Fan frustration: time for communication, clarity and compromise

Football in Australia. A-League. Massive emotion, divided stances, some common sense, some warped/biased perspectives, some mature comments, some clearly moronic. Yep, football is a game of opinions.

In advance of anything I write that may be mildly controversial, please permit me to illustrate my football lunacy with the following bio: I am a massive Melbourne Victory fan, inaugural member, missed 2 home games in 6 years, been to all but one away ground (several times in some cases) except Fury.

Over the years, I have been in both North Terrace (NT) and South End (always within the active support) and have never sat on the sides. I think I would die of boredom!

I have attended approx 150-200 football matches outside of Australia over many, many years including Premier League, Championship, lower leagues and three FA Cup Finals. I have been to two World Cups, one Asian Cup and have watched the Socceroos in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.

I spend more money on my football addiction than I could EVER justify. So that’s me. Hopefully answers the oft-bellowed chant of “Who are ya? Who are ya?”!

I highlight this background not to attempt to position my opinion above that of anyone else but merely to indicate the depths of my passion. And I love the fact that so many of those on the forums and within our stadia around the country were not necessarily born into football but have discovered it because mates dragged them along, or just because they thought they’d have a sneaky look and – for whatever reason – got hooked!

And, people, we have a massive problem relating to dissatisfaction on the terraces. And, worse, I don’t think there is an overnight solution. So, here’s my take. Pure personal opinion based on first-hand observation and experience.

In almost all heated conflicts, resolution usually relies on some degree of compromise. As I see it, there are four key stakeholders in this mounting challenge: the Active Supporters, the Clubs, the FFA and the matchday authorities (the respective stadium authorities, the local police and the security officials).

I am not sure that ANY of them are aligned in their approach to matchday football. Finding a mutually acceptable compromise could be akin to locating that ever evasive needle hidden amongst the straw.

1. The Active Supporters – a brief, generic view

Proud, passionate, colourful and noisy. The more noise, the better. Depending on the ‘freedom’ of the respective supporter group, some singing is rigidly orchestrated, others more random and instinctive. Flags, shirts, banners and scarves create the colour – controversially complimented by the occasional flare.

Songs/chants can be creative and contagious, others (by deliberate design) spiteful and offensive. In almost all groups, there are ‘leaders’ (formal or otherwise) and there are impressionable followers. Frequently confronted by the various authorities whose role is to maintain order on match day, many feel unreasonably hassled, intimidated and occasionally violated.

Certainly, there is a rapid escalation of feeling unappreciated by their clubs. I think that pretty much sums up the Active Supporters.

2. The A-League Clubs

Many find themselves standing frozen in the middle ground of being stuck between the wide-eyed jubilation of revelling in the atmosphere created by a core group of frenzied supporters who have almost self-evolved from nowhere, and trying to adopt a more sober stance that cannot and will not condone any behaviour that does not meet the fair and reasonable expectations of a dramatically less passionate society.

I am convinced that most board members initially invested time, money and effort into what they thought was merely a business within a sporting environment and yet have now found themselves immersed in a cauldron of emotion, passion and opinion, the likes of which are almost foreign to the business backgrounds from which they came.

It’s terrifically exciting but, at the same time, the volatility of increasingly frustrated active supporters threatens one of the matchday magnets that have attracted so many non-football enthusiasts to the game. And, ultimately, that could dilute or strangle the revenue associated with memberships, sponsorship dollars and merchandise sales.

To what extent does this then cascade into reduced return on investments and consequent reduction in available expenses? Real or imaginary? Either way, who needs the risk? There are many similarities between running sporting clubs of all codes but few, if any, need to adjust to the needs and expectations of such an influential and vocal core group of its members.

As such, we hear many pacifying promises to supporters of corrective action, future concessions and assurances of a more enjoyable, less stressful matchday experience.

However, the clubs do not own their grounds and need to work closely with stadium authorities, local police and the security firms employed by the stadium – who all appear to have misaligned experience and agendas.

3. The Football Federation of Australia
An interesting one. This is a body which rose like a phoenix (no relation to our friends in Wellington) from the ashes of Soccer Australia. New Football replaced Old Soccer, funded and fuelled en masse by one Frank Lowy and his enthusiastic band of merry men, headed initially by John O’Neill and, subsequently, by Ben Buckley.

The initial, three-sided vision was to create a viable and sustainable national competition, to qualify for a World Cup and to leave Oceania and become a card carrying member of the Asian Football Confederation. Bold, brave and brilliantly achieved. However, there is a consensus who feels that the eyes of the FFA have been on the Socceroos’ campaigns in Germany, Bangkok, South Africa and Qatar and the journeys that made those contests possible.

More recently, the all-consuming bid to host the 2022 World Cup absorbed more than its fair share of people resources and attention. It could be argued that, as a result, the A-League has been allowed to wander aimlessly and clumsily into its 6th season and, without proper parenting, is clearly showing signs of adolescent growing pains.

To expand or not to expand? That was one of the questions – but the rate of expansion, the number of games, the season start/end dates and countless other issues have made for a full agenda which is now bursting at the seams.

Add to that, the growing discontent of the active supporters and it is conceivable that the 2010-2011 “Fan Made” advertising campaign may have been hastily constructed, laced with a heavy dose of assumption that the fans will always be there generating raucous amounts of noise and atmosphere. However, someone forgot to tell the stadium authorities…

4. The Matchday Authorities
Maybe I have left the hardest till last. This particular stakeholder is multifaceted and, as a consequence, seemingly fragmented.

On one hand, we have the stadium authorities who provide a playing environment for the teams and a structure to house those who wish to watch the game. They have stadium rules and regulations and are generally experienced in hosting a variety of sporting events and entertainment functions.

They are generally growing in their experience of hosting passionate football matches but not necessarily getting any better at doing it. Football demands a different set of tangible and intangible matchday accessories – most of which are absent from the bays and tiers when other codes are present.

The problem seems to be that those damn noisy soccer supporters don’t walk, talk and function like our stereotypical and far easier to predict AFL/NRL/ARU/NBL subscribers. Damn those soccer fans. If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be confronted by members of the various A-League clubs frequently asking for concessions to our stadium rules and regulations. Why can’t you just be like everyone else?

Then we have the hired security firms at each respective stadium. The greatest risk in maintaining order at a non-football sporting event usually relates to alcohol abuse or the throwing of objects during another nauseating round of the once-outlawed Mexican Wave. Sit down, shut up and stop drinking or you’re going home in the back of a divvy van.

A Football matchday experience poses an altogether different challenge for the security staff – and I am convinced that most have not been trained as to how best to respond.

These supporters actually participate; they’re vocal, very noisy, and sometimes military in the precision with which they execute their chants and movement. That’s a little scary, almost intimidating. I know: Sit down, shut up and stop drinking or you’re going home in the back of a divvy van.

The third member of the matchday triumvirate is the local police and I have to admit to a degree of ignorance as to how their piece fits into the bigger jigsaw. I assume their presence is mandated by the FFA or the stadium authorities or, probably, both. Further ignorance as to what triggers the escalated need for the jump-suited riot police to attend. Who invites who, why and when? They are always there when Victory travels to Sydney and have made sporadic appearances at Etihad when Victory plays host to selected opposition.

But they’re not omnipresent at all games, so who deems their presence occasionally necessary? Either way, on a recent away trip to Newcastle, a member of the security firm – (who told me his name was “Mick Smith”, hmm!) – became insistent that despite the Jets fans waving their flags, we were to take ours down (he claimed the Jets had ‘registered’ their flags?!).

Anyway, it became a little animated and the police were summoned. Despite one officer quietly telling me “I’m a football fan and consider this imposition to be ridiculous” he also told me that his job was to merely act in accordance with the wishes of the security firm. He had no jurisdiction.

90 minutes later, he shook my hand as we left the stadium. I have travelled to Hindmarsh four times and on two of those trips have been disgusted by the actions of the security firm – one repeat-offending, grey-bearded troublemaker in particular – who were so very clearly wired to confront and intimidate Victory supporters and yet they ignored the full plastic water bottles and other objects that rained down on us from above and behind.

When any Victory supporter challenged them or the vile, verbal abuse they were hurling into the fans’ faces, the police were called in to eject. And eject they did.

Even in friendly Wellington, we stood in the allocated ‘away support’ bay and all 17 of us (!) cheered on our team. Yet security and police permitted a group of around 10 local kids to sit one row away, inside the away support section and offer their anti-Victory, anti-Aussie chants directly at us. All good fun. They’re only kids.

Yet when one of them was told to‘re-locate’ by an eventually fed-up Victory fan, security stepped in to warn him to curb his behaviour. And the kids continued. I have had a similar experience in Perth. Security were only interested in telling the inter-staters to behave, despite the obvious provocation.

I am now aware that as much as local, active supporters are feeling mistreated by local security and police, the very same experiences I have endured have been felt by travelling fans across the country. Something is clearly wrong in paradise.

So somewhere along the line, all aspects of jurisdiction appear blurred. And actions appear exaggerated. And reactions magnify to being worse. Too many dry tinder boxes, too many hot-headed, macho security staff and too many fed up and frustrated football supporters who’ve had enough. It’s a recipe for disaster.

It used to be easier to merely blame the ‘ethnic tensions’ that will always be associated with the ‘wogs’ that attend the ‘soccer’ – except that it is not about wogs or soccer or ethnicity. In fact, it is not just about the active supporters of all ages and both genders. It is starting to smudge into the seats occupied by families and children. Something has to stop and “sit down, shut up and stop drinking or you’re going home in the back of a divvy van” just won’t cut it anymore.

So, to arguably the most difficult part of this exposé to pen. The solution. Here goes…..

To the active supporters (of which I am proud to be one):

Chill out. Chillax. Stop being the victim. Appropriate behaviour very, very, very rarely results in an arrest or an eviction. In almost every circumstance, where there is smoke, there is generally something burning. If there were fewer supporters adopting the tough guy image, puffing out the chest and giving attitude to anyone in authority, there would be less over-reacting, law enforcement agents.

Kill the flares – they bring way more negative focus to you than any real football fans actually crave. And stop pretending that, even if it wasn’t you that you can’t let your fellow active supporters know that flares are not wanted. There are enough megaphone-shouting ‘leaders’ to tell the masses that flares are not cool; if not, don’t blame the authorities when they brand us all as one and react accordingly. If flares disappeared, you might find that overhead banners/tifos are then permitted once more. Otherwise, they are currently seen as being a camouflage for flare-rippers from the CCTV cameras. Go figure why the authorities have banned them.

Lose the blatantly offensive chants (“F*** Off, United”; Oy yoy yoy, F*** Off, Sydney “; “You’re support is F***ing S***”; “F*** Off Melbourne Victory, ole, ole”). Ditto the offensive banners. This isn’t a curb of your human rights. You’re not being victimised. In almost every society, it’s deemed as being anti-social behaviour.

The police/security won’t tolerate it and please don’t get all uppity because your club won’t defend it. Along with the FFA, they are trying to create a brand that can be sold to the masses – and most people recognise it’s offensive. Merely because they show footage of the heaving, singing crowds doesn’t mean they condone offensive chanting.

The day the FFA use it as part of their advertising footage, feel free to accuse them of hypocrisy. There are hundreds of socially acceptable chants that are already sung to more than compensate for a rare few that should cease. Fear not, you won’t appear any less impressive because you’re not swearing.

Specifically to the ‘leaders/capos’ of the supporter groups: stop placing inflexible, unreasonable demands on the clubs. No club should have to appease you by permitting your own in-stadium merchandise sales, your own in-stadium advertising propaganda and give you licence to print whatever you want on your banners/tiffos. Society expects and so do club CEOs. Get real with your behaviour and your demands.

To the A-League Clubs:

Get closer to your supporters – especially the active ones. Build relationships based on shared understanding of mutually beneficial outcomes. These are football supporters of the round ball code and by their very culture are different to the patrons of other codes. If you want to celebrate the atmosphere they can generate, then don’t quash the steps they take to create it. What a great example it was to see Heart CEO, Scott Munn, moving amongst his drenched, patient supporters prior to the rain-soaked game against the Mariners.

Work with every authoritative element within every stadium to ensure that there is common understanding and a tailored environment in which the active supporters can ‘perform’ – yes, this means treating them differently from other code patrons. Demand consent from the authorities. The fans will provide you with a uniquely marketable offering in return. If you need to liaise with overseas clubs to understand how they manage their active supporters, then do it. You know the key clubs.

Be absolutely confident in communicating fair and reasonable code of conduct expectations to stadium authorities, local police and the security firms employed by the stadium, such that they know exactly what to expect. Because I am convinced that today, they don’t. The onus will be on them to work with the supporters to maintain law and order within that ‘special’ environment.

Host a monthly meeting with representatives of the fans, the FFA, the stadium, security and local police in attendance. Embrace the challenge to have the optimum sporting environment in which the best behaved fans create the most energetic and vociferous atmosphere. Now there’s a goal worth achieving!

To the FFA:

The 2022 World Cup bid is over. The Socceroos are in good hands. Now the A-League needs you. Remember that a viable and sustainable national competition was one of your three original objectives.

If you want “Fan Made”, define it. Make sure every club, stadium, supporter group and security firm have the same expectation. Then do whatever it takes to orchestrate and uphold it. The viability and sustainability of your product is starting to be un-picked at the seams.

Too many of those you publicly promote and celebrate are feeling unloved and unwanted. You need to be their champions not their private detractors. Welcome and encourage what they can do for Football in this country instead of fearing and legislating against what they might do.

To the Matchday Authorities:

Employ staff who are skilled and trained in working with people not against them. Your primary objective is to provide a safe environment for all patrons who attend the events you supervise. So ensure that your people are facilitating that goal rather than inflaming it.

Like a referee who allows the game to flow, your staff should be conspicuous by their absence.

Apart from my most recent Sydney experience, I cannot recall if I have ever heard a security officer check your ticket at the entrance to your allocated aisle and utter an “enjoy the game” greeting. Not difficult, is it?

Ensure your staff treat people they way they would expect to be treated themselves. Why not empower them to all wear a microphone and earpiece so that their conversations can be recorded? Then you could reward them for their positive/tactful/effective handing of difficult situations. It’s called positive reinforcement. How many complaints do your respective businesses field on a Monday morning? How many compliments? How motivating would it be to reverse that ratio and reward your staff accordingly?

One of my many failings in life is that I am an eternal optimist. That said, I know that elements of my above recommendations will fall onto some deaf ears and may never see the light of day.

My only hope is that there will be those in positions of influence – be it within the supporter groups, the clubs, the FFA or those matchday authorities – who share the same vision and will adopt whatever measures are required to take our collective matchday experiences to unprecedented levels of joy, jubilation and euphoria. It can happen. It will happen. Are you prepared to make it happen?