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Why is mainstream Australia scared of active fans?

Westie Nomad new author
Roar Rookie
18th December, 2012
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Westie Nomad new author
Roar Rookie
18th December, 2012
277
2645 Reads

As a member of the Red and Black Bloc (RBB) Western Sydney Wanderers supporter group, who sings and chants and waves flags every game I can get to, it’s interesting to note how many people have an opinion without being “active participants” in football.

Before anyone shouts me down with stereo typical assumptions, I am an indigenous person, who grew up playing football in the heartland of western Sydney.

I am not what you would call a standard football fan, yet I love football, always have and always will.

I never supported a NSL team even though there were two just around the corner, as they didn’t represent me nor did they wish to connect with me, but that has all changed with the Wanderers.

They are a mainstream team with no ethnic affiliations; they represent the many people, from many places of western Sydney, which is a very large area with a very large population (bigger than most cities of Australia).

They are connecting with everyone in all communities in western Sydney on a grassroots level.

The RBB do not condone flares but you cannot force people to tow the group line and still expect them to be passionate about their team (just ask the Cove); people show passion in many different ways.

For some it is painting their faces and ranting and raving (by the way, face painting is banned by FFA as it hides your identity from security), or making massive flags and banners to show their support and waving it all game long.

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There just needs to be a better understanding of the dangers of when things go wrong.

The thing everyone keeps forgetting is that the RBB are an “active” group, meaning support in a manner which actually involves doing something (singing, jumping, flag-waving etc); being active. Just like any other A-League team’s active groups.

Unfortunately, mainstream society is scared of what active support brings to the game; they assume (partly thanks to the mainstream TV channels and the poor standard of journalism and policing by our state police force in certain areas) that this means riots and violence.

But it does not. At our home games we work in partnership with the local police to ensure that everything runs smoothly.

Active is not a word used by any other sport in Australia to describe their supporters; most are actually passive in their support.

Sure there are some who sneak flares in, but I have seen much worse at other sports. But flares can be coordinated to be used at the right time to create atmosphere and dramatic effects, like pre-game entertainment.

This is where FFA and the clubs need to work together with their active support groups to create a active show that could have flares as part of it, but this would need to occur on the field considering the litigious society we now live in.

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Is mainstream Australia scared of active support because they don’t know how to do it properly, or is it because the Anglo part of our society can try to use this as justification to continue to push their racist ideologies?

I, for one, will continue to be active in my support for Wanderers as passion is not a crime!

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