North Geelong Warriors Football Club will host the 46th Australian Croatian
Soccer Tournament in October 2020.
The Australia
Croatian Soccer Tournament is among the largest community soccer tournaments
in Australia, having been hosted in every Australian state since 1974 and holds
the honour of being the oldest national soccer competition still running in
Australia.
This four-day event
has evolved into a legitimate international event with guests and teams now
extending beyond Australia and New Zealand and including teams from Germany,
Canada and the United States.
It is estimated the event
will attract more than 1,200 participants in
over 120 matches, with an anticipated 10,000 people
attending the event for football, gala events and business networking
lunches. (Based on Australian Croatian Soccer Association 2018 Tournament
figures.)
This is the fifth time
the Warriors will have hosted the event, with successful tournaments
being held in Geelong in 1983, 1992, 1998 and 2008.
Mayor Bruce Harwood:
We’re rapt that Geelong has secured yet
another major sporting event, giving us the opportunity to showcase our clever
and creative city to visitors from across Australia and around the world.We
have every confidence that the North Geelong Warriors will be
outstanding tournament hosts, setting a new benchmark for community engagement
that future hosts will strive to follow.
John Didulica,
President, North Geelong Warriors:
The interest
in the tournament compounds each year and we see it as perfectly aligned with
our club’s own ambition to take transformative steps over the next ten years.The tournament
is an incredibly engaging event for every segment of the community and, if run
effectively, can provide a much-needed economic boost for tournament hosts. The
positivity within the club has created a really strong volunteer base in recent
times which should allow us to host an incredible 4-day event.We’re very
proud to have been selected as hosts and it’s a great tribute to our
volunteers, our community and the facilities that we have developed over
generations.
