What a pity that on a weekend in which we enjoyed two absorbing A-League Men games, a minority of Melbourne Victory fans chose to embarrass themselves and their club.
The news that Adelaide United defender Josh Cavallo was the target of homophobic abuse in the Reds’ 1-1 draw with Victory at AAMI Park on Saturday night is equal parts shocking and depressing.
It’s shocking because it would never occur to any normal football fan to direct homophobic abuse towards the solitary A-League Men player courageous enough to come out as gay.
And it’s depressing because, deep down, we always knew this might happen sooner or later.
Homophobia would have to be up there with racism as the absolute dumbest of imaginary concerns.
The idea that someone’s sexuality is to be feared, let alone worthy of mentioning in the context of a football game, is laughable.
And Cavallo proved he’s just the same as every other footballer by finding himself dropped in favour of the versatile Ryan Kitto for the past couple of games.
(Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images)
But when the diminutive left-back went down with what looked like a serious head injury deep into stoppage time after coming on as a substitute on Saturday night, a certain subset of Victory fans decided that was the time to aim homophobic slurs at the stricken defender.
It’s at this juncture that we might as well try and analyse the cause of the problem. Because there has always been a small but vocal minority of fans who believe that buying a ticket to an A-Leagues game entitles them to do and say anything that they want.
And a lot of them are self-styled ultras who stand among the active support.
The ultras scene, for those who don’t know, largely originated in Italy and typically involves a bunch of predominantly young men fanatically following their club home and away, and providing support in the form of tifos behind the goal.
Often those tifos are colourful and creative and when the better ones are directed at rival clubs, they’re usually tongue in cheek.
But when they miss the mark – a bit like the ‘Omicron Spreaders Melbourne’ tifo Victory’s active supporters unfurled at Coopers Stadium back in December – it’s hard not to wonder what some of these young blokes are thinking.
I actually sent active supporter group Original Style Melbourne a message on Facebook before the Melbourne derby a few weeks back when it was rumoured their tifo had been banned by the City Football Group.
I wanted to ask what the tifo said before I rushed to any judgement, but OSM chose to ignore my message – as is their prerogative.
(Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
But my prerogative each and every Monday is to write about the major topic of the round and when supporters aim homophobic abuse, it simply must be called out for the abhorrent behaviour it is.
We shouldn’t pretend it’s a majority of Melbourne Victory supporters who do this and we shouldn’t shy away from the fact that several other clubs have had their own issues with outdated attitudes among their supporter bases.
But right now, more than anything, it’s important to let Josh Cavallo know we stand with him.
Equally, though, I sincerely hope that any football fan who goes to make a homophobic remark at an A-Leagues game or on a message board in future thinks twice.
It’s 2022, for goodness’ sake, and aiming a slur based on someone’s sexuality isn’t some error of judgement – it’s downright stupidity.
The abuse not only made worldwide news, it cast the A-Leagues in the worst possible light when we need all the fans we can possibly get.
Which is a crying shame, since Saturday night’s draw was followed by an equally gripping 3-3 stalemate between Melbourne City and the Labinot Haliti-managed Western Sydney Wanderers on Sunday afternoon.
Yet here we are talking about homophobia. If you wanted to ruin a round of football, you so-called Melbourne Victory fans, then mission accomplished.
josh
Guest
We don't target individual players, WSW fans are just there to lift the team up. Arnie got a tifo because his comments were going unchecked for far too long.
Dinho
Guest
Tongue in cheek I’m sure. But your comment in an article surrounding bigotry and stereotypes is of poor taste.
Dinho
Guest
Mate, Yengi wasn’t booed because he was black, it was because he celebrated directly in front of Melbourne Victory fans, milking it and taking the piss. i mean mate you’re having a laugh if you reckon that a celebration isn’t gonna warrant the player then being booed the rest of the match.
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
wrong move for him in my opinion. he had concrete offers from adelaide and victory as well, but leckie is a man of his word and he had already promised to sign for city a player of his skillset cannot be shoe horned on the left side of the front 3 - but you cant drop nabbout who has been in great form this season and jamie mac will always get goals. if patty cant figure out this conundrum, city wont be winning anything - which will be devastating as that front 3 on paper is the best in the league, but you dont win games on paper
Nick Maguire
Roar Rookie
FiL, great thoughtful post. Utimately it's about behaviour change isn't it.
Stevo
Roar Rookie
My observation of his play so far is much more basic than that. He appears lethargic, lacks dynamism and gets caught with the ball. Not sure how interested he is in playing at the moment.
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
without any form of bias, i can tell you from my point of view that no other club in the country is producing better goalkeepers and attackers than adelaide currently NSW produces the best centrebacks and QLD is producing the best midfielders
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
I have to ask the question, is this an indication of the quality that Adelaide is producing from their academy, and the style of football the first team is playing? If so it's an enormous endorsement of the clubl
Football is Life
Roar Rookie
Mike, I think the key words in your article are 'young blokes". these are people with a high probability of not having worldly experience. They may not have traveled the world, they may not have had life experiences that change their thinking. If there is any game that can unite, it's football, and that is said in an all encompassing context. Regardless of race, nationality, sexuality, religion etc, football can you unite. Football at it's best has the ability to take your breath away, both on and off the pitch. The prime recent example was the Euro match between Denmark and Finland in St Petersburg. When the Finnish fans chanted "Christian", the Danes responded with "Erikson" and on it went. Two nations united for the welfare of a player and his family. There's part of me that wants the lads in Melbourne banned for life, but at the same time there's part of me that thinks that maybe some education might be in order. Being from Newcastle, I experienced the Newcastle earthquake. In Wallsend, there used to be an asian restaurant and when the earthquake hit, the entire cooker/hotplate was tipped onto the asian lad cooking in the restaurant. i fellow I knew who had negative sentiment towards asian migration was one of the first in there, with a bunch of locals who managed to leave the cook top up enough to get he cook out from underneath. Yeah, the poor bugger was burnt, but to his credit he was a fighter and he survived. Later on that cook personally thanked each and every one of the locals. What I saw was a lad who had an awakening, a sudden consciousness that the cook was a normal everyday bloke like he was with a family, compassion and respect. i really feel for the lads responsible in this instance, they are blind, unaware and uneducated. Imagine how much good stuff in life they are missing out on. In the end we are the one responsible for our own destinies, and if these lads are that stupid, and they have such little respect for the beautiful game, then they deserve everything they get and more.
Nat
Roar Guru
I agree with you. The DT is league's biggest booster and detractor at the same time. For NRL, Kent and Rothfield have made a living by running the game down. Then 'staff writers' mimic their opinions on the free pages but controversy gets clicks. That said, the SMH, the Age et al... are all running with the same headlines. If there is one positive (?), the Ashes and Novak are dominating the headlines but it is still, today, it's the leading headline in the Football section. It's one thing for Mum's to be reading about poor player culture (NRL) but when fans make going to the game seem undesirable, that is a bad situation.
Rodger King
Roar Rookie
ATM Andy, we'd taken him in a heart beat. I thought some of his moves on Saturday were pretty special.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Most parents avoid their kids playing rugby league, Aboriginal and Pacific island communities have no issue with this. The one saviour for rugby league is touch football and a lot of the most skilled players are from touch football. AFL has a bit of that but not to the same extent, from what I see the Aboriginal communities have superior skills with playing more often casual games with smaller numbers, whereas the key skills in AFL have declined. The participation rate would have dived as well dont believe the fictional numbers . Regions like the Tiwi island can dominate AFL because thats a lot better than 18v18 in the cities. Football has a different issue, everyone is looking for that rich parent to milk, starting with the NPL. Talent search is irrelevant if your making hundreds of millions off the parents and its a steady guaranteed income why look and promote talent. Its getting worse as well remember at the start of the A-league you had Jade North and Travis Dodd, David Williams, James Brown. Now you need a lot of wealth and its like private school fees they go up and up.
chris
Guest
Nat my point was that it doesn't matter what football does, the Tellmecrap will only ever highlight the negatives. It's a garbage publication and we shouldn't have to worry about what's written in there.
The Phantom Commissioner
Roar Rookie
Glory v Wellington Jan 15 match postponed.... basically impossible to stay engaged with the season at this point
The Phantom Commissioner
Roar Rookie
Well there's a few issues there with regards to Indigenous players. The AFL and NRL both have the money to spend on more rural youth programs. Of course then we look at the exorbitant amounts of money football costs at elite youth levels in this country to even get to A-League level,which would be a huge roadblock for most/all in rural Indigenous communities. Then the simple cultural and generational issue, kids wanna do what their parents and mates are into and depending on which state they're from Indigenous kids will lean towards NRL or AFL.
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
yeah i know the chant. you could go back as far as the 80's, 90s and early 00's and homophobic chants were rampant all over the world (even in australia) even in what many class as the best league in the world (premier league) the 'rent boy' chants are still regularly used i think its gotten a lot better over the course of the last near 40 years (especially in the last decade) but there is still alot of work to do.
Pedro
Guest
Sadly this is the fact of life in football the racism being directed a players in Europe is appalling and is out of control
Nick Maguire
Roar Rookie
Cheers Mike, it sucks doesn't it that it should get to that stage? Nice article mate.
Mike Tuckerman
Expert
Absolutely deplorable. I actually received a message tonight from an Adelaide United fan who said the leaders of the Red Army stepped in to stop an equally offensive chant that used to do the rounds at Hindmarsh Stadium more than a decade ago. They wanted to highlight the fact that a concerted effort from enough fans was capable of changing long-standing group behaviour.
Mike Tuckerman
Expert
It's the regrettable route they've had to take following repeated instances of racism in Europe.