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A response to events at the Sydney Derby

22nd February, 2017
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Wanderers fans are expected to walk out at half time during their match against the Mariners. (Photo AAP Image/Dean Lewins)
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22nd February, 2017
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Another week, another A-League controversy and another minority of fans crying wolf that the suits at Chifley Square are conspiring against their so-called ‘free speech’.

It would not surprise me if these were the very same minority of football fans, who for too long in this country have been tarred with the same brush, who then complain about the sport’s treatment in the media.

Instead of the rhetoric following last weekend’s Sydney Derby being about a stoic Western Sydney Wanderers side finally breaking their hoodoo against their ‘big brother’ across the city, social media is instead being dominated by the actions of a small group of supporters.

These supporters, with seemingly very little else to do with their lives, got together of an evening to construct a seven-foot representation of the male appendage and, well, you know the rest…

I will not for one moment sit here and pretend that I did not let out a childish snicker upon seeing the banner, nor do I believe that my fellow Sky Blue supporters in The Cove should avoid punishment for their actions. However, although pushing boundaries of social acceptability is a key theme of comedy, it has, in this instance, been pushed too far.

Western Sydney Wanderers fans celebrate the Wanderers 2-nil win over the Brisbane Roar during their semi-final match at Parramatta Stadium, Sydney, Friday, April 12, 2013. (AAP Image/Dean Lewins)

Funnier still is the response of certain individuals who have taken offence to the notion that people could quite possibly be offended by the work. After all, work that was displayed at an event supposedly suitable for young families and individuals of any orientation, an event which is then broadcast on television on a Saturday evening.

These individuals reflect a cruel, self-absorbed underbelly of football supporters that must be separated entirely from the common football fan.

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Of course, the nature of the world we live in dictates that those who see nothing indecent about the display, or take umbrage to the club’s response to the matter, find themselves with the opportunity to comment with virtual anonymity.

To these individuals, those who vindicate their vile comments by claiming “it’s just free speech” or that “football is about banter”, it must be said that you are in the minority and there is good reason for that.

Credit where it’s due, they are right about one thing, football is for the people, so long as ‘the people’ does not represent a circle that spreads further than males between the ages of sixteen and forty. Your views are not universal.

It is insufficient to tell the Sydney FC coach in question, whose wife and daughters were in the crowd, to simply “harden up” and be done with it. It is short-sighted to tell people that if they were unnerved by the work not to return the following week, and, finally, it is unreasonable to blame the FFA for poor fan engagement when the events of Saturday night hinder the possibility of young parents with children again booking the derby as a family night out.

The active support groups of our league add a welcome, colourful dimension to the brand that is the A-League. There is no denying that their reputation for pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable – legal and social intricacies that can usually be laughed off and enjoyed at a football match – precedes them when it comes to some of the publicity that they garner.

However, it is up to them to tread the between the banter which adds so much to the spectacle of a football match, and actions that provide certain parties with ammunition to shoot down our beautiful game.

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