Any argument about the misbehaviour of football fans always descends into something akin to monkeys flinging poo at each other.
Rebecca Wilson has waded neck-deep into these murky waters in recent days, nuking a hornet’s nest with a report about banned A-League supporters and an essay decrying the behaviour of football fans and the FFA’s response to said behaviour.
DAVID GALLOP STATEMENT ON LEAKED LIST
So, in a mostly justifiable response, football fans have been carpet bombing Wilson and publisher The Daily Telegraph with digital and social media vitriol.
Again and again, Wilson and her colleagues at The Telegraph have trotted cliched and – for university graduates who, having studied journalism, one would hope would have a grip on critical thinking – deliberately misleading and inaccurate attacks on football and their fans. More often than not they have been caked in classism and racism.
As blogger Andrew Elder, writing about Pauline Hanson’s latest media appearance, said:
“The people now running commercial TV/radio find it more rewarding to hang onto the audiences they have rather than take the risk on a broader, more representative audience that may never embrace those media so ardently as its ageing, Anglo-Celtic, politically inflexible existing audience.”
“When there are racist outbursts on content that commercial TV/radio really cares about, such as sport or entertainment, they are slow to act. They are quick to play up a ‘controversy’ that is never resolved, but it isn’t in their interest to shut down what they consider a genuine expression from their audience.”
The same could be applied to tabloid newspapers like The Telegraph. These reports have the chief intent of causing controversy and, like moths to a flame, football fans react with fury.
This circus has been circling for years, and there have been articles with a similar tone to this one. For instance, Joe Gorman wrote a well-balanced piece for the Leopold Method almost exactly two years ago, as well as Cappuccino for The Roar early in 2014.
And yet, through the haze of monkey poo, there’s an underlying truth to Wilson’s essay. There’s a problem with football fan culture, a problem not shared by the other codes.
Australia isn’t a country renowned for colourful atmospheres at sport, but atmospheres in the A-League are distinctly different. There’s a loud, determined and well-organised fan support that goes beyond holding up banners, waving oversized pom-poms, singing the team song and chanting a team’s name at all domestic football games.
However, this organisation has its obvious negative consequences.
A block of supporters chanting in unison something derogatory is obviously far more intimidating, threatening and powerful than a single fan doing the same thing. Everybody understands that it’s far easier to get away with bad behaviour in a group than it is alone.
Another question to ponder is why do football games overwhelmingly feature flares?
Additionally, there are other negative aspects of football fan culture that aren’t particular to football but still regularly happen at games. Vicious abuse of the referees – I’ve stood next to a father, child nearby, who screwed up the coke he was drinking so he could throw the half-full bottle at the referee (he hit the back of the advertising hoarding, fortunately) – and the typical brawl in the stands are but two examples of such things.
These examples listed in the paragraph above happen at all sports – and football fans have been quick to draw comparisons to events in the NRL and AFL – but that still doesn’t stop the fact that they’re bad, and when they happen at football games it’s bad for everyone involved and a disgrace to the game.
Despite her valid criticism of fan behaviour at A-League games, Wilson is clearly quite happy at putting her name on reports and arguments that are deliberately misleading and have the prime intent of stirring controversy.
It really shouldn’t be a surprise that she went on Alan Jones’s radio program to discuss her work; and furthermore, when Jones drew an analogy between the FFA and the Paris attacks, she agreed with him.
It would be a relief to see football fans repudiate Wilson for her tone, while admitting there are some behaviour issues at A-League games. In other words, it would be a relief to see football fans rise above the monkey poo-flinging, and become the human in the debate.
RichardB
Guest
I've been to many, many A-league games. The only bad behaviour I have ever personally witnessed has been by the over-the-top security. These are the thugs most threatening at games. With the police not too far behind. As for that Police offical who labelled all football supporters as "a pack of grubs", he should be disciplined and reassigned. As a 65 year old CCM supporter, I feel totally safe at a Wanderers game, amongst Wanderers supporters. Yes, stop the flares, ban the perpetrators for a year or more. Same for anyone throwing punches. But if people swear in the active support areas - so what?? If they've drunk too much, kick them out for that game. Time for FFA to work with the Active-Support groups, instead of trying to squash them. Stand up for our game, not accept any labelling of our sport and fans as anything to do with thugs, grubs or terrorists.
John Hancock
Roar Rookie
The problem in your branding is that a lot of white Australians and white immigrants are loudly cheering at the football, and actually make up the majority of fans, so you're trying to say that the DT is pandering to Australias' increasingly more elderly upper middle class white racists, but don't actually want to put that in print, and end up inferring things in a way that has more issues than just saying what you wanted to say and dropping 'allegedly' or 'anecdotally' at the front.
John Hancock
Roar Rookie
For instance, have you looked at the statistics which say that per-capita, soccer/football is less affected by incidents than AFL + NRL games? Or looked at the over-representation of them in the media? Flares have been at AFL and NRL games since 2002 or earlier, but no-one wants to mention that they still exist now, even when there is as much visual proof.
c
Guest
the good news is Anthony that the world is now global and that these dinosaurs will eventually die off
mahtay
Guest
So little happens in soccer and so much reward can be had by fooling the ref it is no wonder the fans worldwide are forced to hooliganism.
peeeko
Roar Guru
i think you are over simplifying it. plenty of young people read the Dt and be realistic the young people is sydney still love their NRL
Anthony Ferguson
Guest
I think you'll find it's much longer than 50 years. The anti-soccer/football sentiment in certain elements of the Oz media goes back to the late nineteenth century. You would think or at least hope that eventually these people would get over it and grow up, but no, the same tired cliches are dragged out time and again. I wonder how this makes our standard of sporting journalism look to the rest of the world.
Roy
Guest
Tell me about it !
Justin Thighm
Roar Guru
And what about an answer to the question of what games you witnessed brawls in the stands and people being thrown to the concrete by police and being handcuffed. Your comments are all too cosy in relation to your agenda.
no one in particular
Roar Guru
More A-League fan shananigans I just saw on twitter https://twitter.com/Cussen91/status/669452950297845760 Not A-League? I suppose Bourbon Bec will ignore it
marron
Roar Guru
Worth the effort though fadida. All good points.
jamesb
Guest
Well said Fadida.
Kaks
Roar Guru
ahhh.. you do realise this is an opinion piece from an amateur writer and not a professional journalist? You can make one too if you felt like it. This is the Roar after all LOL
fadida
Guest
Typical, my abbreviated version cruises through....
fadida
Guest
A) overwhelming suggests significant. Yes flares only happen at the football. Other codes don't have mainland Europe/ South American influence. And yes it is wrong, but that doesn't make your comment accurate b) you've seen a few brawls, despite rarely going. We've barely seen any trouble, despite always going.... "Inaccurate generalisation" C) you quoted that the chanting was threatening. Read your article again. You said it. 2015 "f - off Muscat" = 1985 "Hadlee is a banker". Pantomime stuff that both men laugh off. Are they putting extra locks on their doors? No. The article is full sweeping generalisations. Inaccurate and ill-informed. All paint football fans as aggressive and threatening when they are not. Interestingly you admit to not have read Wilson's article, and yet support its general theme. There goes the credibility. I respect you are engaging in a discussion though, rather than running for the hills
fadida
Guest
This is absurd, like living in China
Fadida
Guest
Mods, for Christ's sake! I demand to speak to the editor
Fadida
Guest
Obviously not....
Fadida
Guest
Trying to get a reply in. Is it "mods" that won't pass? Or "monkey"?
Fadida
Guest
Reply on the away Nicholas. What the hell is happening with moderation by the way? Cannot get my reply posted. If it suddenly comes 5x blame the site