http://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/81269,rasic-lowy-walked-all-over-us.aspx

But its something we definately have to be very vigilant of to help grow the game, as the anti football forces are just waiting to pounce with the Soccer Hooligan headline and it does sell papers. Not that we really need to be the number 1 sport to enjoy football in this country.

Its another example of a few bad apples spoiling it for everyone else, but at least we’re not as bad as the other sports in this country where they have banned drums and musical instruments or the Mexican Wave.

I can understand the FFA being very scared about active support. They have a ‘product’ that they have to sell which is being marketed as ‘family friendly’ (whatever that means) and comform with the dominant cultural paradigms offered by the AFL and NRL. Anything outside that is seen as suscpicious. This is not helped by some sections of the media which are either hostile to football because of their own interests, or abide by the ‘soccer hooligan’ stereotype because its lazy journalism, resulting in incidents that would go unreported in other codes being beaten up as ‘soccer riots’.

I would also recommend readers here to have a looks at the July issue of the IFM Magazine, which explains very well the feelings of many Melbourne active supporters.

whats more some groups will sing different songs to others.

the best result is a multicultural atmosphere of colour and noise throughout the stadium, where different groups support how they please.

I think the fear is well based; also football is still in a very tenuous position so caution is wise. On the other side is a hard core mainly gen X & Y out for a good night out which includes lots of singing / dancing / drinking / and sometimes name calling and the odd fight. It adds greatly to the match experience and is very colourful.

The rugby and AFL managers of football understand the media, football groups understand football. Both know something about the others role in the football community, balance common sense etc were should the line be drawn, is still being established.

IMO FFA are partly to blame especially in Perth where standards were applied to the Glory Boys as if they were part of the problem not part of the solution. Supporter groups to need to understand how they are being seen by the wider community, at the Mariners it is often a hot topic of debate on the forum, but thankfully enough cool heads exist within the supporter group to keep things under control.

My answer is to keep talking about it. The FFA are watching and at least we have a management willing to listen.

Finally as the old Beatle song go’s “ Come together “ it will help.

My understanding (indicated by the B rating in the AFC review) is that the FFA will move to address this by establishing the A-league as an independent entity governed by a board that contains representatives of the clubs, FFA and A-League management, by 1 October 2008. Effectively,watch this space.

Cheers
md.

Sure some hard decisions had to be made and we needed to be more professional and use new faces and new talents to get to where we are.

Nick Tana did a fantastic job with Perth Glory before the A-League and chose not to join the A-League. The main reason being that he wanted to have full control of the team. Under the FFA’s new guidelines this was not possible. So Nick and his associates have some sour grapes and continue to not only be uncooperative with the current Perth franchise, but also publicly criticise the FFA and the current Perth Glory.

We can’t return to the bad old days when wealthy philanthropists throw some money at a football team and then demand total control over everything, it doesn’t fit in with the Crawford recommendations or the FFA’s charter. Nick Tana could have been the owner of Perth Glory and helped them to thrive, as long as he was prepared to work with the FFA.

Con from the Jets had the same issues and there were many public spats with the FFA, before he begrudgingly agreed to hand over control to the FFA. Now he has a successful club with his own HAL Golden Toilet Seat replica and thinks the FFA are OK.
If Nick played ball with the FFA he’d probably have a successful franchise.

The FFA had to step in and buy half of the Glory franchise and put in its own caretaker manager and admin staff to help Perth get off the ground in the A-League. It’s not too late for people like Nick to get back on board Perth and get the positive vibe back into Glory.

The same thing happened with Clubs like Marconi who pulled out of the initial A-League because they wouldn’t have total control. Now we have 5 or 6 consortiums lodging an application for the second Sydney A-League franchise. The FFA have proven what the successful formula is.

Sure its got a few teething problems, but football is in much better shape now than before the A-League started and you must give the FFA some credit.

Having attended all matches except one of the Roars home games,but being of mature vintage I’m not likely to be involved in support of the raucous kind.
However one of the reasons I watch football, apart from the game is the colourful antics of the “core” supporter groups.
What I have noticed at the Roar at times is a distinct lack of co-ordinated effort from the “Orange” home end.
This is in sharp contrast to the smaller group of supporters at the “away” end who make at times twice as much noise,because they are one unit of close away fans.
Surely from a club support perspective it is better to have a large co-ordinated group supporting their team in unison rather than a splintered effort?

Putting it in “Business terms” or their langauge, think about when a small business grows t the point where it is large enough to be a medium business, it naturally needs to restructure, if it is prevented or obstructed by doing so via an overbearing clamp then that is going to bad in terms of its innovativeness now isn’t it?

This has been invaluable in many respects and for the most part is a good thing but these people are making decisions in relation to football fans etc as well and they are making uneducated and even based on ignorant misperceptions and stereotypes that are to the detriment of football and the football community in this country

Not only are they out of touch they simply aren’t listening, they don’t support the fans when they are subjected to character assassination or hysterical media reports, even worse they seem to be so stupid they actually fall for it

As far as the bottle throwing is concerned, some people obviously did the wrong thing and acted immaturely but if the adequate infrastructure was in place (buffer zone which is pretty much standard in football) – in this instance a cloth thing – ensuring they are out f distance, or even the use of a net then that can be prevented. If the police and security had been deployed properly (in football context) they could have perhaps prevented that from coming together or cut out the throwing at an early stage rather than it escalating

I recall the Sydney security/police were able to do this at the first SFC vs MVFC game last year, where in co-operation with the fans they moved to the centre and so a good buffer zone of a few bays were able to be set up to ensure a buffer zone, with the security/police interjecting if anyone got overexcited and broke this. There have been some pretty elementary mistakes which is understandable but the FFA have not gone about this the right way at all

Let’s not forget as well, the “advice” the FFA have been receiving is from these consultants here,
http://www.hatamoto.com.au/
who aren’t football consultants and as such questions have to be asked about whether they really are able to offer educated advice, expertise and recommendations with any actual proper authority. People read for themselves

Lastly, this type of approach has been tried before overseas, the people looking to act daft simply moved away from the stadium and started being daft around or outside of the stadium. This was realised a long time ago

Towser, what you don’t realise is that the FFA is not only not listening, it is overbearingly interfering with how clubs interact with their fans through forcing a HEM which is not wanted

On the artistic side of things, with the Fanbases being at an early stage of development and there being a good cosmopolitan mix of philosophies and forces, there is a need for fluidity and flexibility of movement, examples being that MVFC Union from season 1 disbanded, SE extracated itself so there was breathing space for their style and so there was NE and SE, obviously SCC hav ebroken away from the Cove, I think there was a split at QLD Roar of some kind, with Adelaide they have had different groups with different perspectives with the Gate disbanding and there being about 4 small groups

FFA are shockingly out of touch and uneducated with the fanbase and football culture and this will be costly as they are making bad policy on this basis. Football fans aren’t like fans in other Australian Sports, FFA need to understand and respect this if they are to know how to adequately deal with football fans travelling from overseas for ACL or ACQ/WCQ matches. Any screw ups will not be good for the game

They aren’t just marginalising the “old soccer” football fans, they are starting to alienate and marginalise the “new football” fans, simply for wanting to be able to support in tune with football cultural norms