A Sydney United 58 fan caught performing a Nazi salute during the Australia Cup final has been slapped with a lifetime ban from Football Australia.
NPL NSW side and former NSL club United were the first non A-League Men’s team to reach the tournament decider.
But their achievement was overshadowed by the behaviour of a section of their supporters as they suffered a 2-0 loss to Macarthur FC at Commbank Stadium on Saturday night.
That included Nazi salutes, a group of fans booing through the Welcome to Country, and the chanting of songs with fascist links.
Some followers of United, formerly known as Sydney Croatia, sang Za Dom Spremni (For Homeland – Ready) – a chant used by the far-right Ustase movement in Croatia in the 1930s and 1940s – while others held up questionable banners.
Football Australia (FA) said it had concluded an investigation – in collaboration with both clubs, their security providers and NSW Police – into the identified spectator and issued a lifetime ban for the “fascist salute or similar gesture” captured on the host broadcast.
The ban covers all FA-sanctioned football matches, including NPL, A-Leagues, Australia Cup and national team matches.
There could be more bans to come, with FA confirming it is still working with authorities to identify other individuals “who may have committed similar anti-social behaviour”.
Parts of the 16,461 fans marred the Welcome to Country ceremony with boos and chants, while the coverage showed some performing Nazi salutes.
“Many of you would have witnessed the footage or seen the images,” FA chief executive James Johnson said in an open letter to fans.
“What should have been a celebration of a tightly contested and excellent game of football has been marred by the actions of groups of a few people, which do not represent the values and expectations of our football community,”
“Their actions have disrespected, hurt, and offended members of our football community.”
Socceroos great Craig Foster expressed his disappointment and anger at the crowd’s actions on Stan Sport FC on Monday.
“It is the most abhorrent thing that we’ve seen at a football match for a very long time,” said Foster.
”The point is that something heinous has occurred here and the game has to be big enough, strong enough and devoted enough to its own principles, to take the absolute strongest action that can possibly be taken.”
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Darren Bark welcomed FA’s action against the fan but expected more to come.
“We cautiously welcome the action taken by Football Australia in handing a lifetime attendance ban to a fan who performed a fascist salute,” said Bark in a statement.
“Images on social media show many more fans taking part in these abhorrent acts, including booing the Welcome to Country.
“We look forward to further swift and heavy penalties to be enforced by Football Australia as these fans are identified.
“This behaviour was not only an affront to the Jewish community and the Indigenous community but an affront to all Australians.”
Blood Dragon
Roar Rookie
Good luck enforcing it at the NPL level the President of a club in Victoria was banned but still showed up to games as there was no way to enforce the ban
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
I am just saying what other people have said about doing these salutes, in Italy they say its only about supporting Mussolini. in Croatia they are even more non specific because they dont want to associate themselves with the Ustase unlike Italy with Mussolini. It opens a big can of worms in Australia , Simunic the Australian because he did the song and the salute then went on a speaking tour of the USA about it. The Serbians act like the dibber dobbers on the Croatians on this issue , I think they have implicated Andrew Bogut with Simunic. They also post links to these concerts by Thompson where the whole crowd gets into it as well. The weird thing is the two most discussed issues in Australian football were Croatia-Serbian business and Macedonian history.
Footy fan in SG
Guest
So, maybe the FFA should be politically correct to get funding, and not listen to people such as yourself brush off a clear Nazi salute with BS about a traditional salute in Croatia... Because it's absolute BS.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Well two different issues. The salute is quite common in Italy and Croatia. from politicians to Lazio supporters. Simunic, Paulo De Canio , players who have done it, its also quite common at Croatian clubs in Australia, sometimes at the tennis when they have a Croatian player in the past, some singers concerts who is called Thompson but is supposed to Croatian. They will have to ban a lot of people if they look through who has been doing it. The AFL have two very big reasons to make sure they are never seen as anti gay in the slightest way. The first is their biggest inroads in Sydney outside of people who came from AFL states are in the gay community. A lot of this work ironically has been done by the gay AFL players off the field, Sydney is seen as an attractive destination for gay players by the Irish as well and by socialising off the field gay players have attracted a lot of support in Sydney. The second they need to be seen as politically correct as possible to continue all this government funding.
Coastyboi
Guest
On social media, there’s been a few comparisons of Will Smith & Sydney United. Do we remember Macarthur winning the prized award? Or, do we instead focus on “the slap” - the raised hand, saluting pure evil in this world?
Wes P
Roar Rookie
What happened to sport. An Essendon AFL has been stood down cause he's a Christian. No mention by Roar readers and this nonsense. Crazy over reaction.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
The justification they have had for all these salutes in the past is they kept on saying its not the Nazi salute but the Roman salute belonging to Mussolini, and somehow Croatia as well. So why did this website interview Simunic who did the salute on field. Seems quite hypocritical to just be noticing it now when its been happening for years.
Footy fan in SG
Guest
I hope the kid doesn't follow your advice. It would be akin to a bank robber taking off the balaclava, and handing over a business card to the teller for good measure.
Footy fan in SG
Guest
Legally, enforceable. Very enforceable. It's called trespassing. Entering private property without the permission of the owner. Doing it once or twice will be nothing, although a security guard is legally permitted to use a surprisingly high amount of force to evict the trespasser. But keep doing it, the FFA can get an injunction from the supreme court of the state which the ground is in. If he keeps doing it after that he is held in contempt of court. He then goes to prison.
Gavrillo Princip
Guest
Unenforceable and a massive over-reaction. Would you get banned for life for throwing a punch or an object at the soccer in Australia. I've never heard of it. If I was the kid, I would create an instagram account and post pictures of all the soccer matches that he attends. Legally, unenforceable.