Opportunity knocking once again for the world game to take centre stage, should the regions lead the way?

Australia is off to another World Cup after super-sub Andrew Redmayne's incredible sudden-death penalty save gave the Socceroos a ticket to the biggest show on earth, to be held later this year in Qatar.

And here is yet another opportunity for the game to finally get it right in this country, but the question is, will it ever make the inroads that it should?

There's no doubt the game has the opportunity to be great in Australia and it's the growth in country areas that should have other more traditional sporting leagues looking over their heads in fear.

The trick - as it has always been with the sport in this country - is to harness that goodwill and make the game the clear powerhouse it should become.

Another World Cup for the men - the fifth since 2006 - and the hosting duties for the 2023 Women's World Cup has given the sport its best opportunity yet to enter the hearts and minds of the nation.

Too often the sport has had these great opportunities in the past and too often the sport and the sporting bodies that oversee it have shot themselves in the foot.

One good way to start to win over the sporting public is in the regions, and harnessing a place like Ballarat region would be a great start.

The Ballarat District Soccer Association is going from strength-to-strength this season, the women's league is at an all-time high in participation, the women's State League teams are more than competitive and just at the weekend, two of our junior teams became Victorian country champions.

On top of that, Western United, which plays games at Mars Stadium, has been crowned champion of the A-League in just its third season, in a season where all three Victorian clubs finished as the top three teams.

While, professional junior and women's football is on the rise, there's still an issue with our representative clubs. Unfortunately, both Ballarat City and Sebastopol Vikings sit 11^th of 12 in their respective leagues this season. For the sport to really succeed in this city, we need both of those clubs, and a stronger Ballarat SC playing above State League 5 to really make the inroads and put pressure on our Australian Rules leagues.

There's a chance Ballarat will play host to an international team when the Women's World Cup rolls into town, hopefully the City of Ballarat has already made a play for that, if not, it should be on the phone today putting forward its pitch.

It's time all for all people who love the game in this city to work together to make it the sport that the rest of the world loves.

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