Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat and Melbourne City counterpart John van’t Schip have slammed the behaviour displayed by Victory fans in Saturday night’s derby which finished 2-2.
It was a week of relentless scrutiny and controversy with Western Sydney Wanderers receiving sanctions after their fans’ poor behaviour, lighting flares in their away game against Victory last week.
Victory fans appeared to stir the pot in the derby, igniting a flare after Fahid Ben Khalfallah’s goal at 28 minutes.
Many fans around the stadium made their grievances known by booing the distasteful scenes.
The Victory boss slammed the actions and requested for them to stop attending matches.
“My emotions are jumping in relation to the game, from what I did see, again, it’s not acceptable,” Muscat said.
“In light of what we’ve seen in the last week, those individuals shouldn’t come to our games anymore, it’s as simple as that.
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“I sense the reaction more-so from the crowd, from the rest of the people in the stadium, they’re all fed up with those individuals and their mindless acts.
“It’s about time we grow up.”
The most controversial moment of the night came when Gui Finkler’s non-goal was not given – the officials did not spot the ball crossing the goal-line off the crossbar.
Many Victory fans reacted by throwing bottles onto the pitch, towards City goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen.
Victory striker Besart Berisha attempted to calm things down and police the crowd himself, urging members of the active area to settle down, after the goal was not given. Berisha also picked up the bottles and disposed of them.
Van’t Schip also criticised the behaviour displayed by the opposition fans, but he felt the entirety of the Victory and Wanderers cohorts should not pay the price because of few irresponsible fans.
“Everybody knows, I think it’s something everybody can see and we should not accept it and we don’t accept it from our fans as well,” van’t Schip said.
“I think it’s not good, and I think we should try to avoid those things.
“The fans have to understand that they’re penalising their own team, with punishments from the federation if they think it’s needed.
“I don’t hope they get punished, as club and as players you can’t do that much about it, it’s really about the fans.
“If you really have the heart for the club, then you should not do those things.”
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