{"id":653455,"date":"2026-05-06T14:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T14:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/653455\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T14:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T14:21:08","slug":"australians-slam-ban-on-world-cup-screenings-at-federation-square-world-cup-2026-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/653455\/","title":{"rendered":"Australians slam ban on World Cup screenings at Federation Square | World Cup 2026 News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matches from the World Cup 2026 will not be screened after poor fan behaviour at previous public watch parties in 2023.<\/p>\n

Published On 6 May 20266 May 2026<\/p>\n

Football players, fans and officials in Australia have criticised the ban on World Cup match screenings at Melbourne\u2019s Federation Square due to poor fan behaviour during Australia\u2019s games in past tournaments.<\/p>\n

The venue\u2019s management said on Wednesday that the public square will not show any World Cup matches \u2060on its big screen \u2060for the first time in at least 20 years.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of thousands of fans \u2060have gathered in the heart of Melbourne\u2019s central business district to watch Australia matches at the square since the 2006 World Cup in Germany.<\/p>\n

Video of fans celebrating wildly went viral during \u2060the 2022 tournament in Qatar when Australia advanced to the round of 16.<\/p>\n

A number of incidents soured the celebrations, though, with fans being injured by flares and projectiles.<\/p>\n

Fans stormed barricades during the 2023 Women\u2019s World Cup semifinal between Australia and England, prompting management to cancel plans to screen the \u200cMatildas\u2019 subsequent third-place playoff at the square.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter careful consideration, we\u2019ve made the decision not to show the World Cup on Fed Square\u2019s Big Screen this year,\u201d Melbourne Arts Precinct Director and CEO Katrina Sedgwick said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is due to the behaviour of a small number of people at previous screenings which was simply unacceptable and damaging to Fed Square.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SoccerFans watched several matches at the fan zone during the FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup in 2023 [File: Hannah Mckay\/Reuters]<\/p>\n

The decision triggered a furious response from Australian football players, officials and a fan group, who said the majority of well-behaved supporters \u2060were being made to pay by a tiny minority.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pictures and videos of Fed Square during World Cup 2022 went viral around the world, we want to see this repeated,\u201d Patrick Clancy, chair of the Football Supporters Association Australia, \u2060told local media.<\/p>\n

Football Australia said they were extremely disappointed and urged the Melbourne Arts Precinct to reverse its decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cMelbourne is one of Australia\u2019s \u2060sporting and multicultural capitals, and this decision goes against this \u2060tradition,\u201d Football Australia CEO Martin Kugeler said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFederation Square has created some of the most memorable moments in Australian sporting history, dating back to the Socceroos\u2019 historic 2006 FIFA World Cup matches and the 2023 FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are \u200casking our fans to join us in calling on the Melbourne Arts Precinct and the Victorian government to correct their decision in the best interests of football fans, local businesses and \u200call \u200cVictorians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Australian women\u2019s team captain Sam Kerr condemned the decision, writing in response to the decision on her social media account, \u201cbooooooooo\u201d.<\/p>\n

Australia play Turkiye, Paraguay and the United States at the June 11 to July 19 World Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matches from the World Cup 2026 will not be screened after poor fan behaviour at previous public watch…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[77,64,63,596,44,588,124617],"class_list":["post-653455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-asia-pacific","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}