Many of us are talking about the best season ever.  Football-friendly media outlets such as Fox Sports and SBS have hyped up the season. Mark Bosnich has memorably cackled that it is the players’ time to ‘shine’ but it also our time to shine in the only way we know how — fervent and passionate support of our teams. Unfortunately, in the days leading up to the season opener, we have seen some flare ups (pun very much intended) which threaten to dim the glossy sheen of this most eagerly anticipated of seasons.

Earlier this week, the FFA, Melbourne Victory Football Club, Etihad management and the Victorian police converged in an alarming assault on active support in the Northern Terraces of Etihad Stadium. The group ostensibly targeted is known as the North Terrace Collective, a passionate and diverse group of supporters that has previously been lauded by the MVFC, Etihad and Victory players alike.  On Monday, however, this group of young men and women were suddenly treated like the Sons of Anarchy. Measures were abruptly announced which demonstrated the various bodies’ intent to suppress the violent and anti-social behaviour which is supposedly rife in the area the NTC have embraced as their home.

The listed methods of policing look to turn the North Terrace into something resembling North Korea. An Orwellian level of surveillance that would surely impress Kim Jong-Un is to be implemented. It will feature increased CCTV monitoring and a system of ID scanning which will scrutinise access in and out of the area. By knowing about the regularity of your bladder and how often you duck out for a pie and chips, Etihad will make football safe. Furthermore, a culture of fan-powered reconnaissance is to be inculcated with the ‘dob a yobbo’ text line set up. You’ve got to love the delightfully blunt and out of touch colloquial language used. Don’t the police know that these rogue elements are what we refer to as ‘hooligans?’ If only I could use the hotline to tell them about my neighbour. He has a Jim Beam sticker on his Ute. On the spot fines of $772 will also be handed out for ‘anti-social’ behaviour, whatever that means. Knowing what forms such behaviour can take is difficult, so it would be advisable to be excessively polite while in the Northern Terrace.

Extend cordial greetings to fellow supporters, ‘Good day, sir.’ Perhaps, wear a top-hat. Avoid bellowing anything too discouraging or untoward to the opposing team. Instead of chanting ‘You’re shit….Argh!’ to the opposing goal-keeper, supporters would do better to sing out, ‘You, sir are not a very skilful gentleman. Indeed!’ Or, maybe, what these bodies would prefer is for supporters not to sing for their clubs at all…

Adding insult to injury was the FFA’s audacious complicity and sycophantic pandering to the anti-football institutions championing these measures. It is a big slap in the face for all passionate supporters, like the North Terrace Collective, who have single-handedly carved out a vibrant space for this code in the heartland of AFL. The FFA’s implicit expressions of support for the aforementioned measures were touted across media outlets which threw around nasty descriptions of ‘hooligans’, ‘rogue elements’ and ‘feral fans’.  It felt like your mum nodding her head in agreement to a passer-by’s remark that you’re, ‘…a little bit ugly’; your mother admitting that your face is one that even she can’t love.  Melbourne supporters copped a double whammy with an open letter issued by the Melbourne Victory to their members demonstrating MVFC’s compliance with the Etihad approach. Sure, it said things that we can all agree on, that everyone is entitled to express themselves in a safe, violence-free environment… but real football fans get that. True football fans don’t bring flares to matches; you’d be hard pressed to catch sight of them wearing flares to games. It is probable that even the more unhygienic of fans wouldn’t even venture outside if their cold sores were flaring up.

Genuine fans recognise that destroying chairs is biting the hand that seats you. Authentic supporters know that knuckle sandwiches are not to be served on the menu at the football.  You see, the problem with sweeping statements in media releases and stern cautions in open letters is the extension of negative sentiments towards all football fans. These approaches take a very dim view of even the most gentlemanly of passionate supporters, representing them as just waiting for an opportunity to explode into violence and affray, as criminals to be controlled and contained, as ugly children who should not be let out to see the light of day. These methods strengthen the persistent and ill-informed stereotype of the football hooligan, unfairly reducing us into a collective identity that is as disconnected from Australian football culture as Clive Palmer is from a treadmill.

Rubbing salt into the wounds was the FFA’s ill-timed promotion of the ‘You power the game’ campaign. If you watch the advertisement and do the math, there are thousands of dollars of on the spot fines that need to be enforced, and somebody lock that young Newcastle Jets supporter who is jumping up and down on stadium seating. Yes this week, The FFA have certainly provided mixed messages to supporters of football, and demonstrated an insensitivity that borders on the comical and absurd. The only bodies taking more piss than the FFA at the moment are the good people at pathology labs across our nation, testing for Chlamydia and other diseases.

Rather than generating conventional wattage with their campaign, the FFA has produced countless ‘WTFs’ amongst football fans. Considering that it only takes 20 watts to power the human brain, you’d think that the FFA, MVFC and stadium administration could have rubbed together enough brain cells to illuminate the cartoon light bulbs of simple ideas such as:  widespread consultation and dialogue with fans about the measures to be enforced at Etihad or analysis of hard data to correctly assess the frequency and severity of violent or antisocial behaviour at football games. You’d think the club with the biggest membership in the country would be able to place some trust in the very people who have built it into what it is today. At worst, the two football bodies could have adopted a legitimate attempt to use language that is primarily sympathetic to supporters and more representative of the actuality of the situation. Instead, the FFA and MVFC sounded like disappointed parents, misrepresenting football fans with denigrating and alarmist language and, ultimately rewarding active support with repressive and reactive measures.

The responsible parties have not only adversely affected our brothers and sisters in the Northern Terrace, they have lumped us all into the shameful stereotype of the football hooligan. They have condemned us from coast to coast based on a historically low-level of isolated incidences perpetrated by a minority of dickheads. It seems the lights are on for these organisations but are there any football lovers at home?

Despite the lack of support offered by the FFA and their failure to acknowledge the exemplary behaviour of the football public, football fans will turn up in record numbers this weekend. They will yell, sing and chant themselves hoarse. They will fill the cash registers of stadiums to overflowing as they swill warm mid-strength beer and dine on cold meat pies. Cable networks and free to air television will please their commercial partners by displaying a colourful spectacle of massive crowds unified by passion for the game. We will not see masses torn apart by differences, revelling in violence and conflict.   Etihad itself will be a sea of navy blue, red and white. Chants will reverberate, almost deafening, as supporters spur their teams to victory. The Northern terrace will come alive. The Etihad away bay will pulsate with energy. And they will all toe the line.

Doing so is not a sign of weakness from supporters, nor is it tacit agreement with comments about the football public which underlie the repressive crowd-control measures to be implemented at Etihad. Turning up in numbers and supporting the game is the only way we know how to be football fans and it is about the most powerful thing we can do to respond to the negativity of this week. This weekend we will see supporters power the game with energy, authenticity and fervour that the FFA could never recreate in one of their marketing campaigns. You cannot contain, constrain, suppress or repress real passion. When the flood lights are turned on this weekend to illuminate stadiums across the nation, it is we the fans who will shine the brightest.

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