Red, black and blue: Wanderers at a loss after fan walkout
It was the week when the Western Sydney Wanderers' heavy hitters were supposed to be promoting their side's second biggest home match of the season. Instead, they spent the days leading into Saturday night's clash against Melbourne Victory at ANZ Stadium working tirelessly just to placate their own supporters.
Another fan revolt had erupted on the Tuesday before. The club has long been bedevilled by such expressions of supporter discontent. But this time it was different, as the anger was entirely a reaction to on-field matters. On the surface, the answer appeared simple - just win matches. Deep down, the Wanderers senior administrators were banging their heads against a wall, at a loss as to what more they could do to appease some of the most demanding and impatient fans in the country.
The club's active supporter group - the Red and Black Bloc - had walked out of ANZ Stadium at half-time in protest of their team's insipid first-half performance in a 2-0 loss to Melbourne City. It was their fifth defeat of the season and the one that appeared to break the patience of their fans.
Fans have the right to vent their frustration and few in football would have questioned the RBB's booing of their own team, especially after two years of mediocrity. However, by taking more drastic action, the RBB exposed once again the fragile, and often fractious, relationship between fan and club in Western Sydney.
On one hand, the Wanderers desperately need the active supporter group. On the other, there's a growing internal sentiment that there is little more the club can do to please the RBB. One of the roots of the club's current problems is a dissatisfaction with the Wanderers' temporary home at Olympic Park while Parramatta Stadium is rebuilt. But the decision to move there was very much made with the club's supporters in mind.
The club put the issue of relocation to a vote among its members and, according to a statement in 2016, more than 70 per cent of those who voted wanted games to be played out of a single location. Further, 60 per cent favoured that one hub being at Olympic Park - a combination of ANZ Stadium and Spotless Stadium - over five other options.
“The overwhelming response from our members was they wanted a central location that has good public transport and access as well as being able to fit in not only our current 18,341 members but also have room to grow,” Wanderers chief John Tsatsimas said in 2016.
However, it backfired. Since leaving Parramatta Stadium to move temporarily to two larger venues, attendances have plummeted almost 32 per cent, with fans complaining about accessibility, entertainment and the match-day experience at the two venues.
The venues alone, though, have not triggered the fan unrest. There have been long-held gripes about the player turnover at the club and the drift away from its identity as being a representative of the west. There is validity in the concern about the churn, although the club has made significant strides to amend this, with a policy to boost the proportion of local players in its academy year on year. The Wanderers also have one of the highest progressions of youth players to the senior team. As chairman Paul Lederer pointed out on Thursday in a letter penned to members: "In the last year alone, we have seen 11 players progress through our academy to join the first team squad."
A day later, that became 12, with teenager Mathieu Cordier being promoted to the senior team on Friday, the latest off the production belt in what is becoming the biggest football factory in the country. Next month, the Wanderers will unveil a $30 million new training centre and academy, complete with nine football fields, a clubhouse, classrooms, a gym and office facilities in Blacktown.
While it can be argued the Wanderers on-field investments have not been the smartest, Lederer can't be accused of being frugal in his spending on players and staff. Marquee Oriol Riera is earning an estimated $1.3 million per season, coach Markus Babbel didn't come cheap and the club is spending big on backroom staff, including bringing former Bayern Munich fitness guru Marcelo Martins to Blacktown.
However, that expenditure is yet to yield results. And that's where the RBB comes in. Like every active supporter group around the world, the difficult three seasons have proven the words of the fans' songs are largely rhetorical. Despite what's sung, win or lose, they won't always follow you. Tuesday night proved that.
No club has been forced to work harder with its active fan group than the Wanderers. Senior club sources suggests there have been a "litany of cases" when Western Sydney have been forced to answer to authorities because of the group, whether it be to the FFA, security, stadia, the media or the police. Even on Tuesday night, a fan was banned from Olympic Park precinct by police after allegedly told to stop using abusive language three times. The actions of the supporters have cost the club considerably in fines, almost led to A-League points being deducted from Western Sydney yet still the club is working to accommodate them.
While the RBB mulls over its decision to return to ANZ Stadium on Saturday night due to its dissatisfaction with the club, labourers at Parramatta were putting the finishing touches on the 1400 safe-standing seats at the north end of the stadium that the Wanderers fought tooth and nail to have approved by NSW Government, police and co-tenants Parramatta Eels, along with a large "capo box" specifically for that group. It will be a first for the country, and one of the many luxuries that await Western Sydney fans when they return to their spiritual home, newly renovated, in October.
When the RBB posted a statement this week suggesting it is "not represented appropriately" by the Wanderers, senior members of the group were understood to have been spoken to directly by the club's leadership.
More so, representation is at the heart of the Wanderers ethos. Their academy will be the first to cover the registration fees of every single participant down to its most junior age group and has a policy that prioritises young players from the city's west. That's about as good as representation can be.
Evidently, the reality is that none of this is enough if the club isn't winning. Wanderers fans were spoilt from the onset when they were delivered immediate success. If their first and only period of hardship has said anything, it's that they have a culture of expectation and a patience that's wafer thin. Not even the most incredible off-field investment into a football club in Australian sporting history seems to make their fans any more tolerant.
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer...a-loss-after-fan-walkout-20190104-p50pkh.html
