Tony Popovic warns flare throwers to stay away

Tony Popovic warns flare throwers to stay away

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Western Sydney Wanderers manager Tony Popovic has warned the club’s fans to keep flares away from Wanderers’ matches after the club was sanctioned by the FFA.

A small portion of Wanderers fans discharged flares at detonators in the club’s clash with Melbourne Victory at Etihad Stadium last Saturday night, with the governing body adjudging the fans’ actions brought the game into disrepute.

As a result, Western Sydney were hit with a suspended three-point deduction and $50,000 fine. Another indiscretion by the fans will likely see the Wanderers docked points.


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Ahead of the Wanderers’ home meeting with Wellington Phoenix, Popovic reiterated the illegality of flares, imploring fans to show their passion without them and maintain a “special bond”.

“We (Western Sydney) are obviously disappointed with the sanctions that’s been handed down, but it’s one we have to accept. We’re optimistic that, moving forward things will be much better,” Popovic said.

“It (fans’ actions) does affect everyone within the club and certainly the playing group, but, if they’re our real fans, they’ll all learnt rom this as well.

“We’ll all move forward and learn from it and hopefully we won’t see it again.

“We have a special bond with our fans. Me as a coach, the playing group, the club, we’re a club in short existence … and what we’ve built is phenomenal.

“That bond won’t change. With our fans, they’ll only get stronger.

“If people aren’t our fans … they shouldn’t come to our games. If people want to throw flares, it’s illegal, they shouldn’t come to the game.

“If they want to support our team with the passion that we’ve seen, home and away, please come, because we love seeing you there, and I certainly love seeing them there from the sideline.

Popovic reached out the club’s active supporter group, the RBB, appealing to them to cut out flares following the ugly scenes in Melbourne.

“From them, we just want them to keep supporting us with the passion that they show, but to understand that flares are illegal, they’re not allowed, you can’t have them at games.

“If they want to come and support us with a passion that we’ve seen since inception when we played a friendly came at Mt Druitt, if they want to come and show that passion, please bring it.

“We have 18,000 fantastic members and fans, it’s a fantastic football club. I’m a very proud head coach of this football club.

“That won’t change. Our bond (with the fans) will not change, it will only get stronger. But we need everyone to understand that flares are not allowed, it won’t be tolerated as shown and it’s illegal.

“We want to get the focus back on the great game that we play, which is football.”

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