20-year-old Kate Durnell is the only woman, and one of only 14 Wanderers fans, thought to be travelling to Riyadh from Sydney for the ACL Final
It’s always wonderful to see women break down barriers.
Western Sydney Wanderers fan, Kate Durnell, is off to Saudi Arabia – the only known woman to be in the King Fahd International Stadium on Saturday night, Riyadh time, for the second leg of the Asian Champions League Final. She is thought to be one of 14 Wanderers fans travelling from Sydney for the occasion.
According to the newspaper report, 20-year-old Kate asked her dad did he want to travel to Riyadh with her only recently. Her dad – a hitherto hardened rugby league fan whose first Wanderers game was the ACL Final last weekend – said yes.
Is he dad of the year? 😊
Not that Kate is the first. In 1997, the partner of then Soccer Australia Chairman, David Hill, travelled to Iran for the first World Cup qualifier at the Azadi Stadium in Tehran. Hill’s partner was one of about 128,000 – although there is some conjecture about that, as there were also reports of an unknown young Australian woman backpacker joining her, but no-one has ever confirmed this.
Kate works for advertising agency M&C Saatchi, whose clients include:
FFA
Etihad Airways, who fly to Riyadh, and
IAG Insurance, whose Chairman is the Deputy Chairman of FFA (and Westfield), Brian Schwartz and which is the parent company of Western Sydney Wanderers major sponsor, NRMA Insurance.
Very Thomas Hardy-esque.
Safe travels to Kate and all Wanderers fans. It should be an experience of a lifetime.
And as Kevin, the former Socceroos bus driver, used to say – bring home the bacon!
