Powerhouses of English football Chelsea will make their first trip to Perth since 1974, with a friendly match against the A-League’s Perth Glory at the new Optus Stadium announced recently.
The match is set to take place on Monday, July 23 and will reportedly be the Blues’ only tour stop in Australia during the Premier League offseason. Chelsea last played in Australia in 2015, when they defeated Sydney FC 1-0 in front of 83,598 at ANZ Stadium.
Western Australia Premier Colin Barnett said the match was “a great coup for Western Australia and terrific for the new stadium,” and that Chelsea’s monstrous stature in world sport would “help shine a light on [Perth].”
Despite the friendly taking place barely a week after the 2018 FIFA World Cup final, Barnett said he expected Chelsea to bring “a good representation of their star players”.
The match is expected to sell out the 65,000-seat venue and will be the first instance of an international football team playing at the venue.
Chelsea FC chairman Bruce Buck said the club was “delighted” with their friendly match in Sydney and was looking forward to playing in the new venue.
The Blues currently sit in fourth on the Premier League table after back-to-back shock losses to Bournemouth and Watford, while the Glory are similarly reeling with four losses in five games putting them in eighth.
The fixture is very unlikely to impact the 2018 AFL season, despite the West Coast Eagles and Western Bulldogs clashing at 3:20pm (AEST) the day before.
LuckyEddie
Guest
Surely people are still not paying to watch these 'games'. At best it's a cynical marketing exercise by Chelsea and worst a con job. I remember when the FFA said these sorts of games would bring a new set of fans to HAL. Well since these circus games started about 3 years ago crowds have dropped. Roar crowds virtually started dropping from the day of the Liverpool 'game' where the dodgy contract the FFA signed with Liverpool excluded the Roar members from getting any preference. Not much use being a member if the FFA treat you like a mug. Where is Gallop and his merry crew? I would say in Russia making sure everything is sweet for the families attending the cup, sorry i meant the team (sarc). What a waste of time and money Gallop and crew are but they will all depart after the family junkets to Russia and leave the mess behind.
Kangajets
Guest
It’s for cricket and afl They have a 20000 seater rectangle ground where glory play
chris
Guest
Thats a bit short-sighted isnt it? Why spend all that money on an oval that cant be configured to be rectangular?
Kangajets
Guest
Pretty sure Antonio Conte won’t be coaching Chelsea in July So Luis Enrique former Barcelona fc champions league coach , should be in charge of Chelsea v glory .
jamesb
Guest
No. They will bring in 5000 "drop-in" seats and take the capacity of the stadium to 65,000. But apart from the "drop-in" seats, all of the viewing will still be from an oval configuration.
chris
Guest
Will they configure the stadium to be rectangular to bring the paying customers closer to the action?
Martyn
Guest
"Western Australia Premier Colin Barnett said the match" Colin has not been premier for over 12 months. Not even a member of parliament now