Melbourne's Federation Square has been axed as a live site for the remainder of the Women's World Cup after dozens of flares were let off among a crowd at maximum capacity during Wednesday night's semifinal.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 The pub behind me here is very much empty but that's in stark contrast to the wild scenes
00:06 that we saw during the Matildas semi-final against England on Wednesday night.
00:12 Now what was really meant to be a family-friendly environment where people could cheer on the
00:17 Tillys or maybe even the Lionesses quickly dissolved into something that was very ugly
00:21 indeed.
00:22 A small group of unruly fans stormed through security barriers and if that's not enough,
00:28 more than 50 flares were let off.
00:30 Now police say several of those entered the crowd of about 12,000 and four men have since
00:37 been fined just over $960 for possessing flares and police say they're now looking at CCTV
00:44 of flare incidents on Wednesday night so it's very likely we could see more fines or even
00:49 charges flow.
00:50 And along with the police investigation into this matter, I've just spoken to cleaners
00:56 here at the site who say they're still cleaning up the mess left behind by those flares on
01:00 Wednesday night.
01:01 Now it's unfortunate because all of this has led FedSquare management to decide to pull
01:06 the pin on screening the rest of the tournament here at the site due to safety concerns.
01:12 Now this follows discussions with event organisers and that decision was made in conjunction
01:17 with police.
01:19 Now the Premier Daniel Andrews definitely didn't hold back when he was asked to comment
01:23 on the behaviour of those people behaving badly on Wednesday night.
01:28 Have a listen to what he had to say.
01:31 In relation to behaviour at Federation Square, I don't reckon any member of the Matilda squad
01:37 would want people behaving that way.
01:39 I certainly don't.
01:40 Like it's just it wasn't the night people wanted but there's no excuse.
01:44 Like flares are illegal, banned for a reason.
01:47 They're really, really dangerous.
01:51 Now not all is lost for lovers of the beautiful game here in Melbourne.
01:55 Fans will still be able to gather at Amy Park, which is now the main live site, to watch
01:59 the Tillys play Sweden in the third place playoff.
02:03 And that site will also be used to screen the final between England and Spain on Sunday
02:08 night.
02:09 [BLANK_AUDIO]