Football Federation Australia has put Western Sydney on notice after their hopes for a flare-free A-League season fell at the first hurdle.
After Wanderers fans lit and threw a small number of flares in their 4-0 Sydney derby loss, FFA on Monday issued the club with a show cause notice that will extend – but not trigger – the threat of a three-point deduction until the end of the season.
According to the governing body, the Wanderers have accepted the result and will re-double their efforts to maintain crowd decorum for the season ahead.
While police were largely comfortable with the crowd behaviour in Saturday’s derby, the flares embarrassed club leaders.
A letter from figures including chief executive John Tsatsimas, coach Tony Popovic and captain Nikolai Topor-Stanley asked fans to be on their best behaviour this season.
“As a club we are united to succeed on the pitch and have a flare-free season,” the letter read.
The Red and Black Bloc’s restraint lasted less than an hour.
A-League chief Greg O’Rourke said he didn’t want to see similar incidents.
“If there’s a recurrence of the incident from last Saturday night … FFA may well be left with no alternative other than to deduct points from the club,” he said.
“The club will reconnect with their members again this week given a few persons chose to ignore the communication and strong stance against the lighting of flares from John Tsatsimas, Head Coach Tony Popovic and captain Nikolai Topor-Stanley.”
The Wanderers were originally served the punishment after away fans ignited about 20 flares, as well as crowd-frightening detonators, during a match against Melbourne Victory at Etihad Stadium in February this year.
The ban was due to expire next February but will continue until after the last round of the regular season in April.
Melbourne Victory are also sweating under the threat of a points deduction until next February for crowd trouble.
The incident was a bum note in an otherwise stunning opening round, which attracted a league-record 106,365 attendees to the five matches.
marron
Roar Guru
I didn't see it myself but I read numerous reports of zealous security not allowing in packets of lollies and chips or water bottles. If they can do that.... Plus at the RBB entry there were pat downs (as there have been for years now).
Buddy
Guest
Personally I have no desire to engage in this subject as it was done to death last season and maybe if it did not attract media interest, it mightdisappear. However, the subject of security at ANZ on Saturday is closely related. I have no idea as to the cost for an event of that size but my imitial reaction is that it is money down the drain. If there is to be security before people enter a stadium, presumably to weed out illicit items such as alcohol, drugs, fireworks, perhaps even firearms or other weapons then surely there should be an instruction issued to check thoroughly and at the very least, put doubt into the minds of persons attending as to the likelihood of them being able to smuggle in their illicit items. I saw no evidence of anything more than a cursory glance or nod to the crowd entering the stadium at the weekend and i imagine that anyone that wanted to smuggle in anything would have felt very confident of success. In fact we observed a group in front of us who were consuming a bottle of vodka...possibly mixed but in a vodka bottle nevertheless. I carried a small rucksack that I opened for inspection and was merrily waved through. I had water in a cool bag but that wasn't opened and the bag wasn't examined whatsoever. I have attended games in other countries where fans receive a "pat down" by police, thorough enough to locate anything hidden inside trousers, shirts etc and bags searched on a separate queue so that not everyone was held up. Whilst it was a slower process entering the ground, you could at least feel confident that the police were likely to have prevented most of the basics being taken inside and that there was unlikely to be a major incident. Is it the job of security or is this all about self policing? Well neither is very effective right now!