Two things I read in the news today had me rather bemused. And they were surprisingly intertwined.
First of all, the Herald Sun actually ran an article praising football crowds, pointing out just how little crowd troubles there are.
Yeah, I know, shock to the system, right?
Usually a mere arrest at a Victory game is enough to warrant back page news. But no, today the paper conceded that the likes of cricket, horse racing and tennis were by far the biggest offenders. Even the AFL grand final was listed as a tonne worse than the football game they mentioned, which was this year’s World Cup qualifier with Qatar.
It was the closest thing the Herald Sun could’ve done to coming out and admitting they’ve exaggerated crowd violence in football.
But that didn’t matter so much. By the end of the day all the positives had been eradicated by the other bit of news that caught my eye, the FFA’s decision to enforce (and later retract) the request that the Eureka flag, a symbol of victory over tyranny – essentially the first flag to bind us as a nation – be banned.
What a shocking move that was.
Anyone with an inkling of what that flag represents (which should be every single mature-aged Australian) would have to agree it’s not out of place at a sporting event. The whole “flag” clause only came about in the first place to prevent ethnic ties creeping in to the game again.
Weren’t A-League clubs pitched as being “Australian” when the league began?
Aside from the real Union Jack-bearing national one, it’s hard to think of a flag more Aussie than the Eureka flag. Heck, if we ever do bite the bullet and become a republic, the Eureka symbol would be a shoo-in for our new flag.
Ben Buckley and the FFA had already found themselves in the bad books of fans following an off-season security review, which led to the disastrous attempt to have active support areas fully ticketed.
On that issue, general admission was always the way to go. The Victory told them that, the supporter groups told them that, you could’ve picked an everyday fan off the street and they would’ve told them that. And yet they pressed on.
Their plan didn’t even last six weeks.
The absence of disapproving fans won out and the decision was overturned.
But the damage had already been done. Victory chairman Geoff Lord had to call in to SEN Radio after the Perth Glory game and practically beg disenfranchised fans back to games.
Just over 31,000 turned up on Saturday night to see the clash with Sydney FC. For a normal game that wouldn’t be so bad, but for a 1-versus-3 match-up, the biggest two teams in the land, the “blockbuster” fixture…
There should’ve been more.
And perhaps the most concerning part of Buckley’s security review is that a pretty damaging problem still lingers: flares.
In both Victory-FC games so far this year (both before and after the review alterations) a flare has managed to show up. It’s disappointing because they give the experience of going to a football game a bad, dangerous name.
They should not be showing up so frequently in major games like Saturday night’s.
(I might add that another concern is the crowd’s reaction to the flare on Saturday night. Sure there was a boo – but that lasted about five seconds. The “you are a wanker” chant didn’t extend beyond the South End. These people should be the most hated in the stadium. There needs to be more shaming of the flare throwers! But I digress…)
How the off-season review has failed to correct so many of the issues pertaining to crowd behaviour is beyond me.
Buckley has made some positive moves in his reign as CEO. I like the kid. But ever since the need to stamp out negative crowd matters became imminent, he’s repeatedly dropped the ball.
If he had taken the same route into Telstra Dome on Saturday night as I did, he would have overheard a pretty disheartening conversation or two coming from the passionate fans that fill the active support areas.
That said, the time to listen to fans was long ago. Perhaps now is the time to follow the lead of Geoff Lord and beg to them.
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