Perth Voice Interactive

HEALTH insurer HBF has been squeezed out of the naming rights for Perth Oval during the upcoming Women’s World Cup by soccer’s global governing body, FIFA. 

“HBF Park” has reverted to its non-commercial “Perth Rectangular Stadium” moniker for a month, with FIFA going to extraordinary lengths to make sure only its sponsors benefit from the tournament, which is expected to be watched by more than one billion people.

FIFA bans the display of any other commercial branding, and field-side ads at the HBF Park/Perth Rectangular Stadium/Perth Oval have been covered up. 

Sponsorship banners have even been censored out of digital photos of the Pier Street grounds on website advertising. 

WA Government press releases have also adopted FIFA’s unbranding demands and switched to calling it “Perth Rectangular Stadium. 

We asked HBF about being written out of soccer history and the response was matter-of-fact about FIFA’s policy, saying the company was told the grounds would be a “clean” venue for July.

“It’s part of the hosting agreement between FIFA and the owners of the grounds hosting the matches,” HBF’s reply says, noting it’s the same for Sydney Football Stadium, Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, Wellington Regional Stadium, and Brisbane Stadium.

This means for a short time both FIFA and official government outlets are aligned with the Voice’s usual practice of using grounds’ original “suburb+grounds type” names instead of fleeting commercial names.

FIFA’s unbranding demands caused umbrage this week at the Sydney Football Stadium (temporarily stripped of its Allianz name) where the organisation had directed the SGC Trust to go so far as to cover up the plaques of statues. 

They covered up plaques which listed athletes, the sculptor, and the benefactor, before uncovering them on Tuesday following sharp backlash.

by DAVID BELL