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Following last year’s Victorian Premier League grand final at AAMI Park, Dandenong Thunder had fans banned from home games for a year and the club fined 40,000 dollars.
If consistency in punishment existed, Western Sydney Wanderers would face the same penalty.
For the first time in my seven years of supporting Melbourne Victory, I was legitimately scared at a home game.
From the 75 minute mark at the clash between Melbourne Victory and Western Sydney Wanderers at AAMI Park, fans in the Wanderers bay let off flares and also what sounded like explosives, possibly firecrackers.
As a Victory fan I have witnessed flares over the years from our fans but never heard anything as loud as the explosions heard tonight. I have always felt that flares are absolutely unacceptable however have never felt in any way threatened by them over my years of supporting the A-League.
In the 2012 VPL grand final, flares were shot across the length of the ground and injured a spectator.
At tonight’s game, I could not help but to lose complete concentration on the game and only focus on the away bay and whether a projectile was going to come missiling in my direction.
Up until this point in the game, the atmosphere from both Wanderers fans and Victory’s South End had been fantastic, but the actions of these rogue fans will blight the fact the fact that a thrilling encounter even occurred at AAMI Park.
Football is currently blossoming like never before in the country and ridiculous setbacks such as this will continue to prevent the sport from stepping up to the next level.
Mainstream media crucify football fans at the best of times and the fact that firecrackers are being set off in a full sports stadium does nothing to suggest that the media’s claim that all football fans are hooligans are inaccurate.
Wanderers fans should, at the very least, be banned from the Melbourne Victory versus Western Sydney Wanderers clash just a few weeks from now on January 14th at AAMI Park.
What was displayed tonight from the away fans was absolutely disgraceful and how anyone can be proud to be a part of that is beyond me.
The ones who let off the explosives tonight are what gives the sport in this country a bad name. I read a Facebook post from a woman who said she and her son would attend their first ever A-League fixture at this clash and asked whether she would be converted.
What they would’ve seen is hooligans being hooligans. These casual fans will not come back if this rubbish continues.
I understand football passion and absolutely love the unique atmosphere that separates us from Australia’s other codes but fans must remember that at the end of the day it is a game. Nothing is achieved from ambushing opposition supporter groups on the streets.
Support your team with your voice, not your fists.
Maybe when this can be achieved the newspaper headline in the morning would read ‘22,000 witness thrilling game at AAMI Park’ rather than ‘Soccer hooligans act up again’.
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