Fine line between fans and hooligans

Great article

The most consistent transgressors?

Thank you, Helen Lovejoy.

I have many points but i'll keep it concise as life is passing us by here. My main point is that Victory could do better, much better, and that your current MO hurts our sport and your club more than you are willing to acknowledge. Point 2, the best supporters mostly sing FOR the team, with matchday displays to compliment. Youve been watching games since at least 1997, so being a 6-year old club is no excuse for you. Point 3, a new one. Never chicken out of seeing a Man U match. Ever. For your further reading: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/chrischarles/2010/05/chants_of_the_season.html BTW Secret to surviving WHL as a covert away fan. When your team scores, swear like a p-d off sailor (rehearsing pre-match can help) and kick the crap out of your seat (optional and only once). No-one should suspect.

No, I've never been to Anfield and, from what I can gather, it's probably not the safest place to be as I'm a Man United fan ... unless I were to travel there with a fairly large group of Man United fans. I happened to be in London for a couple of days in Dec-2008 that coincided with a Man United EPL match at White Hart Lane. My English mates warned me against going to the game on my own or, if I did, I should shut up and not show I was supporting United. One of the guys was a staunch Arsenal fan, who attends many games at the Emirates. He said he would never go to White Hart lane to watch Spurs v Arsenal. I have rarely spent time in Europe during winter - much prefer the summertime in that part of the world. However, I was in Wien in 1997 and managed to grab a Rapid home game and, when I was living in Japan, I went to several games in the J-League. Both had different football cultures and different manifestations of passionate support. So, what's your point? MVFC has been around for 6 seasons and you expect the fans to have created a culture to mimic those at Anfield and Old Trafford? Wow ... I'm not sure if I should take that as a compliment, or as evidence of your lack of understanding of the development stage of football culture in the A-league.

My point about the G8 is that you can't use them to compare. But finding hypocrisy and violent tendancies in the mob serves my argument much better than it does yours. If you want to pursue this argument, feel free to email me at gmail. Have you actually been to Anfield? A Champions League match? Not rhetorical, I want to know if your 80+ HAL games is supplemented with the worldy perspective so lacking it those that slag off the A-League. Or do you feel that YouTube is a sufficient way to capture Merseyside passion? It ain't, trust me. They didn't sing that song for the full 90 minutes, just long enough for a giggle worthy youTube clip. What is MVFC's "You'll Never Walk Alone"? Is it "There's only one team in Melbourne" or "Your support is effing sh!t"? Also, I fail to catch the second verses to those songs.

roarlover34 I reckon I've seen flares lit by every set of supporters other than GCU, NQF, Newcastle & CCM, so why single out MVFC?

Can't handle the truth Titus? Be as vocal as you want then. It will give you something to do while you are at the game.

I think people have got to no where everybody stands and where to draw the line and at what demographic you're voiceing you're oppinion at, who wants to go to a game of football and verbally abuse a family it just doesn't happen. I have every wright to express my voice at a football match at an approriate time perhaps this is lost with the occasional soccer observer who look in with a voyueristic element at us. I just don't think people understand the triabalism with football i went to a game of A.F.L. it felt weird sitting next to somebody from the oppsosing team and they occasional yelled(they don't sing) although the crowd was decent it didn't feel like a football crowd. Also i mentioned on another thread i went to a one dayer this summer had beer thrown all over me ,some bloke behind didn't feel the need to go and find the toilet and a few who were full of drink thought they were rocky at the venue coclusion by society is there just got a little confused, light a flare at a football match and you'll be in the papers. If where seeing rampant hooliganism then football is fine . I should be relatively fair i think the media no that this is more about football supporters wanting to be just that which is unique to most other sports.

People were right to ignore you, and just so you know, I'm ignoring you too.

RoR Please tell me you're kidding? Surely, you cannot keep a straight face and claim that song about Man Utd supporters is an example of "active fans being like hooligans"? Have you ever walked through in Melbourne's CBD as the bars are closing? The behaviour I've seen from people at 1:00 a.m. on Friday & Saturday nights in Melbourne's CBD, for me, is the definition of hooliganism - intimidating, unruly, anti-social behaviour that leads to violence and criminal damage. You ask me to "think outside the square" ... I implore you to not be such a square! :-)

What are you on about?

The endless swearing in chants is neither humorous or intelligent. Every Sydney game (and probably across the country) a chant ends with F*CK OFF HOME! Its sung 50 times a match, quit often near families with young kids, its dull and abusive. Is that the best the our passionate supports have. Goal-end fans need a greater range of chants and songs and show some intelligence and creativity otherwise they will be labelled hooligans. Learn more from Japanese supporters and less from the English

I actually agree about swearing I'm not the type of person who gets offended by swearing. I see swearing as an acceptable way of venting frustration at your own misfortune etc. So when the team miss an easy chance or concede than I see swearing as legitimate. However when people start swearing at opposition then I just cringe because there is absolutely no creativity in swearing in opposition fans. I have read people saying that active support is like you are competiing with the opposing fans as much as the players are competing with the other team on the pitch. However, if a fan group start abusing the other fan group then I feel that tey have automatically lost the active fan "competition" It's not that its offensive. It's just down right unintelligent and I don't understand why people want to present themselves in that manner. I have far more respect for people who try to make clever and witty chants to mock the opposition rather than boorish swearing. It's one of things I respect about the English chanting (although they are not above swearing as well) as that seems to be their main focus in their chanting.

No one believes anything you say any more, NUFCM. You're an unashamed spin merchant trying to control the debate for your 'team' and you're obviously not interested in either truth or balance -- you just want to 'win'. You're not winning. Your strategy is deeply flawed.

I don't think his point was how police act in games, it was about active fans being like hooligans...you've obviously missed the point again. You are so engrossed in your Victory culture that defending it, going off on a tangent and using FACTs that aren't even relevant come naturally to you now. You need to start looking at both sides of the story to really have a greater understanding of what the readers on the Roar actually mean in their articles, rather than thinking that their attacking your beloved Victory all the time. Think outside the square - it's not all about Victory! ;-)

Major Coronary Looks like they have different standards of controlling the crowd at football matches up North in Liverpool, to that in London? Or, did all these fans at Anfield actually get evicted for singing abusive songs at Chelsea supporters prior to a UCL Semi Final a couple of years ago? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk5fyBfUAhs&feature=related PS: My comment about the G8 was to show how real hooligans behave. PPS: And, you're kidding yourself if you think they're fighting for Human Rights. At the G20 in Melbourne I saw the protesters - wearing their Nike sneakers, drinking Coca-Cola, talking on their Nokia phones and eating lunch at McDonald's ... seemed to me that their support of the "exploited working class" didn't extend to actually doing anything other than throwing balloons filled with urine and faeces at police and anyone dressed in a suit and tie.

Agree, it was a Heart home game, he was in neither committed fan area so no one can really say what his affiliation was if he has any at all, could just be a casual sports fan or a football fan who isn't really into the A league that much? And to people who know what they are on about, it is not a fine line between hooligans and active fans. Active fans have traditionally been in an entire different category to that of genuine hooligans, as is their capacity to sometimes get over excited and do daft things Using colourful language doesen't make one a hooligan either

Art that is just not appropriate. I would expect VicPol's Riot police to charge in with shields and batons to arrest all those, who engaged in such behaviour that is an affront to Victorian standards of decency! Two (potentially, three) swear words ... I reckon a hefty fine and eviction from the stadium? ;-)