Porirua’s long-standing relationship with its Australian sister city is entering a new chapter, with young footballers set to help strengthen ties between the two communities.
A Porirua delegation will travel to Blacktown in western Sydney in November for the inaugural Trans-Tasman Mayoral Cup, a new football exchange involving the two cities.
Thirty-six players from Kenepuru-based Olé Football Academy will travel in two age-group teams and are expected to play six matches against teams from the Blacktown District Football Association.
The cup is planned as a biennial event, alternating between the two cities.
Porirua and Blacktown have been sister cities since May 1984, building a relationship that has included cultural, civic, sporting and recreational exchanges.
The latest initiative grew from a Pledge of Friendship signed in 2024, when the cities marked 40 years of their partnership and committed to developing more direct people-to-people exchanges.
Mayor Anita Baker said the relationship with Blacktown had now lasted 42 years and the football exchange would create another connection between young people in the two cities.
Baker will be joined by Porirua City Council chief executive Wendy Walker and Ngāti Toa kaumātua Dr Taku Parai as part of the delegation.
The visit will also have a cultural dimension, with Dr Parai involved in work relating to the restoration of pou gifted by Ngāti Toa to Blacktown in 2014.
Football already forms part of the relationship between Porirua and western Sydney.
The two cities are connected through the Sister City Cup contested when Wellington Phoenix and Western Sydney Wanderers meet in the A-League Women, including matches played at Porirua Park.
The new Mayoral Cup extends that relationship to developing players and gives young Porirua footballers the opportunity to build connections across the Tasman.
Blacktown City Council will provide accommodation for the visiting civic delegation. Porirua’s council paper estimated about $2,500 for flights and incidentals for Baker and Parai from existing sister-city budgets.
For Porirua, the November visit will be about more than football. It continues a relationship built over four decades and gives the next generation a direct role in keeping it alive.
