Rangers off to the FIFA Women’s World Cup

By Pam Kiriakidis

MITCHELL Rangers Soccer Club members will represent their club as flag bearers at the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023.

The FIFA Women’s World Cup is an international association football tournament kicking off on Thursday, with various countries competing at venues across Australia and New Zealand.

Fourteen Victorian clubs were selected to be flag bearers.

Mitchell Rangers appointed six club members, aged 12 to 17, to represent the club at the Jamaica versus Brazil game at AAMI Park, Melbourne, at 8pm on August 2.

The application process was through Football Australia’s Game Changer program, where clubs had to complete the women and girls module on the game plan portal and received a one-star accreditation.

Mitchell Rangers member protection information officer Duncan Freemantle, who will co-chaperone the players at the game alongside Bec Rolfe, said the opportunity ticked all the boxes for the club to enhance its female membership and culture.

“As I soon as I saw the initiative, I thought we’ve got to enroll in that because we’re keen. We’ve got a senior’s female side up and we’ve got a few female sides and we’re keen to get more females,” he said.

Mitchell Rangers has several women sides – under 12s, a side consisting of 16 women, and a mini-roos team for those aged between five and seven.

Mr Freemantle said the World Cup would encourage more girls to think about soccer as their first preference.

“I’m hoping this sort of opportunity for them will be that spark that makes them train every day, push harder, get better and then maybe go down to Melbourne and start playing, get paid and work their way through wherever they want to go,” he said.

“The World Cup will help that because they’ll get to see women on the world stage. They get paid, they’re not semi-professional, all these women are fully professional, they all play with the big clubs.”

Mr Freemantle said the game was a ‘double whammy’ considering it was the club’s 20-year anniversary this year.

“Being the 20th anniversary, we’ll have a special event this year where we will get all the old players back together, and it’s just like the icing on top of the cake,” he said.

“It means so much to us in the sense of you look at the other names for instance on the list … some of them are very powerful clubs … to be in the same list as them is quite amazing.”

Mitchell Rangers will host a celebratory event to view the game and acknowledge its players involved.

The club will post information on its Facebook page, Mitchell Rangers Soccer Club, closer to the event.