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Didn't bring it's fans into line with expected standards of behaviour earlier, after sufficient warnings.
Yeah, sorry I was a bit late to the party.
Why are you ignoring Gary's posts? :sarcasm:
Western Sydney Wanderers' Red and Black Bloc argue they are unfairly targeted by police
Date February 12, 2016 - 7:30AM
Misbehaving fans could cost them a premiership, but the Western Sydney Wanderers' active supporter group, the Red and Black Bloc (RBB), have failed to specifically condemn those letting off flares at the club's matches.
In a statement posted on their Facebook page following Football Federation Australia's (FFA) decision to fine the club $50,000 and give them a suspended three-point penalty, the RBB also attacked the media and threatened further boycotts over the fans' appeal process.
"It was concluded that the RBB does not encourage anyone to participate in any prohibited activity, and those who have, have done so at their own risk," the statement read.
"The consequences are known to all. The RBB supports the notion of personal choice as per our representation at the Senate hearing late last year."
As many as 25 flares were let off in and around Etihad Stadium during the club's clash with the Melbourne Victory on Saturday, prompting a return to the headlines for the supporter base.
However they argue that flares were "prevalent before the Wanderers came along and it is not an issue that is unique.
"The incident at Melbourne over the weekend led to the general consensus on the night that this issue has been exacerbated in the media, and that if it was not flare use, the Wanderers fan base would have been targeted over other issues."
The group also requested the proceeds from the $50,000 fine paid by the club be given to charities in western Sydney, rather than "it being a bonus for the FFA".
Meanwhile, the February 20 Sydney derby at Allianz Stadium was identified as the stage to resume crowd boycotts if the FFA does not present a suitable fan appeals process by February 19.
The issue has the potential to ramp up again throughout the A-League, with the governing body telling the active supporter groups in December that their finding and implementation of a system would be non-negotiable.
Fan groups opted to boycott matches at the end of last year following the FFA's response to a media article which named all banned A-League fans and showed photographs of some.
AAP
. Western Sydney Wanderers CEO John Tsatsimas slams rogue supporters
February 12, 2016 12:58amCarly Adno The Daily Telegraph
WANDERERS CEO John Tsatsimas has a warning for those rogue supporters who have cost the club $50,000 and the possibility of a loss of three vital A-League points.
Do not come back, you are not welcome.
Western Sydney were found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute after a section of the clubs active supporters set off a series of coordinated flares and detonators during the match against Melbourne Victory at Etihad Stadium last weekend.
It was the premeditated nature of the event that led FFA CEO David Gallop to describe it as criminal behaviour and the Wanderers have been fined $50,000 as a result, with FFA imposing a suspended three point deduction.
While disappointed at the severe punishment and the ramifications it has for the majority of innocent stakeholders at the club, Tsatsimas concedes its something they have to take on the chin.
But that didnt stop him from lambasting the trouble-makers and urging the clubs true fans to take a stand against them.
We feel that the recipient of the penalty is not the one who should be bearing the penalty, but notwithstanding that we are a club and we need to take that on board and deal with it appropriately, Tsatsimas said.
For those who cannot or will not comply, do not come back, you are not welcome. Host your own event, get the appropriate permits for your pyrotechnic displays and your boorish behaviour. Stop using our club as a promotional vehicle for your own selfish and narcissistic purposes. You are not wanted, you never will be.
For the rest of our fans in the vicinity of that behaviour, please do not encourage them. Let them know as a collective that you find this unacceptable to you as a fellow football fan. We do not want cowards at this club.
We need to get it in these peoples minds that this kind of behaviour from your patron two or three seats away is not acceptable. Do what you need tell the nearest security guard or police officer that there is an issue here. If we start doing that we can go a long way in a very short period of time.
One wrong step in the next 12 months and the FFA will immediately trigger the points deduction.
Gallop was vague on what future serious incident would result in such an action, but it could be the lighting of a single flare either inside or outside of a stadium. It would be a devastating blow for Tony Popovic and his team who have worked tirelessly at turning things around at the club and currently lead the charge for the Premiers Plate.
Its difficult to be specific, Gallop said. It would have to be something of a serious nature that we believe triggered the need to take three points, but I cant stand here and say these are examples of what that would be. It would obviously have to be something of a serious nature.
This is very serious ramifications in terms of the competition. Weve potentially got the closest A-League finish weve ever had, three points is very significant.
Im sure Tony Popovic and the players would recognise that and we expect them to help us with the message to these people who are not fans that you are jeopardising something for thousands of people and also the team.
The Wanderers are back home this weekend, but have enjoyed an incident-free season at Pirtek Stadium. The real test will come at Allianz Stadium the following weekend when Sydney FC host another fiery Sydney derby.
It should be a celebration of football, Tsatsimas said. Its two teams taking part on the pitch, yes theyll both be supporting their teams, but its not about going against each other. Thats the kind of mindset we have to eradicate from our thinking. Its a collective celebration of football at the derby, its going to be a great day, and I dont anticipate any problems.
Wanderers fined, warned on points
Football Federation Australia chief executive David Gallop says Western Sydney fans need to behave or their club will lose competition points.
Whenever David Gallop heads out of town for a surfing break, he must half expect a cadre of disgruntled football fans to be massed in the take-off spot to make his life hell. Just to show that they can.
The interesting part of the debate about the penalties Gallop announced against the Western Sydney Wanderers for their supporters' behaviour in Melbourne is not the dreary Punch and Judy Show about which sport has the biggest dickheads. Yes, more people were ejected in three days of the Boxing Day cricket Test match than in a season of the A-League. Yes, if the AFL were serious about its anti-racial vilification policy it could have thrown out 5000 people every second weekend last year. And yes, if NRL grounds did not have dry areas, my kids would not be attending one match, let alone the 10 or so they enjoy each season.
Every major sport has an alcohol problem and a dickhead problem, irrespective of "culture" (strange word) and ethnicity (catch up with the 21st century, please). The inverted contest between different sports that all have the same problem, claiming ours is smaller than yours, is an impassioned exercise in missing the point.
What is interesting, and unique to football, is the idea of collective responsibility: that a club has a duty to control not only those who are given the team shirt, but those who buy it. In fining the Wanderers $50,000 and levying a three-point penalty – crucially, suspended and therefore hanging over the Wanderers – the FFA has said that the problem belongs to everyone. Its strategy is to drive a wedge between "true" fans and those who come with flares tucked into their flares. Where policing fails, try self-policing. The idea is that when a committed young fan in red-and-black is heartbroken because her beloved team has to play its semi-final in Melbourne, she will turn her disappointment not against the authorities, but against the dickheads. That's the idea, anyway.
Problematic: Wanderers fans let off flares as police officers look on during the round 18 A-League match between Melbourne Victory and Western Sydney Wanderers at Etihad Stadium earlier this month. Photo: Scott Barbour
I would be intrigued to see this kind of logic applied elsewhere. What if, next time 90 gold shirt-wearing, beer snake-making, beach ball-bunting buffoons are removed from the MCG on Boxing Day, the Australian team was docked 90 runs? What if the Canterbury Bulldogs lost a competition point for every bottle their supporters threw at a referee? What if, as well as removing a foul-mouthed bigot from the stands, the AFL also removed one player from the field wearing the same colours?
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It might bring about change, though Australian cricket crowds are as herdable as cats; I suspect, having been on the juice since 9am, they would sooner throw things at each other than understand the consequences of their actions. By contrast, football is hoping that, because the game's active supporters are uniquely well organised, to know that their actions are directly tied to their team's performance can bring about a change in their behaviour. There is a unity of purpose to football support groups that must be uplifting and nourishing to those who share it. It empowers them to sing together and walk out together. It may also empower them to control their own.
If football crowds have this cohesion, however, the idea of splitting "good" fans from dickheads becomes complicated. The colour of the shirt, presumably, erases all difference, and it becomes my tribe right or wrong, a bond stronger than patriotism. Is it actually a football tribe, or something else? Maybe the unpalatable truth is that the Red and Black Bloc, and other hardcore football groups, are joined by a bond for which football is just a pretext. There is a potentially twisted logic at work in there. If a person letting off a flare proves that he is less interested in the football than in making trouble, how are his actions then the responsibility of his club? By definition, such a person is not a football supporter. If he doesn't care about the game, why would he change his actions under the threat of a loss of competition points? Or, to take it further, suppose a Sydney FC fan is so hell-bent on a home semi-final that he puts on a Wanderers shirt, goes to Parramatta and lets off flares.
The Wanderers lose their three points, Sydney FC jump above them in the ladder. Dickhead wins. (I've heard the same suggested about the person who recorded Mitchell Pearce's Australia Day party piece: that it was a South Sydney fan wanting to destroy Pearce's career. I guess that's possible, though it could just as easily, for the same reason, have been a Roosters fan. Or a NSW fan.)
For what it's worth, I believe the FFA's sanctions were the result of exasperation, if not despair, laid reluctantly as a last resort. It was right to suspend the three-point deduction, as this gives the Wanderers and their fans a strong reason to police themselves. To dock them three points retrospectively, for acts that were perpetrated on an away ground reportedly by people who would not have been able to slip into a home fixture, would only have engendered resentment. Sure, the FFA might have looked tougher, but it would have lost future leverage. If it hit the Wanderers harder and the behaviour continued, it would leave itself without room to manoeuvre.
The FFA hopes it has done a kind of ju-jitsu move: using the strongest force in the game, the unity of a club and its supporters, against that club's worst internal elements. It's a high-risk play which, amid average attendances and TV ratings, financially struggling franchises and a season that has not gripped the public imagination as recent ones have, the game in this country can ill afford to lose.
