Once again a small group of fools has fed the anti-football hate train with what they believe is a justification to bash an entire sport.
Once again, Patrick Smith, an Australian Rules writer for the The Australian, has felt the need to bash a sport he knows nothing about and fruitlessly attempts to hide has deep disliking for.
Once again I feel compelled to take time out, away from the hysteria and look at this from as objective a method as possible.
Firstly, let’s establish the facts. A man and a six year old boy where injured while attending a football match. This alone is frankly terrible and unacceptable. Sport is a place for people to be entertained, socialise and have a good time. In no way, shape or form should one’s physical safety feel threatened while attending sport. The people responsible for this must be apprehended and brought to justice.
What people need to realise is that this is an incident which involved a small group of idiots, how can this be used to smear an entire sport? When Croatian fans caused trouble at the Australian Open in 2010, did the articles have a ‘tennis is a disgrace’ tone to them? Of course not.
Nonetheless, Patrick Smith goes on the attack firstly accusing a Sydney FC fan of delivering a ‘flying kick to the head’. In the week post incident there has been no mention of any flying kicks to the head, if Smith can reveal his source for this allegation it would be greatly appreciated.
He then points the finger at new club Western Sydney Wanderers. Western Sydney Wanderers spokesman Sean Harrett is certain that the group of idiots had no affiliation with the club. In his words, “We have absolutely no idea who they were – we’ve checked our forums and studied the photo that is floating about, but haven’t got any idea…I’ve been to every pre-season game, every supporter’s meeting and every social event so I know who our people are.
“Those guys had no affiliation with us, and for all I know they’re not even football fans. If we do find out they claim any link, we will happily show them the door – and if we were to uncover their identities I would have no trouble passing those on to the club and the police.”
So despite this statement Patrick Smith still feels that he is more informed on the issue and the identities of the offenders. Not finished there, in reference to the incident he opines, “Now that’s how you make your sport and new franchise more accessible. Gold Help Them.”
Perhaps this is just jealousy from Mr Smith as he attempts to drag down a franchise that he knows poses a significant threat to the existence of the AFL’s newest team, Greater Western Sydney. GWS has had a budget 10 or 20 times larger than WSW yet the average home gate is 11,238. While WSW debut appearance at a pre-season friendly was approximately 4,000 on a Wednesday night.
Smith then proceeds to point to a brawl between players of Wellington Phoenix and Newcastle Jets as a, “noxious part of a culture the sport cannot shake.” Later describing the footage as “hideous”.
While we all agree that brawls in sport are not always a good thing, State of Origin seems to be an exception. All it takes is a change of code and ‘Bring back the Biff’ is an unofficial slogan. Brawls in State of Origin are glorified as part of the spectacle and the offending parties are made out to be ‘real hard men.’
Suddenly, “hideous” footage becomes all part of the great spectacle of a sport, curious. Smith in the same article passes off these moments in rugby league as just players being “stupid”. But Patrick, on field brawls are a sign of a “noxious culture”, are they not?
To cap it all off, throughout the fallout following the Sydney FC pre-season friendly, it has been described as just the latest in a string of football crowd incidents. The only football crowd ‘incident’ in recent memory was the media frenzy that surrounded the Australia v Serbia football match June of last year, with reports of rioting fans. All it takes is a little research to find how overblown that was, here are some comparative figures:
Australia versus Serbia. Seven evictions, one arrest. Total eight out of 28,149. One person per 3518 people.
Compare that with the 2010 AFL grand final. Three arrests, eight evictions. Total of 11 out of 96,528. One person per 8775 people.
Or the 1999 AFL grand final. Total of 29 arrests and evictions out of 94,228. One per 3249 people.
Then there’s the 2008 State of Origin. No data available in the ground. According to a report “a dozen” were arrested and required tasering to separate brawling fans on the Gold Coast.
Cricket’s MCG Boxing Day Test in 2006 saw 39 arrests/evictions of 100,000 fans. One per 2564 people.
The correlating Test in 2008 had 135 arrests/evicions in 63,187 fans. One per 468 people.
Yet curiously, there was no ‘cricket shame’ articles surrounding the 2006 and 2008 Boxing Day tests. Why that was the case? Who knows.
Football has the most registered players in this country, do the actions of a select few unknowns justify smearing the sport played and loved by so many in this country?
All football fans want is objective and fair reporting of the sport they love.
Is this asking too much?
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