As a Victory fan, the crowd atmosphere is awesome, but some of these muppets ruin it with flares. In the derby, i counted 6 flares out of the active supporter area. Clean up your act and maybe stadium management will relax their approach.


What do you think about the FourFourTwo article Victory Fans Fury Boils Over?
EXCLUSIVE: Melbourne’s magnificent Victory fans are fuming over attitudes towards them by their own club’s administrators and what they say are aggressive security staff on match-day.

Have your say.

Fucking disgraceful way to treat your supporters. Hopefully the club backs down on this or it'll be a sad day for Australian football.

Wednesday night was the worst experience ive had since becoming a melbourne victory member. Seeing the jumpsuits flanking bands of supporters made up mostly of young families and moving kids from their seats the entire match because of security threats left a foul taste in my mouth. The jacks ripped a banner off a group of fans saying 'the silence is deafening' .. What is the justification in that, its not derogatory or defamotory yet it was confiscated and its bearers treated with unecessary aggression.
I want to thank 442 for publishing this article and bringing some media awareness to the issue because the injustice i felt the other night led me to seriously doubt whether our support is appreciated. Another thing tbat has disenchanted me a little with victory is since the gold coast game when a father was handcuffed then beaten by police, the club, rathed then back the supporters you made them, sen out a volley of cautionary emails to its members. So to the MV players and fans, let's rip up the league! To the board, go get fucked, youre clearly not football people but administrators plucked from the fruit and veg industry

Edited by paokzi: 4/2/2011 08:52:35 AM

I knew this whinging was coming. "Waaaa, we're the worst behaved fans in the league, we steal, light flares, have offensive banners and so on and so forth... but we should be able to do what we like!" If you had actually self-policed and sorted out the idiotic element that ruins your reputation rather than encouraging them I might feel some sympathy. As it stands, that element is large, growing, and therefore the police/security response has to grow accordingly. If there was a single fucking week you idiots didn't pull flares and do retarded shit that might be a sign of goodwill towards the police and security, but you do insist on being full retards...

What do you expect when the security goes around confiscating all the flags, even from little kids? Bunch of tossers.

Shows how much you know. Flares are rarely set off at Victory games; it's usually a case of "the bigger the game/the larger the security presence, the more flares there'll be".

Besides, it's hardly fair to blame the entire supporters groups for the actions of a handful of idiots.

Edited by The Frederick: 4/2/2011 08:54:36 AM

Scouse, seriously just stay the fuck out of it

It's the supporter group's responsibility to self-police to some extent. If they can't or won't then obviously the police and security are going to have a bigger role. And the Victory are pretty much the only club where that's happening at the moment. It's not a coincidence.

What do you expect the group to do? Shoot the guy?

Besides, the NT isn't even a group. It's a collection of groups and individuals. The SE is even less organised than that. You can't police what doesn't exist.



That would be because we're the only club with any supporters, Chief.

So if you 'can't police' it yourselves, then why are you bitching so vehemently when somebody else does it?

Its pretty depressing really. I have usually been on the side of the club when it comes to these sort of issues but im starting to sway away. The biggest asset a club has is its fans and Victory need to fix this. I read something on twitter recently about still feeling like a customer rather than part of the club and i think this will hold true. Until clubs fully embrace their fans they will continue to see crowd number fluctuate and eventually decrease. As Foster said in the fan forum, being a football fan is as much about caring as much as liking. Its why we wake up at 2 am to watch a game we think we will lose, or why we fly interstate to watch an a-league match. The more times you see something like this happen the more you start to question whether its worth the effort.

All in all, i love being an active fan (though i prefer south end atmosphere) and am happy sitting on the sides too as i love to watch, but it is undeniable that one of the best advertisements and aspects which distinguishes our sport from others in our crowded landscape is the colour and noise our active fans make. I have no problem with evictions of people igniting flares (although i personally like them if done safely, i think most agree its better they are banned) and anyone involved in violence.

I do think there are a few big ego's in the North Terrace and also some younger guys there to create a bit of trouble, but being treated as a potential criminal based on your choice of being an active supporter is not on. The biggest issue for the A-league is not crowd violence, its crowd numbers.

Scouse, you really are a lowlife, stay out of something that you have no knowledge of, and does not concern you. This situation does not need mindless stirring!

Evidence below..

99% of people enter Etihad Stadium from the long brdige that connects to Souther Cross Station. Picture below shows Riot squad Police like its Nazi Germany... I have put white dots on the Police and this photo does not capture the entire bridge...

http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/1533/editne.jpg

This photo was from the Newcastle game 2 days ago...

Punishing the whole group for the actions of a few idiots isn't policing. Confiscating and banning harmless banners and supporters tools isn't policing. Beating up supporters isn't policing. Setting 10 officers at each stadium entrance to stand there and look tough isn't policing.

THis photo was not taken by me but it shows an empty terrace with an abundant of police and security...

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/8294/bzpkw.jpg

I've had one experience in the Northern Terrace and I'm the biggest fan of the atmosphere you guys create. The tifo, banners, flags, everything. The interaction between North and South is epic.
This year of 'Fan Made' seems like the worst year for both Victory & Jets supporters, I haven't kept up with the rest of the league's supporters. Something has gone seriously wrong.

The attendace for the Newcastle game was around 11k and I saw around 100 Police (not including security). I went to an AFL game some years ago with 65k attendance, and i saw 2 police...

Yep, really well constructed argument there.

Attitude ........ barrack for your team, yell and scream .... beat drums and blow horns ..... FANtatic.

Light and throw flairs, scream obscenities, act like demented morons, use the scene to behave in an unsociably acceptable manner ????????

reading the posts ... "a policeman bashed one of the supporters", yeah like that's going to happen. I can just see a policeman walking up to an mv supporter and belting the crap out of him.

Wakeup you morons .... the football is bigger than you bloody minded supporters group / s.

Aha so you've never seen nor experienced nor even HEARD of police officers using heavy handed over zealous tactics and rections to minor incidents?
No that would never happen in a country like ours would it. People would never get beaten in custody or police officers with small man syndrome would never use their "power" innapropriately to prove how tough they are to anyone would they.

No idea what happened in said incident, but to deny something like this COULD happen?

Wake up mate.
Blind, ignorant or stupid?...I can't seem to pick it.

Where would the A-League be without the vibrant MVFC home ends? Enough is enough. You can't on one hand talk about "Fan Made" and with the other completely stifle fans. Clubs and the FFA are happy to use the imagery of us in their marketing year after year, and yet we get treated like pariah's. And if you've never stood there and experienced what this article is reporting on, you aren't best placed to comment.

We have gone from this - http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/1738/1tifofotohs7.jpg

to this - http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/8294/bzpkw.jpg

...in just 4 years, all because of a lack of understanding the authorities have about football culture and an unwillingness to be reasonable. The FFA in the past few years have overseen this dramatic fall in crowd numbers and growth of organic support, because of idiotic policies (HEM) and hiring goons like Hatamoto instead of trying to foster good relations between fans. Scouse Roar, if you only had half a clue about why self-policing is a bit of an unrealistic proposition in Melbourne. There are thousands of active fans, not just hundreds. Do you expect the BWB to pat down their own fellow supporters or something? Dob them into police? People in this world act off their own volition.

I hope one day you can treat yourself to the experience of what a fully-firing MVFC home end is like by standing in one for a minute or two. Then perhaps you could appreciate what is at stake here.

Oh and seriously the FFA are starting to REALLY fuck things up if tehy start attacking the fans.

The line somewhere above about feeling like customers is SO true and that's all we are to them.

Fan Made:-#

EVERY soccer fan has ALWAYS been treated like a hooligan in this country. This unfortunately seems to be becoming a vicious cycle/circle(whatever), because the harder the police crack down the harder they will be protested against and they in turn will react even more heavy handed etc etc

I hear you calling us ghosts of the NSL...we are coming.



Edited by davide82: 4/2/2011 10:04:38 AM

Firstly, once again i will say to any arsehole on here that tries to tell me about the 'violence and flares of the NSL' and the 'love and rainbows of the HAL', f*ck you sideways. Regardless of who's right and wrong, these incidents should put things into perspective for you.

Secondly, the stories mentioned in the gent's letter to the club are a disgrace. It sounds like the police are really upping the ante with their power trippin'. Nothing new to our game.

Thirdly, "All we ask as fans is for our ‘tools of trade’, our flags, our banners, our overheads not be seen as a concession or a privilege but as a right". He is dead right.

wow master baiter, someone doesnt know nothing about football

On Wednesday, I asked the police why there was a big police presence at the game and was told that "A member got bitten at the previous game against Gold Coast".

Little wonder police went out of there way last week. Perhaps list all the flares which have been set off. Perhaps list all the fights, punches thrown, people bitten by north terrace members and then you'll have a credible story.

The South Terrace can actively support without any security and create just as much atmosphere - what's the problem at the north end?

Don't turn on your fellow supporters mate, poor form.

Actually, it did happen - last Sunday at the game against GCU. There are quite a number of witnesses to the event.

I can't comment from experience however I struggle to understand how there can possibly be crowd trouble within a supporter group. In a league where away support is fairly minimal security really shouldn't be an issue.

A boy in Melbourne, the original South Enders and those like them are 110% percent behind their NT brothers. Leave it out.