I am not sure that I have ever felt as sick to the stomach as I did during the pre-match formalities in the lead-up to last night’s Australia Cup final in Sydney.
The stage was set for a wonderful conclusion to the competition, with history assured to be made with either an NPL club claiming the trophy for the first time or Macarthur Bulls raising its first ever piece of silverware.
Instead, the behaviour of the Sydney United 58 fans turned what had begun as a joyous and celebratory evening, into one of the most distasteful nights that Australian football has seen for many a year.
With obvious references to fascism, racism and neo-Nazism, sections of the United supporter base proved that they were not in attendance for the actual football match and more at CommBank Stadium in an attempt to preach a message of hatred and intolerance in a volatile way.
If that was indeed the aim, they should feel very proud of their success. The rest of us in the football community can now hang our heads in shame and regretfully refer to past events that our current A-League was hopeful of extinguishing.
Sydney United fans during the Australia Cup Final. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
We should perhaps have predicted something like what we saw on Network 10’s main channel, a platform that football should have been precious about protecting and being deserving of in the future.
During the day, promotion for the match on social media platforms had been aggressively attacked by some fans furious at the invitation for people to attend the event on the traditional lands of the indigenous Dharug people.
The common theme was one of disgust from those who took umbrage at the promotional posts, with many asking why the traditional owners were mentioned at all and direct accusations that football had become a ‘woke’ and politically motivated game. The venom appeared to suggest that allusions to indigenous culture somehow infringed on their rights to disrespect Australia’s oldest citizens and somehow stood in the way of expressions of bigotry, division and hate that many fans had obviously planned to express on the night.
The irony of Sydney United’s Croatian origins and a throng of people passionately expressing their pride it in could simply be lost on no one. Moreover, the Nazi salute that was captured in many a photo during the evening, expressed by a group of people representing a culture that fought hard to be accepted and treated as equal in Australia during the period of post-World War II immigration, was irony in its greatest form and simply astonishing.
As the buffoons pretending to be interested in a game of football sang, jeered and heckled during the Welcome to Country ceremony in the minutes leading up to kick-off, it was difficult not to reflect on the thinking behind the establishment of the A-League back in 2005 and some of the things that many people wanted removed from the game.
The Sydney United fans reminded us all of exactly what those things were on Saturday night and like some of you, I went to bed after covering the game with a sick feeling in my belly.
Most disappointing of all was the failure of the broadcast team to even comment on the disgraceful behaviour occurring and the visual and symbolic depictions of hate being weaponised against anyone not seen as part of the intentionally intimidating collective.
The broadcasters either lacked the courage or poise to do so and would have to have been downright stupid to not realise the significance of the moment and the fall-out from it that was certain to awake the nation the following day.
I would like to say sorry to the Dharug people and the groups also referred to in the verbal and physical messages sent out by a group of people who seem to respect nothing but their own culture.
It was meant to be football’s night of nights and for Macarthur it was a great, trophy-winning one that they will never forget as a collective. Yet for me, the Australia Cup of 2022 will always be one of shame and a night when football took a few steps back in the minds of the many Australian’s who were simply disgusted by what they witnessed.
Amused
Guest
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Proud Noongar
Guest
Don’t go to the game? This Aboriginal woman was welcoming many people, who’s origins are not Australian, to Aboriginal land, always was and always will be! So the offence is about the blatant disrespect shown to First Nations people? If it was your race, different story hey ????
mushi
Roar Guru
To be fair they tried but were told they couldn't stay part of the EU... talk about a bait and switch
Grem
Roar Rookie
Good to see the AFL have chosen their, I mean the “independent” panel to resolve this issue. That shows there’s more to this. It should be government appointed.
dennis
Guest
Good article this. So JJ has issued an FFA press release and one person is banned for life. I saw hundreds if not more, and JJ thinks that banning one is the end of the matter. I can see civil liberties lawyers getting involved in this. Reckon this still has plenty to play out. One ban JJ ? Reckon he is on sticky legal grouds here.
dennis
Guest
The Celtic fans' treatment of the death of the Queen was pretty low. If you don't believe in the union then Love it or Leave it. God save the queen.
Blood Dragon
Roar Rookie
Sydney United have been like this for decades FA needs to come down on the Club hard including automatic exclusion fron NSD consideration but I reckon what will happen is a couple of people will get life bans and FA and FNSW will act like the issue is resolved when it just isn't
josh
Guest
But suited your anti-football agenda perfectly. The question is, this happened in Western Sydney. Will anyone in Western Sydney ever care about the Giants?
Redcap
Roar Guru
Yeah, none of that stuff has been resolved. FA has given very little away about what it wants to do, but it seems likely it'll start as a champions league-style tournament, evolving later into a fully-fledged division, with pro/rel to be implemented at some point after that. It won't happen any time soon, IMO. The clubs' association (and presumably the FA) favour licensing criteria which could, at least in theory, filter out problem teams, but again no detail at this stage. The problem of geographical concentration you mention will surely be an issue for the NSD (never mind the ALM) if/when it evolves into a division, and I'm not sure how you get around that other than with some form of conferencing. I wrote about the clubs' association proposal a little while back.
criag
Roar Rookie
There’s a whole lot of unanswered questions about the NSD (or if they have been answered, I’ve missed it). My two big concerns are if promotion/relegation does happen, the introduction of ethnic-based teams and troubles that the A-League was supposed to be moving away from in the first place could happen all over again. The other is what if one town/city teams like Brisbane get relegated? Big markets lost. Who knows, eventually we could have a whole national league 90% full of Sydney and Melbourne teams and no teams in Adelaide, Perth, etc.
criag
Roar Rookie
That's a good point. Also....it's boring.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Fair enough. Great talking to a sensible brain. Trust you are well.
criag
Roar Rookie
The British monarch is the head of the Church of England. Having a Catholic monarch of England would be like having an Anglican Pope. It just can't happen. It's nothing to do with discrimination these days. Yes, the UK Head of Sate is definitely undemocratic....'you don't vote for kings'. Lots of wrongs in past everywhere you look. And Celtic's foundation aim was admirable. We can only be the best we can now.
Grem
Roar Rookie
I find it hard to believe that grown men in Australia would be carrying on during a welcome to country speech. I find it hard to believe that those same men would be doing nazi salutes. I find it hard to believe that our State of Origin fullback from a few years ago would assault a woman and spend time in jail. I find it hard to believe that Adam Goodes was booed out of the game. All these unbelievable things and many more happen and have happened. Did these coaches behave in the manner that has been said? - hopefully the truth comes out, even if it is unbelievable.
Grem
Roar Rookie
That is another very believable explanation for the game that I have read as well. I have also read about it being “formed” in Melbourne as a combination of other football codes and others write about it coming from an aboriginal game involving possum skins.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
AFL is not a hybrid game, AFL closely resembles Gaelic Football though the later is more evolved both derived from the same source caid which was the first primitive code, and just being a stick free version of hurling. This was around for hundred of years before and only spread to Australia from the British Isles.
AR
Guest
There's a lot wrong with your entire post. But I'll clarify with this - the allegation being publicly reported is that abortions were 'ordered'. The quote from a troubled past player was 'He told me to kill my kid'. Again - if you believe that a coach, administrator, from any sport, anywhere - actually *told* someone to kill their child, then that's your crazy business.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
I dont see remotely how the first A-league tier here being stronger than the second tier of Scotland or the third tier of Germany Italy would indicate you would expect to perform in the world cup. If you go by squads then France has one of the best on paper, then a big gap to Denmark then a big gap to Tunisia and then a big gap to Australia. Things never go to plan at a world cup, one point at this stage is slightly above expectations, but you cant rule anything out.
Grem
Roar Rookie
1823 for rugby football. Association football was well before that. Seagulls have been around for millions of years and chips first happened in 1853. And there’s our hybrid game.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
With the wind blowing right they may get a win against Tunisia but against Denmark or France? No way.