Inner West Councillor wants lives screenings of Matildas soccer games following Australia’s World Cup success

By SAM PASHMI

Inner West Councillor Dylan Griffiths has raised the idea to host live, public screenings of the Women’s Soccer World Cup in 2023, following the success of live shows for the FIFA World Cup in 2022. 

As the global event will hit Australia’s shores in 2023, the idea to celebrate and support the Matildas has gained public traction. The Women’s FIFA World Cup will run throughout July and August next year.

In an interview with City Hub, Griffiths said “the motivation behind this is to bring the community together, helping the local economies along with local businesses, and empowering women in sport”.

Griffins also predicted that the motion will be met with no opposition; “I would expect everyone to support it, because it’s a very popular motion, a lot of residents, especially football clubs and women think this is a great idea,” he said. 

“They’d like to see the council supporting women in sport.” 

The push comes after the popularity of live screenings during the Socceroo’s success at the World Cup. Following a series of wins for the Aussies, public viewing areas were set up across the country.

Despite the fact that some of this year’s FIFA World Cup screenings started at 10pm and others at 6am, such as screenings in summer hill and Enmore park, they were met with large turnouts and were labelled successes.

City of Sydney Councillor Linda Scott was vocal in pushing for council to facilitate these live viewings.

“The City of Sydney – from Rosebery to Redfern – should be covered in green and gold to celebrate our magnificent Socceroos,” Cr Scott said in the lead up to Australia vs Argentina.

“Prime time” for live viewings

Cr Griffiths went on to say, “since the women’s World Cup will be in Australia, it’s going to be in prime time so I reckon it’s going to be even more popular than the screenings this year”.

He also voiced his support for Anthony Albanese calls for a public holiday if the Socceroos made it into the finals, and voiced his desire for the Prime Minister to do the same for the Matildas. 

So far the budget for such an event is unclear, however they are beginning to consider potential venues.

When asked how much the budget for this year’s screenings were, Griffiths said “I’m not 100 percent sure but I believe the one in Summer Hill cost around $6000 dollars and if you look at the 400+ people who all came down and spent money on the local economy, I think it was definitely worth it”.

“I see absolutely no downsides to this, and not even the litter that might be left behind in the aftermath will be a problem, thanks to our great clean up crew, plus I don’t think there will be that much trash left behind considering our community is quite responsible”.

Cr Griffiths planned to bring forward a motion at a recent Inner West Council meeting, however the motion was pushed back to be voted upon at a later time.