FFA bans troublemaking fans

Football Federation Australia has banned three supporters after recent incidents of crowd trouble at Hyundai A-League clubs.

Despite a rollicking atmosphere at AAMI Park for Melbourne Victory’s clash with Western Sydney Wanderers, football crowd behaviour has come under scrutiny after police officer was punched and capsicum spray had to be used at the ground.

Head of A-League Damien de Bohun revealed that three supporters have been punished, with the FFA issuing a five-year ban, an eight-year ban and a 12-year ban to three individuals who "acted inappropriately ". 

But amidst concerns that the code has received undue negative publicity recently, the A-League boss re-iterated that the FFA continues to promote that these are "isolated incidents".

"Hopefully all fans will have noticed that the FFA, in all of our public statements, continue to focus on isolated incidents amongst a very small minority of people," de Bohun told foxsports.com.au on Wednesday.

"(These people) are choosing to act illegally and anti-socially (and) are the cause of some of the publicly reported issues at recent A-League matches."

De Bohun, discussing the issue in an exclusive Q & A session with foxsports.com.au users on Wednesday, encouraged those football fans doing the right thing to assist in weeding out the guilty individuals tarnishing the game-day experience for others. 

"Part of the solution to this challenge for football is for ‘active supporters’, who are doing the right thing, to assist the FFA and authorities in ‘self-policing’ and not tolerating these isolated incidents of unacceptable behaviour," De Bohun said. 

		P	W	D	L	GD	Pts
1	Central Coast	21	12	6	3	21	42
2	Western Sydney	21	13	2	6	12	41
3	Victory	21	11	3	7	2	36
4	Adelaide	21	11	2	8	2	35
5	Sydney	21	8	3	10	-7	27
6	Newcastle	21	7	5	9	-7	26
7	Brisbane	21	7	3	11	0	24
8	Heart	21	7	3	11	-3	24
9	Perth	21	6	4	11	-3	22
10	Wellington	21	5	5	11	-17	20

"We will continue to be vigilant and target this small minority of people, who want to continue to behave inappropriately at or around matches." 

In addressing concerns that the FFA was not doing enough to support the majority who do behave, and provide a unique football atmosphere, De Bohun said: "the FFA will continue to work closely with media across the country to ensure that the message is that the vast majority of football fans being well behaved gets out there. 

"Equally, everyone involved with the sport must be united in driving the isolated incidents of unacceptable behaviour away from the game." 

De Bohun discussed a wide range of issues during his chat session, which you can re-live in its entirety here.

View the original article here