Socceroos defender Jason Geria wants two things to happen during this World Cup.
The first is schools and bosses giving students and employees the chance to watch Australia play Paraguay at 12pm AEST on Friday.
The second is the federal government to chip in to football so those inspired by the Socceroos can play too.
When asked on Monday (Tuesday AEST) about kids being told they would be unable to watch the pivotal World Cup clash, Geria quipped: "Let them watch!
Geria joked teachers could wheel televisions into classrooms or use students' existing iPads to make that happen, while praising scenes of fans celebrating at sites, pubs and homes.
The defender added: "12pm on a Friday, it doesn't get much better than that leading into the weekend.
"So if they could let their employees or let their students watch, that would be amazing."
Geria, forward Awer Mabil and central defender Milos Degenek had an audience with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese recently and said he had been receptive to their pleas for support.
"We tried to give him a nudge in the direction of helping football a little bit more than it has been," Geria said.
"We made it a point to show what football has done for us and how big it is in the country, and then the legacy that's been built so far.
"If the government can help us out in improving on that by giving a little bit more help, I think that'll go a long way and help the future generations more."
Geria believed a home of football was one thing that could help, but funding in football generally - and alleviating fees at grassroots level in particular - could be game changing.
Teammate Mohamed Toure this month told AAP about his parents having to spend $2000 each on himself and brothers Al Hassan and Musa to play.
"The level of funding for football around the world has increased in such a large amount over the past decade. We're not keeping up in that sense," Geria said.
"A home of football and more funding in general, being able to help out at a grassroots level as well - the fees for these kids.
"Football isn't an elite sport, it's a sport for everyone.
"The more access that people are allowed to have to it, the better it's going to be and more talent we're going to be able to find when there's not that barrier of having to pay a few thousand dollars for registration.
"We can find these diamonds in the rough and I think there's a lot of them out there. So the more help I think we can get in a broader scale, the better."
Australian Associated Press
