Football supporters are no hooligans, they are simply passionate about one cause – the love for their team.
Yes, there may be people who are asked to leave the stadium throughout the duration of a game, but this is only a select few. So why are all football fans being treated as hooligans, ruining the experience for everyone else? That is a question many people want answered.
Let us be honest here, we have all seen that one person take it too far and cross the boundaries with their actions or what they are saying. This happens in all sports across the globe, however this is not being noted by many in the media.
If the A-League was really unsafe, would it really still be up and running and drawing more talented players to our shores as it continues to do so? The A-League continues to grow despite these ‘troublemakers’ at games with the number of fans attending games increasing over the course of the first 10 seasons.
The Australian sports community thrives on supporters to further enhance the spectacle that is professional sport. There is no better sight and sound than seeing and hearing the roar of the stadium at full capacity at a sporting event.
These fans are what makes the game so great. The proof is in the pudding and can be seen in the FFA Cup, which has come on in leaps and bounds with fans out in force to support their local club against the professional clubs of the A-League.
The cheering, the singing, the chanting at football matches adds to the atmosphere. Some of us want to travel to places like Europe just so we can say we have experienced a European match.
Imagine an AFL game with no cheer squads, chanting away throughout the game. The modern day cheer squad has become an integral part of a club.
This is no different with the active supporter groups of football clubs around the world whether it be the Kop of Liverpool or the Stretford End at Old Trafford.
On the weekend, the footballing community showed what the sport really means to them with a number of walkouts in the first half of matches. Some of these fans may have been condemned by the media, but other fans in the stadium applauded what they were seeing.
The issue reached new heights when Sydney-based journalist Rebecca Wilson obtained and leaked the names of 198 fans who had been banned from attending future A-League matches by Football Federation Australia; all of the bans handed down were of various time lengths.
Wilson was hit with much criticism following the publication and was deemed one of the reasons fans decided to take a stand in the eighth round of the A-League season.
“We have a zero intolerance for anti-social behaviour at A-League matches,” FFA CEO david Gallop said, in a highly maligned press conference. But what may be deemed to be as anti-social is very much open to interpretation by the public.
Many supporters across the country will agree with the FFA’s policy of not allowing anti-social behaviour at games. Fans want to be able to attend events without the risk of being injured by objects being thrown or insulting slurs directed at them.
Although Gallop did praise the atmosphere the of A-League games, he called on fans to bring a “positive energy” to the way they support their club. But then again, reading from a prepared statement the words “positive energy” will confuse fans. What exactly is positive energy when supporting a sporting team?
The FFA has now responded to the fans’ anger by agreeing to implement an appeal process to allow for banned fans to appeal and either have the ban reduced or overturned all together.
Much of the active support around the country is very much positive with fans singing throughout the entire game. Most notably demonstrated by Western Sydney Wanderers’ Red and Black Bloc or simply known as the RBB, whether their team is playing home or away, winning or losing.
Supporters around the country have been backed by a number of key people in the world of football. Most recently, former Socceroo goalkeeper Mark Bosnich made an emotional plea to the FFA during Fox Sports’ coverage of the A-League to change the current policies they have in place.
As fans, we have to continue our support the way we do. As a community, fans cannot give into what they do not believe in.
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