Heroes under attack - it's our own fault!
Violence in football on and off the field is not acceptable, and I love my Old Firms Derbies, just not the violence that surrounds it - Of course in AFL, League or Union the more violence the better but that's another story.
But I'm not interested in which set of fans are more violent, we know in Australia it will be football, its flares and fans that will come under the most biased scrutiny from the media.
So what, deal with it.
No flares, no tv news.
No tribal mass swearing, no offensive sound coming through your TV set.
No fighting, running at each other in packs, no throwing bottles etc, no problem.
And let's keep the police out of it.
We only have ourselves to blame.
The recent game in Adelaide between Victory and Adelaide showed the problems that would surround our game, still, if crowds grew.
Adelaide/Melbourne, Sydney/Melbourne are the flashpoints - and only these games it seems.
I neither know nor care why but the solution is simple.
Fan culture - The Barmy Army self-police, and have a policy of non-violence, it's about time Melbourne Victory away support did the same, Adelaide and Sydney supporters should do the same.
Maybe Victory do - it ain't working is it!
No violence no story and maybe then we can all concentrate on the positive sides of the fan culture, and indeed the game itself.
Fan culture - let's hear it and see it and stop whingeing at the police, the security guys, the mums and dads of Australia - or else you'll be singing to an empty stand.
Interesting: How come all this stuff is coming out anyway just before the AFL season with AFL pre-season cup struggling to get crowds to match Football and Union? Media works in mysterious ways - make that predictable ways.
1 comment:
It's certainly not all fans' fault but you make some good points. Organised self-policing by fans is a good idea. I'm thinking of a past life where I was involved in forest protests. Of course we were accused of violence when we weren't.
So self-policing was very important. There would always be a police liaison officer who would pro-actively find the cop in charge and introduce themselves, politely asking to be informed if there was any problems among their people and working with them to prevent such problems. The Liaison could also communicate complaints about police, request that all police wear ID badges so they were accountable etc.
The second line of defense is cameras, and there are generally heaps at games. If police are violent or out of line there should be a spontaneous (organised) move to photograph and video, and make sure they know you're doing it. Along with the football chants it might be smart to even rehearse a "Non-Violence" chant, to be brought out whenever police or fans cross a line.
The hard part for Australian sensibilities is that when a fan is way out of line they should be reported immediately to police, with a request that they be removed from the ground in a professional way (without brutality).
Just some thoughts. Cheers Eamonn.
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