Brisbane’s mayor is reprimanded for incoherent speech at the Matildas awards ceremony as he bores the audience with the bizarre Bend It Like Beckham anecdote: ‘So cringe and embarrassing!’
- Adrian Schrinner addressed the crowd on Sunday morning
- Matildas was given the key to the city of Brisbane
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Brisbane Mayor Adrian Schrinner has been criticized by Matildas fans for delivering a rambling and sometimes bizarre speech as the team was honored at an awards ceremony on Sunday.
Skipper Sam Kerr and her teammates received the keys to the city before a screaming crowd at the City Botanic Gardens, with fans also hearing from Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Football Australia CEO James Johnson.
But it was Schrinner’s nearly 10-minute speech that stood out — for all the wrong reasons.
After beginning to congratulate fans on their handmade Matildas signs, the civic leader congratulated the team for inspiring Australia and breaking barriers – while members of the public interrupted him with loud interjections from the start.
Schrinner started by congratulating Matildas fans on their handcrafted plates (pictured) – then it quickly went downhill
As the Matildas sitting behind him looked puzzled and bored, Schrinner told the crowd, “My dad was originally from Germany, so there’s only one soccer ball in our household and that’s a round ball.”
“But to hear Aussies call football football, I never thought I’d see that day.”
He went on to say it’s hard to measure the “unifying effect” the team has had during the World Cup – only for a fan to shout over him, “You can’t measure it, it’s too big,” not once , only twice, forcing him to pause mid-speech.
Schrinner praised the team for inspiring Aussie boys and girls to take up football, before getting into a bizarre anecdote about one of the sport’s best-known films.
“There’s a hunger in our household and (wife) Nina and our four kids are down here… the other day I decided I’d look up a movie we could all watch as a family,” he said before yet another interjection from the audience .
The mayor handed the team the key to the city after a long, incoherent speech that was frequently interrupted by interjections from the crowd
“I looked up Bend It Like Beckham. I went, let’s watch this movie.
And would you know that Bend It Like Beckham is currently – despite being 21 years old – the second most watched sports film in the world?
And the third most watched sports film is She’s The Man.
“It’s fascinating because if you think about what those movies are about, it’s about a young girl in England who is inspired by Beckham, and then another movie is about a young girl who had to dress like a man to play football .
“That’s all changed, and this team has changed it.”
Fans of Matildas online denounced the mayor’s incoherent performance.
‘Oh dude. This is awkward as hell. The Matildas don’t look like they want to be there. Brisbane mayor, take it man,’ one of them tweeted.
The response from Matildas fans was nicely summed up in this social media post
Pop star Nikki Webster got a much better reception when she performed her 2001 hit Strawberry Kisses, which became the team’s unofficial song at the World Cup
“Brisbane mayor’s speech to the @TheMatildas is now so cringe and embarrassing!!!!!” another wrote.
“Shall we stop talking about men and start talking about the tillies performance wtf,” a third added.
“The mayor of Brisbane is dragging their speech out a bit lol,” wrote another.
Fans had a very different reaction when Nikki Webster joined the Matildas onstage to perform her 2001 hit Strawberry Kisses, which became the unofficial team anthem at the World Cup.
Several players, including Alanna Kennedy, Sam Kerr and Steph Catley, got into the song and danced and sang along with Webster.
Goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold previously said of the tune, “I don’t know where that came from. I think it was actually Steph Catley’s favorite song and now we’ve all jumped on the bandwagon.’