"Jesus Christ. I wish I was there as well." That was Jackson Irvine, a proud Melbourne boy, watching footage of Fed Square going completely wild during Australia's 2022 World Cup run — while he was standing in the mixed zone in Qatar, having just played in the game that caused it all.
He won't have to imagine it this time. Because it won't be happening.
The Melbourne Arts Precinct, the body responsible for Federation Square, has decided not to screen Socceroos matches during next month's World Cup. The reason given: the behaviour of a small number of troublemakers during previous events. Flares thrown. Bottles hurled. A handful of idiots, and thousands of fans are now paying for it.
What was actually lost in 2022
The scenes at Fed Square during Qatar 2022 were genuinely something. Thousands of people turning out in the early hours of the morning, of all walks of life, losing their minds at every Australian goal under a red, flare-tinted sky. Footage went viral globally. Broadcaster Tony Armstrong on ABC and Eli Mengem on SBS both abandoned professionalism entirely — and nobody minded. Graham Arnold, the Socceroos coach at the time, used the energy from those crowds to motivate his players for the rest of their campaign.
The year after, the Matildas' Women's World Cup run drew the same crowds. Same atmosphere. Same magic.
Fed Square even shared that footage on their own social media channels. Now they're citing it as a reason to shut things down.
Collective punishment dressed up as policy
Nobody is defending the idiots who threw flares into crowds. That's dangerous, and there's no argument there. But the response — ban the event entirely — punishes tens of thousands of fans for the actions of a few. It's the bluntest possible instrument, applied without any apparent interest in finding a more targeted solution.
Anyone who has watched the slow strangulation of active support culture at A-League matches will recognise this playbook. Overzealous security, zero tolerance for atmosphere, and decision-makers who seem genuinely baffled by the idea that passionate football support exists on a spectrum. The result is always the same: sanitised, lifeless spaces where the soul gets policed out of the game.
And the timing matters here. The 2026 World Cup has a friendlier timezone for Australian viewers than Qatar did. This was the setup for something genuinely special — the kind of shared public experience that cities spend years trying to manufacture and rarely pull off organically.
- Fed Square had cultural weight built up over two tournaments
- The Socceroos' 2022 run to the round of 16 gave it an emotional anchor
- Other live sites will apparently be organised, but none carry that same cachet
Other venues may step in. Some fan groups will find alternatives. But Fed Square was the place — the one that players knew about, that journalists from other countries asked about, that made Australia look like a football nation that actually felt the game.
Instead, the image we're putting out is something else entirely. And as Jackson Irvine would know better than most, some moments you can't get back.
