http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX2kH3ANzgY&feature=related

So Melbourne fans are reacting to the crackdown due to the idiots in Horda stealing a sign.

Tards are so rational :roll:

If only Horda waited until the banner was on the cloths line it would all be ok...

[youtube]GHWrOnWqYqE[/youtube]

If Horda is to SCC as NT is to The Cove... how would you feel?

There are often incidents at all kinds of major events but the the way active support is currently being targeted is a real joke!
People are being ejected for swearing etc whilst security swear at the so called "offenders" themselves! What ever happened to equality and freedom of expression?
I have witnessed people being pushed down stairs by security, people being ejected from a game for taking their shirt off, standing on a seat, starting a chant that has one obscenity in it, the bloody list goes on.
So, whilst the security is targeting this kind of behavior, what is happening around the rest of the stadium etc? The same bloody thing! But this is ok because they are not active support!
This is a real problem and if it keeps going this way, the football atmosphere; these supporters have created will be dead in Australia.
No active supporters who spend their own time and money producing banners, flags, magazines etc, should have to deal with this kind of shit when supporting their team.

First up, I will stress that the overzealous and overbearing hostility and aggression that many innocent people have suffered from by figures in authority is unacceptable.

In response to comments about flares not being important, I disagree strongly.
A few flares in themselves may not be the main driver really, but I would suggest the mindset of the much larger group who think that flares ARE OK is a significant contributing factor. Whenever the media seizes on a single flare incident, the general public grows it our of proportion and the hooligan impression is reinforced. We saw flares at the frigging tennis, and the idiots in their red and white checked shirts - what does the public see? Effectively football hooligans moving into another sport and wrecking that. Every flare you set off or condone as a right is another nail in the coffin gladly carried by mainstream media and your average football ignorant citizen.

Remember we all recently filled in surveys about our game and one of the questions related to how you felt the active support at the game? Does anyone know what sort of response came back? Because if the normally quiet majority paid out on active support then maybe the clubs are listening and maybe that voice has been calling for attention for sometime. I don't know (I supported active groups in the survey)- but maybe there are a lot more people annoyed by the attitude expressed by flares (as in F the lot of you I want to do this so I will) than we are aware.

What if hundreds (thousands?) of quiet fans contacted MV as individuals and said 'do something about these f'wits who are spoiling my enjoyment'.

There's a lot more to this than flares, but flares are such stupid, visual, blatant ammunition AGAINST what you want - ffs you shake your heads at your own players who beg the ref for a yellow card sometimes - that's what you are doing to your clubs.

Get rid of the flares, accept the legal and public view that we don't want them at the games, then go to the club and sort the rest out.

We need active support and we want active support - but cut out the crap then re-sell a much more viable product to the club.

Roar In Me Blood, that's a nice little theory you have going there. However if the quiet fans did not like the active support, than they would not attend matches. And I'm one of those quiet fans.

Going to the game and having a good atmosphere is part of the enjoyment, a survey conducted found that 95% of fans go to matches because of the unique atmosphere generated at Melbourne Victory games.

You keep going on about flares and I agree, flare lighters should not be tolerated and kicked out(even though i love flares). But this is not about flares, good behaved fans are being kicked out of games well before a flare is ever lit. People are being thrown out of games for chanting, standing, jumping up and down, celebrating goals, taking their shirts off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ha2bNzcUKH4&feature=related

Phwoar, Broadcaster Sean Sowerby!

I'm still amazed he used his real name in that interview.

Classic youtube that one.

"Do not throw flares
Do not throw objects
Mind your language
Do not stand on seats"

Reporter looked hot...

A non-NT response:
http://www.backpagelead.com.au/soccer/3634-theres-more-to-victory-than-north-tce

When you got supporters holding a gun to the head of the club, you know things have taken a turn for the worst.

This mob are so intent on trying to save the club, they're going to bring it down.

I haven't bothered to read the link. On MV's fb page there are plenty of non-NT people backing the NT and also relating their own stories of harassment and abuse from security and police. But you've already made up your mind, so I suppose there's no point...

Oh the irony.

For my part if the Orange Army start setting off flares I will keep going to games (largely for the active support experience too), but ask the club to get rid of the idiots.

The rest of your comments I agree entirely with.

Great to hear that 95% support the active experience. I wondered if there was a quiet element pushing but that rules that factor out.


He he heeeee. Nice one Mr.

As it happens, the back page also put up an NT perspective, now that's what I call balanced.

http://www.backpagelead.com.au/soccer/3622-troubles-on-the-terrace

This is the interesting bit, and I quote: the normally loud, colourful, and energetic 'North Terrace', a collective of Melbourne Victory supporter groups who draw inspiration from the Continental and South American Ultras.

I thank Remy Davies for his candour, because there can now be no doubt about what is at stake here.

Do A-League fans truly appreciate what is going on here and where this is heading?

A supporter group, referring to themselves as ultras, referring to their leaders as capos, drawing inspiration from European and Sth American ultras, trying to intimidate the club they reckon they support, putting up political slogans, trying to take control of a large chunk of their home ground, etc.

Do people on here truly understand what is at stake here?

Do people on here honestly believe that a proud, strong, well run club like the Victory, and the FFA, charged with broadening the appeal of the game, are going to succomb to such intimadatory tactics from a group who state upfront that they take inspiration from some of the most violent and radical supporter groups in the world?

Folks, time to wake up and smell the coffee.

If this continues, it will rip apart the Victory and bring the league down with them.

And as usual what you fail to realise is that, as with most things, the Melbourne support scene is ahead of the curve. This issue is being discussed in forums everywhere, it has migrated to the press, it has permeated SBS. The FFA are feeling it. In principal the NT is supported by the majority of MV's moderate supporter.

I believe in time, this will have been an important and positive event in fostering a more unified and enthusiastic verve for true football support in this city, not just amongst the actives but across all supporters. Whilst it has the effect of alienating some (as do most things), it has bound many more to the cause. This thing goes deeper than you can appreciate, it speaks on a number of levels which have everything to do with football as a whole and which I can't be bothered writing any essay on.

Next week SBS will be interviewing Peter Wilt, former CEO of MLS team Chicago Fire, and he will have a few things to say about supporter rights and its centrality to football. The FFA hopefully, will listen, though I doubt it.

This is a world you don't understand Pip. You look at everything through the narrow prism of aussie rules and its rigid structures. I don't know - perhaps you didn't feel welcome or accepted by the NT, or MV for that matter. Your bad luck.

This is so much bigger than Melbourne's North Terrace.

A few things. You get rid of the NT, you lose the core of the ST who left the NT not because of a rift but because they have a different style of supporting the club, the British style. I have spoken to a core member of the ST and if the NT are gone they will be too, therefore Melbournes active fans will be nomore. This will also cause a ripple effect across the league, because if you read through this thread, other non-violent, non-troublemakers are feeling the pinch of security and cops.

I'd advise you, Mr Football to not speak about this topic any further. You have no idea, as you have shown with your 'ultras' comment.

The people of Melbourne are amongst the most multi-cultural in the world, if they want to bring apart of there football culture to the game, whether its from Italy, Croatia, Uruguay, Brazil, France, where ever, they should be entitled to, this is the world game.

Of course while people are allowed to do this they also know that going to far and emulating violent behavior will see them get banned from the game.

To call the NT violent and imply that they idolise the violent side of ultras is farcical quiet frankly. I have never seen a supporter punch or kick a security or cop, there is a reason why they dont fight back but I'm sure you know that.



On this paragraph, there is so much bs. Firstly, where the fuck do they refer to themselves as an 'Ultras'? They refer to themselves as a supporter group.
Secondly, they cant fight back with the security, half the stuff they write on the facebook, even if it has no abusive language, it gets deleted, they only thing they have left is to speak through banners, which mind you got through security, thats right, the security that cant pick up people with flares cant even pick up people who have massive banners, there doing quiet a job ey.

Lastly, the bold line, they are entitled to have there own part of the ground. Them doing this resolves many issues such as families not having to sit amongst people who want to be active, it says, if you want to be active you can do it here, its a positive, not a negative. Also saying they are unentitled to have there end would be like saying that AFL supporter group members shouldnt be able to have there own allocated space, which they do.




This actually made me laugh, =d>.

I find it the statement 'Do people on here honestly believe that a proud, strong, well run club like the Victory, and the FFA, charged with broadening the appeal of the game' quiet laughable, especially given the fact that the FFA, the people in charge of 'broadening the appeal of the game' ran a season long campaign this season of 'Fan Made' where groups like F-Troop, The Cove and none other than the NT were put on centre stage for promoting the game.

Its also hypocritical of you to say that our supporters base themselves on the most 'violent and radical supporter groups in the world' when you actually have a few supporter groups in your game, such as the 'Grog Squad' and 'The Black and White Boys' (who once there website hit the media they were brought straight down by the club and AFL).

You cant understand, you wont understand. The only thing that matters in this day and age is making money. Its consumed the AFL but we wont let the money hungry people upstairs kick us out just so they can make money, football is not a brand, its a community, we are not fighting because we are 'hooligans' we are fighting for our community, our club. Its the game we love, we love it because its different in many aspect, the fans are the core, the supporter groups are the fans hence the core, they are the only ones who will go out of there way to support the club rain, hail or shine, interstate or overseas.

Deconstructed and destroyed. Very, very good piece. =d>

Grazie :)

I sit on the wings and I have been in the terrace and seen friends assaulted for no reason whatsoever. I've seen the situation from both sides. You on the other hand are simply taking pot shots from afar; tired, pathetic pot shots at that: flares and foul language. There is nothing in that article that hasn't been said here, on MV's facebook page, MV.net or many other fora. Many people who were against the NT have changed their tune since having been exposed to the same treatment that active supporters were receiving, whilst others see that whilst the active supporters are no more important than any other supporters, active support itself is vital to the club and the league. People such as yourself, and especially yourself, who have harped the same tired mantra as long as I've visited this forum, aren't capable of accepting the any other point of view.

Active support is important you fool. It is there to support your club.

But active support does not equal assaulting police/security, brawling inside and outside the stadium, dropping flares on opposition fans, abusing your club/security/police.

That's what the worst element in the NT will not accept. And you're a joke for thinking that it's OK.

The rest of us are laughing at you lot. Reap what you sow.

I would think they are fucking idiots and want them banned for doing something ridiculously stupid like what they did and ruining the relationship between the fans club and FFA.

Those of us who have been round the block a few times understand only too well the attraction of such groups to young blokes: strength in numbers, belonging, secret handshakes, a bit like boy scouts with a bit more street cred.

But it's nothing more than a boy's own fantasy.

The FFA established the A-League to broaden the mainstream appeal of soccer.

But all you are intent on doing is narrowing the demographic back to reflect your own image, or what's important to you.

Rather than being a selfless act to help your club prosper, it's a selfish act that can only bring your club to its knees.

Midway through season 2, there were two home games that attracted 50,000 and 40,000, and contrary to what many of the NT kiddies think, those crowds had very little to do with their antics.

The Victory almost cut through, it was almost there - but thanks to you guys, you've blown it - I doubt that opportunity will ever come again.

Congratulations on NSL Mk II, you've earned it.

In order of the bolded points.

Firstly, police and security never get assaulted, there is a simple reason, its not worth it. Its ok for a cop to hit you but if you punch back you'll end up in court with a massive fine, people know this hence do not assault security/police.

Brawl inside a stadium? I mean outside the stadium, there are organised fights between the clubs so called 'fans' and there are people from Melbourne who have thrown things at rival fans outside a stadium, they have been banned for years. But inside? like what?

Lastly, we love the club, I cannot recall 'abusing your club' having of ever occured, unless you mean sitting in silence or holding up a banner to express a point of view, of which I have never seen a banner actually abuse the club. The Secos and the cops only get abused after they do somthing uncalled for.

Look Mr. I can understand your sentiments based on the passed, but its changed (in my view anyways), the majority of the trouble makers have been banned or dont bother coming any more. I think our behaviour has improved dramatically this season as shown by only 2 flares in 12 games at AAMI.

On the 3 points I highlighted, if I'm wrong can you show me? not trying to be a smart ass im just curious as whether there have been fights in stadium this season for example.

:lol: =d>

Write more! Write more!

enjoyed that, but what did the NT do to stop the 50,000 attending again?

Or put another way - why did 50,000 and 40,000 attend two regular season games at Etihad during season 2? Why did the grand final that year break the Etihad attendance record? (meaning that all 5,000 Medallion club seats holders must have turned up)

We can only speculate.

As I intimate, MV had broken through to the broader sporting public in Melbourne - that's what the A-League was meant to be all about.

One thing is for sure - at that point, the North Terrace would have represented 500 supporters out of a crowd of 50,000 - so we can only assume from that that the other 49,500 didn't turn up because they considered themselves to be blessed to be in the company of rowdy, anti-social young males.

These days, the NT is 2,000 odd of about 8,000 to 12,000 going regularly to games.

Their dream is for there to be nothing but NT supporters, and they are well on the way to achieving their dream.

MV and FFA would have to have rocks in their head to allow themselves to be held to ransom by this lot.

You can kiss investors, sponsors and premium support packages goodbye.

At the end of it all, these questions remain:

1. what kind of supporter tries to hold a gun to the head of the club they supposedly support?

2. why is it that the South end (also active supporters) have zero problem with club and police?

Answer those questions, and people are well on the way to understanding what the real problem is here.

I think I know what you are getting at but your post is incoherent, even by this forum's standards.

oldest trick in the book