Soccer’s day of reckoning has arrived

Football Australia’s boss says he doesn’t view the perpetrators of violence at Saturday night’s A-League game as fans, but they are and that is soccer’s biggest problem.

It was one of the ugliest scenes witnessed in Australian sport.

A violent pitch invasion during an A-League game. An assault on Melbourne City’s goalkeeper. A match abandoned. Children and their parents left shaking, running from AAMI stadium after witnessing a violent melee.

It is Australian soccer’s darkest day.

But this awful incident could be the reckoning it needs. This is it. Now or never. Time to change.

This problem of Australian soccer crowd violence has been bubbling away, on and off, for years. Crowd behavioural initiatives that have not worked.

The scenes at AAMI Park are not what Australian sporting fans are brought up with. There is mythology in all traditions, and things are rarely as rosy as they seem, but this truly is foreign to Australian sport.

It is time for authorities to cut through the tepid measures and ban every fan who jumped that fence at AAMI Park for life.

Fans display anti-APL signs at AAMI Park Picture: Getty Images

The people behind the alleged assaults on the goalkeeper Tom Glover, which left him concussed and hospitalised, and Channel 10 cameraman should face the full wrath of the law.

This was reminiscent of European soccer hooliganism at its worst. But as bad and reprehensible as that behaviour is, at least there is something organic in its development.

There was nothing organic about Saturday night. Some may say flare lighting (not to mention throwing them) shows passion for the club. It’s not. It’s an affectation. A monkey-see-monkey do copying of overseas fans. Saturday night’s melee was fuelled by an exaggerated grievance resulting in a delusional sense of entitlement.

If you think that is harsh, remember there are no such problems at Matildas games

The root of the violence was anger over a financial decision by the Australian Professional Leagues – the body that runs the A-League – to move the grand finals to NSW for three years in return for a reported $20 million.

An injured Tom Glover of Melbourne City is escorted from the pitch by teammates after fans stormed the pitch Picture: Getty Images

As reported by Code soccer writer Adam Peacock, who attended the game, women and children were traumatised by what had unfolded.

Peacock reported that Victory fans were showing banners like; “APL knows the demands. Football for the fans. $$$$$$$. When Money talks. Fans Will Walk and APL Out”.

So fans give themselves permission to behave this way because a financially struggling competition have sourced a much needed injection of funds. A little less entitlement and more perspective is needed.

Fans show their disappointment with the APL before the match between Melbourne City and Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park Picture: Getty Images

No-one at the Super Netball was running onto the court and assaulting a Melbourne Vixens goal keeper after the grand final was sold to Perth this year for $650,000.

It’s essential to sporting bodies to take a financial opportunity when they face tough economic times because, as Football Australia CEO James Johnson keeps saying of late; this is Australian football’s “golden era”.

After the Socceroos’ advancement to the round of 16 in Qatar for the World Cup, with the women’s World Cup to be played on home soil next year, Johnson can see the opportunities for the game.

Fans storm the pitch in the Melbourne

Johnson told the ABC on Sunday there was “no justification for the behaviour we saw last night” and Football Australia would take the strongest sanctions possible.

“I don’t care about people who think that this decision about the grand final was good or bad” he said. “That is not a reason for what happened last night and anyone who says it is justified because of a decision to move the final to Sydney, in my view, is completely out of touch.”

Johnson refused to refer to the offenders as fans, and stated that the actions did not reflect the broader game.

“I’m horrified, I’m irritated, I’m angry with the scenes we witnessed last night,” he said.

But they are fans and that is soccer’s biggest problem.