender. He made no real mistakes on the ball and tracked back more than I've seen in the past. I felt like I was watching a seasoned Premier League winger for a top half team, which is not how I have felt watching Irankunda in the past.

Popovic is right to say Irankunda's game has significantly improved since the transfer and I can see why Sporting CP are starting him in most games now, despite benching him at the start of the season. This kid is going to the top, and we're very lucky to have someone like him play for Australia. And to think he's still got many years of development still to go. He's going to give opposition managers nightmares in the future.

I highly recommend finding a streaming site to watch one of his Sporting games over the next couple of months. Its very entertaining.

Beach has been dropped by Troyes, with a lot of criticism in France for his performances.

Troyes managed their 2nd clean sheet of the season after making the switch in keepers.

Unfortunate for Beach, but hoping he can bounce back.

Hello,

I've seen a lot of expansion chat in recent years on this subreddit, so I thought I'd actually create a system (based off available data) to rank the best candidates. I created a simple point-scoring system, based on 8 different variables, to rank 10 expansion candidates (from first to last). The answers actually surprised me.

This is by no means bulletproof (and just offers a bit of perspective more than anything), so if you're from the APL, please don't take this too literally lol (go to Deloitte instead!).

Anyway, these variables are:

• Stadium
• Population
• Cannibalising support from nearby A-League clubs
• Current interested wealthy prospective buyers (multi-millionaires/billionaires)
• Previous failed A-League franchise location
• Existing fanbase/history
• Competing professional franchises from other football codes
• Derby or natural rivalry potential

I put my scores neatly into a table below. Some variables will earn points; some will lose you points. However, if you're not interested in the specifics or explanations, and just want the results up-front, here's the final score:

1st Gold Coast (region) 10 points

= 2nd Canberra (region) 9 points [ALREADY CONFIRMED FOR 2028-29]

= 2nd South Melbourne FC (club) 9 points

= 2nd Christchurch (region) 9 points

5th Wollongong/South Coast (region) 7 points

= 6th Hobart/Tasmania (region) 6 points

= 6th Townsville/North Queensland (region) 6 points

= 6th Sunshine Coast (region) 6 points

= 6th Waikato (region) 6 points

= 10th Dunedin (region) 3 points

So, even though Canberra is already confirmed for 2028-29, my data suggests that the Gold Coast region, based on my data, should be the next expansion prospect, followed by Christchurch and South Melbourne FC.

If you want to scrutinise my working out, here's the nitty-gritty on how I scored the variables. And if you have any questions or clarifications, please ask away.

Stadium suitability:

• No current stadium -3pts
• Unsuitable stadium (oval AND too big +40k capacity) -1pt
• Acceptable stadium (either oval OR too big +40k) 1pt
• Good stadium (rectangular, tiny bit big +26k or small -8k) 2pts
• Perfect stadium (rectangular, perfect size 8k-25k) 3pts

Population:

• Small population < 300,000 -1pt
• Acceptable population 300,000-600,000 1pt
• Large population 600-1.25mil 2pts
• Massive population >1.25mil 3pts

Risk of cannibalising support from nearby A-Leagues clubs (i.e. same city)

• Yes (2 or more clubs) -2pts
• Not much/unlikely (1 club) 0pt
• None 2pts

Interested & wealthy current buyers (multi-millionaires/billionaires)

• None -3pts
• Unlikely/unknown (some whispers) 0pts
• Claimed/yes/known 3pts

Previously failed franchise AL location?

• Yes -1pt
• No 1pt

Existing fanbase/history

• No 0pts
• Yes 1pt

Competing professional football code franchises

• Yes (3+) -2pts
• Some (2) 0pts
• Only one 1pt
• None 2pts

Derby potential

• Nothing obvious -1pts
• A clear rivalry 1pt
• A clear derby (same city, close distance) 2pts

Unfortunately, I did not have any data on registered junior/amateur players (it would take far too long to acquire and research), but that would make for an excellent variable to consider also.

Here's my table:

And some stadium data and approximate population data (changes based on metro vs whole region), if you were interested:

• Gold Coast: 27k stadium, 700k population
• Canberra/ACT: 25k stadium, 500k population
• South Melbourne: 12k stadium, >1.25mil population
• Christchurch: 25k stadium, 410k-550k population
• Wollongong/South Coast: 23k stadium, 330k-500k population
• Hobart/Tasmania: 19k oval stadium, 250k – 550k population
• Townsville/NQL: 25.5k stadium, 250k-1mil population
• Sunshine Coast: 10k stadium, 400k population
• Waikato 25k, 550k population
• Dunedin 30k, 140k population

Anyway, thanks for reading. I don't have time to justify every decision but if you're curious about how I scored a point or if there's a hypocritical point score somewhere, please don't hesitate to ask. Cheers.

Hoping I can get some tips on getting most out of a day in Melbourne for catching a match with my 10 year old son.

I'm not much of a soccer fan or sports fan for that matter, but my son has taken a real liking to playing, training and watching.

For his birthday we've said we would spend a day and night in Melbourne for an A League match.

Then it kind of hit me, I know nothing about a day out to see a game at the ALeague.

Are there the typical activities that the AFL puts on outside the stadium for kids? ie: handball target(netting a goal for soccer I guess?), meet the mascots, meet players, that type of caper?

And, assuming AAMI stadium is where we'll go, is there a seating option that's better than others? Behind the goals vs the wing etc?

Thanks for any help, I'm a little out of my depth when it comes to professional sports.

Wellington Phoenix 2 vs 0 Central Coast Mariners

###Match Statistics:

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