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It was less than a fortnight ago when Sydney FC’s main supporter group, The Cove, staged a protest against its own club.
Angered over poor results and a perceived lack of direction within the club’s boardroom, fans chose their home clash with Adelaide as the arena to unfurl prominent banners calling for the sacking of head coach Frank Farina, as well as Chairman Scott Barlow and CEO Tony Pignata.
The subsequent response within Australia’s football media might have led some to believe that such a supporter backlash had never been seen in the sport in this country.
Social media sites were ablaze with intense discussion of the subject. Opinion pieces filled major newspapers.
On a football discussion program – aired on free-to-air television – the incident allowed for an entire segment being devoted to covering A-League fan issues.
Certainly, for a number of days, Sydney’s fan ‘revolt’ – as it was termed in various news reports – was one of the hottest topics in Australian football.
But was something not awry about all this media attention? Had there not been markedly similar fan protests recently in other parts of the country?
As many fans were quick to point out on Twitter, major issues between supporters and club have been taking place at Melbourne Victory all season, with barely a whimper heard in the mainstream press.
Two months ago, Melbourne Heart supporters staged a silent protest for the first half of their home fixture against Adelaide United. A mention or two from television commentators aside, the backlash again failed to receive anywhere near the same coverage as seen in Sydney last week.
Of course, it is not just Melbourne and Sydney that have been the site of supporter protests.
Ongoing problems between a section of Adelaide’s active fan-base and the club is one that springs to mind, as is the premature “Sack Mulvey” banner displayed by some of Brisbane’s faithful in earlier times.
Do these all amount to an example of Australian football’s unwavering obsession with all things Sydney? Or is there another explanation for the clear disparity in media coverage of what is, essentially, the same issue happening in different cities?
Stepping away from the reporting of fan issues, and there is a case to argue that there are other instances of Sydney receiving special treatment within Australian football.
In recent years, many fans across Australia have bemoaned the Harbour City virtually becoming the ‘home’ of the national team.
Since 2005, Sydney has hosted 16 Socceroos matches. Conversely, Perth and Adelaide have had just one each. Indeed, Perth – a city of almost two million people – has not seen a national team fixture since facing Indonesia nearly nine years ago.
Meanwhile, Fairfax Media revealed only last month the sport’s governing body in Australia is set to announce the format for the new FFA Cup, with 14 New South Wales sides expected to form part of a 32-team tournament.
Despite possessing superior participation numbers in comparison to other states, one must wonder if it is enough for New South Wales to lay claim to nearly half of the positions in what is meant to be a national tournament.
Much like the discrepancy in the hosting of Socceroos matches, NSW’s anticipated allocation stands in stark contrast to other areas of the country.
In Victoria, six teams are expected to gain entry to the final 32, while South Australia has just two spots available.
Given the nature of what appears to be clear evidence of the FFA putting Sydney on a pedestal, some punters have joked the governing body should be renamed the ‘Football Federation of Sydney’.
Keeping this in mind with the inconsistency in media reporting, perhaps it is time for more pressure to be placed on the appropriate parties in a bid to achieve fairer coverage and representation for all respective Australian cities.
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