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“Soccer’s shame” was the headline adorning the Herald Sun the Monday after a fantastic derby spectacle in front of 41,200 fans at Etihad between Melbourne Victory and Heart the preceding Saturday.
The game at Etihad was slightly marred by the childish scene of away fans ripping up seats and throwing some onto the pitch, which accompanied a number of seats being damaged in the Melbourne Victory sections. Estimates are up to 170 seats were damaged.
This isn’t ideal but it hasn’t stopped the discourse by some media outlets reaching slightly hysterical proportions as factions in the media, not known for their endearment to football, find negative slants in the midst of football making positive progress after hitting some brick walls in recent years.
An example can be seen in a banner by Melbourne Victory fans not being to Ron Reed’s liking. This is probably more of a reflection of the culture of different sports not being to everyone’s taste.
Another example can be the ‘biff’ in some State of Origin clashes being great to league diehards, but abhorrent to others. To football fans the banner was standard fare and not in the realms of social deviancy.
In regards to the derby, the Herald Sun quotes Inspector Paul Ross of Melbourne West Police station as “generally, in relation to the game, the vast majority of the crowd behaved well,” which is what must be remembered most significantly if we are to put events soberly into context.
The media exuberance following Saturday’s Melbourne derby mirrors some of the negative headlines that followed the Sydney derby hosted at Allianz stadium earlier in the season.
What was a great spectacle was painted by some in the Sydney media in a deeply negative tone, citing the immature actions of a handful of fans in lighting some flares and then throwing them onto the pitch. The outraged Wanderers fans facilitated the ‘passion is not a crime’ initiative in response.
This pattern has been seen before, in the early days of the A-League, and lessons need to be learnt. Negative headlines unfortunately tend to often follow when domestic football achieves positive milestones. Interestingly they went away when the league was stagnating and ‘marquee matches’ lost some of their allure.
The best example that comes to mind was the excessively negative reports that followed the ground-breaking 50,000 attendance figure when Victory took on Sydney FC in the A-League’s second season.
This was followed by an ‘axis of evil’ protest by unhappy Melbourne fans the following week, similar to the Wanderers’ ‘passion is not a crime’ protest.
What is probably most crucial though is how the FFA chooses to react, and is able to reflect properly on the past in doing so.
The ‘ethnic tensions’ tag was something the old NSL was never able to fully shake off, so while it is understandable the FFA would be concerned about negative headlines in the old media, there is an argument they lend too much weight to the old media discourse. Consequently, the policy response from the FFA has ironically done more harm than good.
An example is the FFA often talking about taking a zero tolerance approach to anti-social behaviour. This may come across as solid public relations strategy, but on the ground as an actual policy strategy the zero tolerance approach does not effectively work and can engender more violence than it prevents in some circumstances.
Not to mention the oppressive police profile can be more intimidating to families they are trying to protect than a few immature fans in a distant part of the stadium. On the ground a ‘friendly but firm’ approach focused around communication with fans is more effective, which is why it is increasingly becoming the modus operandi in major football tournaments.
This goes into a bigger issue as to what drives the growth of the A League. The FFA seem to believe it lies in headlines and publicity within the old media, whereas in the opinion of this author it truly lies in word of mouth – this weekend’s crowd virtually replicated the 42,000 from the opening fixture of the season, despite no publicity in the media.
If we look to Sydney, much of the media attention has been with Alessandro Del Piero and Sydney FC in the season build up, while Western Sydney were a side show. As the season has progressed however, Western Sydney have become the real success story and crowds have risen dramatically, despite many negative headlines.
As far as the earlier years of the league goes, despite the bad headlines some food for thought lies in that crowds generally did not start falling until after the FFA’s policy responses started to take effect. Something to consider in regards to how they handle the Wanderers fans in particular.
An interesting further quote from Inspector Ross is quite revealing: “There are some issues with the soccer that in some ways we don’t totally understand. I’m not sure why it happens… It is certainly different to an AFL game or a cricket game because we don’t get these issues there.”
The answer can be found in the fact that football crowds are collectively oriented, whereas AFL and cricket crowds are individually oriented. These require different skill sets in handling and positioning of forces and a different reading of behaviour.
What is understood as socially deviant in a football fan context and what is not is different. Some swearing, for example, is not considered socially deviant in an active fan area.
I found it rather curious that, to quote a Herald Sun headline, “Soccer fans are the most violent” citing the frustrations of a Victorian police commander, while the eviction and arrest statistics didn’t quite match this assertion. The assessment was in the commander’s reading – or perhaps misreading – of domestic football crowds.
It is rather curious that internationally Australian football fans are not known for an anti-social reputation like England fans traditionally or Russian fans more recently. Perhaps when they go overseas they behave but at home they are suddenly more anti-social?
An overseas police commander experienced in football crowds would have a completely different perspective of A League fans.
Back to the post-derby headlines, and while broken chairs are not ideal, there is a simple solution as the designers of AAMI Park and the crew of ‘build it bigger’ found out when they tried to break the seats as part of their show.
The fact they required a sledgehammer sums up why you don’t hear of seats being destroyed on any significant scale at derbies hosted at AAMI Park.
If no chairs can be broken in the first place, no one can be banned and driven from the game.
Far from being mired in “shame”, the football fraternity in Melbourne and Sydney have much to be proud of for this season.
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