The Western Sydney Wanderers have slammed a proposed police crackdown on crowd behaviour as excessive.
The Wanderers believe the proposals, which included prohibiting banners and flags, and stopping supporters marching en-masse to the ground, will detract from their home ground experience.
Ahead of the A-League’s season kickoff in a fortnight, local Parramatta authorities and police presented the club’s supporter group the Red and Black Bloc with a number of recommended match-day regulations.
Police also want a zero tolerance on swearing, as well as banning any standing in aisles or side-to-side movement in the crowd.
The A-League club, which has been acting as a mediator between the authorities and its supporter base two parties for some months, was critical of the proposals.
“While the club will never tolerate flares or any form of anti-social behaviour, the club has opposed the severity of the proposals and what we believe is excessive and we feel compromises the enjoyable football experience,” the club statement said.
Some members of the Red and Black Bloc clashed with the police at a game in April when authorities were alleged to have used pepper spray on fans.
The Wanderers, who play their FFA Cup quarter-final against Perth next week, kick off the season against the Brisbane Roar at home on October 8.
JR Salazar
Guest
Dear RBB, Push back. If they want to attack the supporter culture, let them know they are making a terrible mistake. Signed, Me.
josh
Guest
tbh there hasn't really been a stadium march for a long time.
144
Roar Guru
And it's 1-0 to the Wanderers now all they can do is say yay go wanderers because they cant clap stand up jump move side to side or say literally any chant they have.
Up the Wahs
Roar Guru
That hat is quite made of tin indeed, first of all the A-League plays in a different season, second of all the NRL doesn't have that pulling power like the AFL, thirdly many WSW fans are also NRL fans and fourth the NRL have only gained with the WSW (Parramatta Stadium being expanded).
144
Roar Guru
Good on the Wanderers to tell the police where to go. That stadium march and the chants and the Poznan is what makes the club thrive and gives energy to the Wanderers games.
AZ_RBB
Guest
Goal to WSW. Scored by new visa player Dimas who has been looking dangerous all game. Almost half time now. 1-0 to WSW
AZ_RBB
Guest
Shame there's no live blog. Perth v WSW have been fairly even so far with 25mins to go. It's kinda hard to tell exactly what's going on because of the camera angle and the picture quality. But as expected Marinkovic has been very dangerous from the set pieces. Happy with the WSW midfield but the backline is a mess at times. 0-0 now with 30 gone. Anyone watching Heidelberg v City?
AZ_RBB
Guest
FFA Cup quarters tonight! Perth is a tough trip to make. Marinkovic is probably my biggest concern at the moment on the Perth side. Really need our midfield to gel despite lacking experience playing together. Fingers crossed for a win. FFA Cup semi would be a great result.
marron
Roar Guru
And so, when you have a proven method of dealing with the "real" ones, and you have something developing along similar lines, you'd think that the best thing to do would be to use said method and have it in from the beginning.
josh
Guest
The only problem we have is a lack of ultras.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
Whether Australia has ultras or not is a matter of definition and opinion, but we can say for certain that there are supporter groups which are run along lines eerily similar to some of the more infamous ultras in SE Europe and Sth America. For example, try and join a particular MV supporter group and see how far you get. Now I agree that the majority of these groups verge on being a bunch of try-hards and wanna-bes (and yes, it's laughable seeing some teenager holding up a sign which says "contra il calcio moderno"), I've got no problem accepting that, but we all know what they are trying to emulate, even if they fall well short.
marron
Roar Guru
Well it depends on your definition I suppose. What we do have is a terrace being organized autonomously, with some issues away from the ground from time to time. If there are workable strategies in places with a large scale scene.... it seems odd to ignore them.
MikeD
Guest
Well the guy from the video has likened the rbb to ultras. My point is we don't have ultras in Oz. I mean theres a difference. Putting a label such as Ultras.. this opens a different level altogether.
marron
Roar Guru
The pfa have now also condemned the measures.
marron
Roar Guru
What's an ultras problem? As in what do you mean by that?
MikeD
Guest
Josh- how did you determine I'm an nsl fan from that? Seriously though...have to define the issue. So you agree we have an ultras problem here?
Brick Tamland of the pants party
Guest
I find it incredible that the police there seemed to not know a thing about police liaison/football intelligence officers at the football in the UK when even i know about them. Obviously there has not been a lot of research done into improving the situation between the police and fans. Screw improving the relationship let's create even more friction!
Neil
Guest
I agree that it was not an intellectual contribution but after suffering a long lifetime of this rubbish towards the game I love, I felt it was time to be blunt and express how I feel
Realfootball
Guest
My apologies, Neil - I thought you were another AFL/NRL acolyte stirring up trouble. However, calling the police "dumb arse cops" is not the most helpful contribution to the debate.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
A timely intervention Ben - this discussion should not be about the Australian Football League but the Footballer's League of Australia. Similarly, that men do not have wombs is not the fault of the AFL. And now, let us hear from a certain Mr Hilter....