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Opinion
When Melbourne Victory substitute Chris Ikonomidis smashed an unstoppable volley across Mark Birighitti to win the FFA Cup, he reminded everyone of what it is that makes football special.
The left-foot stunner was a goal worthy of winning any cup final, and Ikonomidis celebrated by diving straight into the Victory fans massed behind the goal at the northern end of AAMI Park.
They were the kind of scenes you never see in other Australian codes because fans in those sports are passive consumers who tend not to congregate collectively or lend their support as part of a unified group.
And they were the kind of scenes the old Football Federation Australia – for whom, anachronistically, the FFA Cup was still named – did little to protect during their long spell in charge.
You don’t have to look hard to see what happens when a fan-base is given little incentive to turn up. On the same day Victory downed the Mariners to win the FFA Cup, Western Sydney Wanderers lost 1-0 to Western United in front of a virtually non-existent Red and Black Bloc.
And the Wanderers’ dwindling attendances should be a concern for the Australian Professional Leagues, even if there are legitimate reasons – COVID and current form among them – that help explain them.
Not that they’d publicly admit it, but the APL are probably glad one of their flagship clubs lifted the last ever FFA Cup, booking a place in the AFC Champions League playoffs in the process.
It certainly felt like things were going Victory’s way in the build-up to the game when AAMI Park was drawn over Gosford as the host venue and recent Mariners signing Jason Cummings was denied the chance to line up for his new team.
It’s hard to understand the logic of denying burgeoning cult hero Cummings a shot at silverware after the Mariners moved their semi-final forward by 11 days because of COVID concerns only to be punished for their flexibility by being told the former Dundee striker was ineligible to play because he was signed after that same semi-final.
I’m all for integrity, but this is a cup competition that often sees lower-league teams give up their home ground advantage, that expects New Zealand’s representative to play all their home games in Australia and that didn’t even take place at all last season.
On the plus side, we’re finally seeing some positive signs that the game’s administrators are giving up their addictions to bad ideas and are putting some common-sense plans in place.
Renaming the FFA Cup to the Australia Cup – after the first-ever national cup competition that ran from 1962 to 1968 – is a step in the right direction and a link to the game’s own history that, as football writer and historian Greg Stock eloquently argues, has so often been obliterated by a constant desire to start everything anew.
Dropping the price of general admission tickets to $20 across the board is another smart move that shouldn’t have taken the league’s marketing department 17 seasons to figure out.
But as important as it is to see some hurdles to attending games removed, it’s equally important to acknowledge that fans themselves have a role to play.
There’s a fine line between passionate support and anti-social behaviour, but the sheer emotion pouring down from the stands at AAMI Park was what made Saturday night’s cup final so unique.
And it’s here where Melbourne Victory fans are blowing every other club out of the water.
The atmosphere generated by fans is what makes football special, and it’s a unique selling point that has been misunderstood and neglected for far too long in Australia.
The FFA Cup final was a powerful reminder of why we love the game. But everyone needs to play a role – from fans to broadcasters and the game’s administrators – if we’re ever going to replicate Saturday night’s raucous scenes on a regular basis.