Darwin Olympic spectators cop fines and ban after official abuse

Darwin Olympic supporters has been given fines and bans from attending matches and officials are hunting others involved in a shocking confrontation with referees.

FFNT CEO Bruce Stalder believes Darwin Olympic won’t be involved in more nonsense.

ONE Darwin Olympic supporter has been banned from attending matches for 26 weeks and officials are hunting others involved in a shocking confrontation with match officials.

This disciplinary action stems from spectator aggression during a match between Olympic and Mindil Aces. Allegedly three Olympic fans descended from the grand stand following the match to threaten officials, two of them needing to be restrained.

The NT News understands that following the match, Aces players and referees required security escorts through the car park at Darwin Football Stadium to avoid aggression from Olympic associates waiting outside.

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Football Federation NT CEO Bruce Stalder said it was some of the worst spectator behaviour he has seen. FFNT are still pursuing a number of other spectators who are yet to be identified.

“We have identified four people, one of which has been banned from Darwin Football Stadium for 26 weeks. There are three others who have either a fine or a suspended sanction on them,” he told the NT News.

“Most of them we have not been able to identify so far.”

These revelations come after FFNT referees elected to boycott officiating any matches involving Olympic FC for a minimum two week period.

Olympic president Charlie Kathopoulis said the fact a Mindil player had given the crowd in the main grandstand a one-finger salute post match when emotions were high, should not be discounted in the overall context of what happened.

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Stalder is confident that Olympic’s behaviour will not be a poor reflection on the Darwin football community in next week’s FFA Cup match against Edgeworth.

“This is an isolated incident, we’ve had many weeks of quality football without bad behaviour. It’s a small percentage of many thousands of members that we have,” he said.

“It’s the most disgraceful thing I’ve seen in a long time, my view is that they’ve learnt their lesson and they won’t be involved in more nonsense.”

Olympic FC have been penalised competition points and Stalder said they have a sizeable suspended sanction hanging over them pending any further misconduct.

“They have received a fine and a sanction, as well as a fairly heavy suspended sanction. There has been a penalty of three points in the men’s Premier League competition, the additional suspended sanction is seven points if there is any more poor behaviour like this.”