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Football Federation Australia is fond of using active supporters in its A-League advertising campaigns. But what happens when those active supporters stop turning up?
With all due respect, those who don’t understand the significance of The Cove’s walk-out during Sydney FC’s 3-0 defeat to Adelaide on Saturday night may not have spent much time in the harbour city.
There’s good reason many mainstream media outlets covered the exodus extensively.
Some clubs have larger supporter bases, while others may boast louder fans, however there’s a strong case to suggest that Sydney FC supporters are perhaps the A-League’s most loyal.
There was bound to be a tipping point, but not even the club’s worst enemies could have predicted that Sydney FC officials would manufacture such a monumental public relations blunder.
One look at the grovelling apology chief executive Tony Pignata and chairman Scott Barlow issued yesterday suggests the club knows full well it just shot itself in the foot.
The chaos started when the wife of The Cove’s charismatic Capo – or chant leader – was evicted and had her membership confiscated for neatly folding the fans’ banner, as she does at every home game.
For those who didn’t see it – and Fox Sports gave it prominent coverage during the match – the banner read “We Want Farina Gone”.
Security couldn’t possibly have picked a worse individual to make an example of. Not only is she a former Sydney FC employee, but her husband and most of The Cove soon followed her out the door.
For the sake of full disclosure, I should point out that I know the couple personally, and I’m also a Sydney FC member.
However, it’s not for any personal reasons that I feel compelled to defend the club’s fans, but rather because I believe FFA is in danger of instigating open warfare against the very supporters it needs most.
There was another banner in Cyrillic, for the benefit of Sydney FC’s Russian owner David Traktovenko, aiming similar sentiments at Pignata and Barlow.
The banners were displayed for a number of minutes, however the pair deny any responsibility for ordering them to be taken down.
According to them, it was a pitch-side staff member who saw the banners and called for their removal, with Pignata and Barlow supposedly oblivious.
“Despite this, as the management and executive of the club we take full responsibility for the decision, admit it was wrong and apologise wholeheartedly to the fans that were affected and to the supporters as a whole,” they said in a statement the following day.
There was another – perhaps more telling – statement made on Twitter several hours earlier.
It came from ex-Sydney FC chief executive Edwin Lugt, and it was aimed at the man who has proved a common denominator in all of the Sky Blues recent controversies.
“Sydney FC: just incredible how one arrogant and totally incompetent individual can destroy a club. And no, it’s not the coach…” tweeted Lugt.
He was talking, in my opinion, about Barlow.
Over the past few years, I’ve heard repeatedly from sources close to Sydney FC that Barlow is a divisive influence on the club.
Critics are quick to point to the revolving door of coaches and chief executives, but few are willing to scratch the surface and consider who is doing the hiring and firing.
At any rate, if A-League fans are to be viewed as little more than customers, the very least they should be afforded is the right to voice their opinion.
Alienating active fans has a substantial knock-on effect, because a lack of atmosphere equates to less casual fans attracted through the turnstiles.
Many members of The Cove have been involved with the club since day one – much longer than the current board – and they put in hours of unpaid labour creating colourful tifos and chants.
Their hard work helps sell tickets and inspire players, but they won’t be around for much longer, after a forgettable night on which Sydney FC officials practically dared their own fans to desert.