Van der Bellen asks parents to let children stay up late for Austria's World Cup match

The match between Austria and Spain takes place in Inglewood near Los Angeles and kicks off there at 12:00 PM local time. Due to the time difference, the match will not kick off in Austria until 9:00 PM Central European Summer Time – a time at which many children are normally already in bed.

Van der Bellen, who according to the available sources is 82 years old, begins his address with the words "Liebe Eltern, heute wende ich mich als Bundespräsident direkt an Sie." The tone then shifts to the everyday: he concedes that watching television late into the night is not a good idea – "ich weiß das" – while at the same time offering the fitting argument for many families.

The exact wording of the message

"Aber drücken Sie diesmal ein Auge zu, damit die Kinder, die das wollen, unser Nationalteam live anfeuern können," Van der Bellen continued. He pointed to the "satte Zeitverschiebung" and to the fact that the school holidays are imminent. "Solche Erinnerungen nimmt man doch sein Leben lang mit," the head of state added.

According to the sources, the video was published both on Facebook and on Instagram. In the Instagram version, the federal president is reportedly surrounded by children. The images underscore the family-oriented character of the message.

It emerges from the context that Van der Bellen wants to take away parents' guilty feelings not entirely, but at least "zumindest ein bisserl." He explicitly leaves the decision as to whether at home it means "ab ins Bett" or "ausnahmsweise noch eine Halbzeit" to each family itself.

Background: Austria's first World Cup knockout match since 1954

For Austria, the encounter against Spain is the first knockout match at a football World Cup since 1954. According to the available information, the team coached by team boss Ralf Rangnick qualified for the round of the last 32 through a narrow 3:3 against Algeria, which prevented elimination in the group stage in the final second.

According to the available reports, Rangnick spoke beforehand of the "nächsten Endspiel" and emphasized "wir haben noch nicht unser Leistungsmaximum erreicht." After the dramatic group match against Algeria, new energies had been unleashed. At the same time, the team boss articulated a remarkable detachment from the pressure of expectations: "In dem Spiel können wir tatsächlich nur gewinnen."

The media response to the federal president's appeal is enormous. Comments are circulating on social networks in which parents report that they use Van der Bellen's words as a welcome argumentative aid with their children. A widely shared saying goes: "Der Bundespräsident hat's gesagt."

Rangnick's view of the match

The staging of the message is also noteworthy. In the video, Van der Bellen addresses families directly without any great insignia of state power. This everyday closeness is typical of the federal president's style of office, which repeatedly seeks personal contact with citizens.

The fact that the head of state reaches for unusual means precisely before a major sporting event is not an isolated case in recent Austrian media history. Sporting moments of national significance have repeatedly prompted politicians to issue unusual appeals – always with the aim of uniting the population behind a common cause.

The round-of-16 match will be broadcast live on free-to-air television, including, according to the available sources, on ServusTV. The encounter is thus directly accessible to families without paid streaming subscriptions – a further point that favors the federal president's appeal.

Reactions from politics and society

The exact wording of the video message also contains a personal touch: Van der Bellen wishes "allen Kindern viel Spaß beim Anfeuern" and closes with "Alles Liebe." This personal turn at the end of the address lifts the message above a mere statement and gives it a human component.

Should Austria win the match against Spain, it would be the country's greatest international football achievement in decades. A defeat, on the other hand, would mean the end of the World Cup dream. It is precisely this "all-or-nothing" feeling that Van der Bellen taps into when he says that such moments remain in one's memory for a lifetime.

In the comment columns below the video, it is not only parents who speak up, but also numerous adults who report that they themselves experienced similar exceptions as children – for instance during the home World Championships in 2008 or during national team matches in the 1990s. These shared memories lend the federal president's appeal additional weight.

Why the appeal resonates

The reactions from politics are predominantly favorable. Numerous members of parliament shared the video and expressed their approval of the direct address. Critical voices, which view the appeal as inappropriate interference in family matters, are documented only sporadically in the available sources.

Pedagogues view the incident with nuance. Some point out that an occasional overshoot of bedtime is defensible in the context of an extraordinary event. Others emphasize that such exceptions should be clearly communicated as such – which Van der Bellen has expressly done with the reference to the imminent holidays.

Overall, the episode shows how a head of state can reach a broad swath of the population with a simple but pointed message. The appeal combines several elements: recognition of parents' educational work, the reference to a historic sporting moment, and the promise of a shared generational experience.

Should Austria actually win, the sentence "Der Bundespräsident hat's gesagt" will likely continue to resonate in many Austrian households for a long time to come. Should the team lose, at least the memory remains of an evening on which the highest office in the land granted parents a small concession to the next generation.