Italian Football Fever Hits Perth! Steve Allen | Channel 10 News Perth (05.08.2026)

**Steve Allen** (0:00)
Introducing Meta Glasses. You have questions, they've got answers.

**Mark Duffield** (0:05)
Hey Meta, what's the capital of Peru? Lima. How do you say, where's the restroom in Spanish?
Dónde está el baño?

**Steve Allen** (0:14)
Hey Meta, is a hot dog a sandwich?

**Mark Duffield** (0:17)
Technically, no.

**Steve Allen** (0:18)
Spiritually, yes.

**Mark Duffield** (0:20)
Hey Meta, what should I do with my life?

**Steve Allen** (0:23)
That's one of life's biggest questions.

**Mark Duffield** (0:25)
What do you think?

**Steve Allen** (0:27)
Ask anything with the new Meta Glasses.

**Mark Duffield** (0:37)
Yes, welcome back to the SCNWA studio out here up to stadium on this Wednesday morning in Perth. The Calcio Italiano kicks off in Perth tonight. Milan Derby between AC Milan and Inter Milan. Channel 10 Steve Allen joins us on the show now to chat matters football as in the round ball game. Steve, welcome.

**Steve Allen** (1:00)
It's a great pleasure to be with you, Duff. Yeah, it's nice that it's almost here.

**Mark Duffield** (1:05)
So mate, who have they brought and who are they resting? Obviously, these are preseason games, not season proper games. So how close are we going to see these two giants of European football to full strength tonight?

**Steve Allen** (1:20)
Anyone who's gone to watch matches featuring these glamour teams visiting Perth in recent times even though you don't get the full strength teams. The good news for tonight's game is at least AC Milan, who will probably boast the most stars, have said, well, coach Ruben Amerin has said, everyone will play.
The massive asterisk there is, there's no real restrictions on how many players they use and there probably won't be a lot of minutes. The biggest star attraction, no doubt, will be Luka Modric. I'd be, you know, anything over 15 minutes, I'd be pleased with Duff. He has just played a poultice of minutes in the last World Cup recently. So one of the late arrivals here and not a, this is very much just a pre-season run around for them. But for the coach, especially Ruben, he's talked glowingly about just wanting to get a feel finally for where his squad is at.

**Mark Duffield** (2:29)
I love the fact that this is a genuine festival. There are three matches here. There's going to be obviously the AC Milan versus Inter Milan tonight, Juventus versus Inter Milan on Saturday, also at Optus Stadium, and then Juventus versus Palermo at HBF Park on Tuesday. How have the ticket sales been for these three games across the board?

**Steve Allen** (2:52)
Getting a solid estimate on this stuff has been like pulling teeth. They keep telling us it's a big crowd expected. I think they're really hoping to nudge 50 tonight, but I have my doubts.
I think, look, I just hope that we get something north of 40 or even 45 But if it's above that, that is a massive win for the state.

**Mark Duffield** (3:18)
And what about the Saturday game? Is that a similar crowd or will the crowd slowly taper off as the games proceed?

**Steve Allen** (3:27)
I think it will be a slow taper. Juventus will still pull a big crowd. They are the Collingwood of the Serie A. They are well supported and we've got a strong Italian community here. I must say, those have been doing the bits and pieces through the week.
Only of red and black, although that stands to reason, because they've been here so long. AC Milan, they had the biggest build up here, so their fans really had a taste for everything so far. Juventus don't arrive until tomorrow, and Inter obviously are getting here over the weekend. It's been interesting. AC Milan have been really open and friendly, and Inter a little bit closed off, and even at yesterday's media conferences, a bit shades of Ross Lyne when speaking with Cristian Civo, the Romanian star and now Inter Milan coach.

**Mark Duffield** (4:28)
Well, yeah, these things happen with these high profile coaches and managers, I guess. And what about the crowd for HBF Park on Tuesday? Obviously, it's a smaller stadium. Will they be able to fill that?

**Steve Allen** (4:44)
It's definitely boutique, isn't it? But I expect that the Juventus pull a line. If people haven't spent too many dollars on getting to the other games, that they'll still get a nice crowd there. I mean, there's plenty of stars littered throughout all these team stuff. So, I'm sure people will be keen to see them firsthand.

**Mark Duffield** (5:07)
The economics of doing this.
What's in it for Western Australia? Clearly, we get to use our great stadium a couple more times, and it's fantastic to have events at the stadium. And this is one of the reasons why the government invested so much money in building it. But the crowds at these games, we're going to have many of these people coming from interstate or even overseas. Like, is it a case that basically, say, supporters of AC Milan or Inter Milan will travel from Italy to Australia to watch this, maybe because tickets over there are very hard to come by for the season proper games or is it going to be mainly local people getting a chance to see overseas superstars?