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The second part of my questions for Ben Buckley on Fox Sports FC was, “Why has the FFA opted to embrace a ‘zero tolerance’ security approach (encompassing the categorisation of fans and high profile policing) instead of ‘friendly but firm’ approach (based around low profile, knowledge based policing and engagement with fans)?”
This is a complicated issue and the policing issue is often the decision of the police commanders on the ground, so to a degree is outside of the FFA control. Nevertheless, while one can understand the desire to avoid the behavioural problems that dogged the old NSL, the comments by the FFA and other football officials in the media when there is a problem have usually been mindlessly reactive and fed into the over hype.
There have never been any substantial attempts on the FFA’s part to contribute to a properly thoughtful discussion in the public sphere on behavioural issues and keep events in context.
It needs to be mentioned that as it stands there are two approaches to football crowd policing at this time, they are broadly referred to as “high profile” and “low profile”. Often football tournaments have a combination of both. However, the low profile is in the ascendancy in football and is the approach I advocate.
This links into the previous part of my question of why the FFA didn’t hire consultants with experience in football, because the low profile approach requires enabling police and security on the ground to understand how to engage collectively minded crowds in such a way that reduces the risk of a situation escalating.
But the FFA hired consultants with educational backgrounds in “anti-terrorism” illuminates what appears to be a “hooligan industrial complex” and instead we have seen the embryonic stages of a “high profile” approach which is an approach not best in line with football’s interests in this country.
This is not an approach that we would want to see at a prospective Australian World Cup, but if it is the approach that the police forces are culturally comfortable with, then it is the approach they are more likely to opt for even if the Sydney Olympics show they would prefer a low profile approach where possible.
What would have been arguably better was to hire consultants with an educational background in behavioural science, with at least some experience in dealing with collective football crowds.
This way they can properly explain what to expect in terms of match-day customs, what in football terms constitutes boisterousness and vibrancy, what really signals anti-social intent, and how to handle these in a finessed and proportionate manner.
When an issue does occur, they need to be discussed in terms of this prism (amongst others), instead they are not, and all that can usually occur is reactive measures based on both steepening regulatory measures and utilising technology excessively which is counter-productive in terms of generating a healthy community around A-League clubs.
The third part of the question was, “What does he say in response to the opinion of many fans that this approach is bad for crowds as it makes attending ‘high risk’ games uncomfortable for peaceful fans to attend?”
The situation in the A-League has evolved to the point that many of the “blockbuster games” that are supposed to be useful in attracting fans who don’t normally attend A-League games regularly, are also high risk games.
This means that not only would casual sports fans from all demographics have to walk amongst a heavy police presence that they don’t normally have to at other sports like the AFL and cricket (which are arguably actually more violent but just in a different way), but committed fans as well.
This adversely impacts the matchday experience of all attending a game and not just the “bonehead trouble makers”.
All fans and families in particular have to walk their young children amongst relatively heavily armed stern police officers who aren’t trained with an emphasis on people skills. This is arguably just as off putting to the family demographic if not more-so than a group of over excited kids chanting obscenities in an isolated area.
This quite conceivably would have been a contributing factor to the downward trend in crowds and the creep of apathy from previously hardcore fans.
Yet the football media don’t seem to have perceived this to be an issue when discussing why A-League crowds have fallen?
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