A-League champion Melbourne Victory has called out Football Federation Australia, declaring it is "sick of mediocre results from the sport’s governing body," according to the AAP. The rift between football’s biggest fans and FFA is growing, "with new boycotts announced and Sydney FC coach Graham Arnold calling the protests the biggest challenge of the league’s 11-year history." The "hammer blow" on Wednesday came when Victory Chair Anthony Di Pietro chose a stage in front of 1,200 business guests "to slam league chiefs." At the club’s Victory in Business function, Di Pietro singled out the national league as "underperforming, in contrast to the grassroots game and Australian national teams." Di Pietro: "The A-League cannot be content any more with mediocrity. We're sick of it here." He joined with "protesting A-League fans to ask the league’s leadership to do what they are yet to do; call out mistruths in the media." Di Pietro said, "Now is a critical juncture in the A-League’s life. Our fans are what make the A-League matchday experience so special. FFA must defend its fans from these slurs" (AAP, 12/3). In Melbourne, Michael Lynch reported "the furore broke late last month" when the Sydney Telegraph published the names of 198 fans who had been banned from grounds over the decade of the A-League's history. Radio broadcaster Alan Jones "then linked supporter behaviour to that of Islamist murderers who carried out the atrocities in Paris," while another News Limited writer referred to football supporters as "suburban terrorists." FFA CEO David Gallop has "been muted in his response" and on Tuesday in Sydney convinced few supporters that he was "prepared to stand up to the media onslaught or put in place a workable appeals process" for those who claim to have been banned on "flimsy evidence." New FFA Chair Steven Lowy, who took over the post from his father Frank, "has not been sighted while the storm has raged." Di Pietro: "Clearly nobody in football condones anti-social behavior. But it has opened the doors of the peanut gallery who live in an Australia of a bygone era, believing that anyone who chooses to actively support their club is a thug. Well they are not" (THE AGE, 12/2).
THE BIG QUESTION: In Sydney, Richard Hinds opined FFA believes the A-League "cannot afford to be perceived by corporate Australia, potential supporters and the parents of the thousands of kids now playing the game" as a place where occasionally confronting but mostly peaceful "active supporters" are "out of control." But if FFA's "law and order agenda is understandable," the consequence has been to "alienate those keeping the still cash-strapped A-League viable." The core customers have been called "terrorists," "thugs" and "grubs" and told to "suck it up." The key question is whether FFA needs to "pander to non-football Australia in order to make it grow," or whether the active support that creates the "vibrant atmosphere that attracts many people" to A-League games should be "extolled more forcibly as a wonderful virtue" (DAILY TELEGRAPH, 12/2).
