A-League has failed its sport with Wanderers and RBB sanctions

The A-League establishment owes the football world an apology.

Well, it is humbling but nonetheless we apologise. Got it wrong completely. Misread the mood. Got on our high horse. Utterly embarrassing. So, a big, firm handshake goes out to the fine folk of Western Sydney’s Red and Black Bloc. A nicer group of lads you are ever likely to meet.

When the A-League chief Greg O’Rourke this week explained why the administration had decided not to activate the three-point suspended punishment hanging over the wonderful Wanderers we completely understood. And squirmed with embarrassment.

Banning 14 members was horrific punishment for what, when you rethink as we have, was nothing but a bit of funny street theatre on the terraces. Had it been anything more sinister than that O’Rourke confirmed privately with The Weekend Australian that the punishment could have been a ban of 13 members. He did not rule out a draconian 12-supporter ban.

So after coming to our senses and realising a banner depicting Sydney coach Graham Arnold in the act of oral sex was nothing but some wacky wise guys there are a couple of things we need to do.

Our experienced and highly regarded football writer Ray Gatt could not be contacted yesterday as he was out and about personally apologising for some rash words he wrote last week. But he has given us the OK to withdraw some of the things he stuffed into several overwrought paragraphs. Particularly the description of the banner as “offensive and disgusting”. Well, that’s so wrong it looks silly now.

It goes without saying that the throwaway line “depicting Sydney coach Graham Arnold in a sex act was just another example in a long list of anti-social, mindless and infantile incidents involving the RBB” is withdrawn and the afterthought that “their Facebook page is instructive, telling FFA they can ‘f. k off’ because they can’t see there was anything wrong with the banner. How clueless and classless can you get?” was a complete misunderstanding of what essentially was a peace offering from one rival club to another. Gatty’s been a bit rattled when his misinterpretation of the banner was explained to him.

It only gets more difficult from here. Our revered sports editor Wally Mason penned an opinion piece during the week about the banner and so wishes he hadn’t. And while every member of the sport staff would throw themselves under … under a desk for Wally we don’t believe he can escape censure.

He addressed staff and said that he thought the banner was celebrating an accurate North Korean rocket launch. Thus he admits comments like “there is just a chance that many right-thinking people attending the game or watching it on TV, particularly those who had their children with them, thought it was something other than (a rocket launch). Offensive perhaps, rude, homophobic, tacky, stupid” appear highly inappropriate.

We hope all this has cleaned up our mistakes of the past week and we will think long and hard next time it crosses our mind that any depiction of an A League coach in the act of oral sex is anything but clever social comment.

There’s just one last thing though. Wally used the word “homophobic” in his column and that sort of got attacked by a few readers. Example: “Tacky and indecent, but how is this (the banner) homophobic?” responded one reader.

That is actually easy to work out. Given that it wasn’t a Korean rocket launch, the banner could have been only one other thing. A deliberate attempt to insult to Arnold. And in Western Sydney’s attempt to offend Arnold as deeply as they could they used an image of the coach in oral sex with a male. That is the nastiest and dirtiest image they could think would hurt Arnold most. A homophobic depiction. To the blockheads of Western Sydney to place Arnold in any heterosexual act would presumably be a compliment. They’d rub their groins in appreciation.

On consideration and with your indulgence, we would like to withdraw our apology. That goes for Gatty and Wally, too. They stand by what they wrote.

It is the A-League establishment that owes the football world an apology for failing to properly police the behaviour of supporters, members and their clubs.

If that image of Arnold — which has not ruffled him but has unsurprisingly distressed his family because of the implied violence in the banner illustration — is not obscene enough to see Western Sydney docked the three suspended points then O’Rourke has a lot of explaining to do. What image would have been?

It is not enough to congratulate the club for doing the obvious — getting rid of 14 fools from the RBB — the A-League had to set a standard for the rest of the country. It failed that test miserably.

It is the A-League which must apologise. And it must explain exactly what sex act the Wanderers’ banner would need to display to excite any wrath from the administration. Not for the first time soccer has embarrassed a nation.