Caroline Staples taking on Irish Fans with son Liam Byrne, right, as part of the Supporteroo side.
An informal community of football-playing supporters of Australia’s national teams, Matildas and Socceroos, the Supporteroos come from all over Australia and get together to play against supporters of national football teams from other countries.
Among the side are Lidcombe Waratah FC’s Caroline Staples, Liam Byrne and Richard Wong.
Caroline said the Supporteroos were founded during the 2018 World Cup in Russia when a group of fans played 11 friendlies in five cities against fans from 10 countries – France, Denmark, Peru, Algeria, Cyprus, Nigeria, China, Columbia, Spain and Russia.
“We welcome players of all ages, genders and abilities,” she said.
“Our youngest player is only 12 and the oldest is 64; we were also the only team at the Fan World Cup in St Petersburg to feature a female player.”
Membership expanded during the Women’s World Cup in France, with many female players joining Supporteroos in the match against The American Outlaws fan group in Lyon, with 23 out of 27 players being female.
“We organised seven friendlies in France, including matches in Valenciennes against the local football ultras group, in Grenoble against a team of nuclear scientists and in Lyon against a local police team.”
Caroline said after their 3-2 win against the Irish Fans last week, they were looking forward to organising more fan friendlies during Australia’s first World Cup on home soil.
“We are planning to have matches in at least three Australian cities – Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne – ahead of the Matildas’ group stage matches there,” she said.
“We’re also aiming to organise a Fan World Cup during the final weekend, August 19-20.”
Register to play or find out more: aussiesupporteroos.org.
