Pom_81
Kennel Enthusiast
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2010
- Messages
- 3,380
- Reaction score
- 75
I have to say, while it's good that the RBB have come out and condemned this incident, I don't actually believe that the majority (or at very least a sizable minority) of their number really mean this apology. This is not having a go at Wanderers fans - I don't believe the apology issued the previous week by the Cove for a massive banner calling Melbourne Victory fans "Tards" was that genuine either. I sat in the Cove for two years before concluding that I didn't wish to have my enjoyment of the game ruined by being amongst morons who understood very little about soccer and even less about basic sportsmanship.
Soccer in Australia loves its victim mentality and its belief that they are the most passionate supporters of any code simply because they behave the least reasonably. You only have to look at the response to a tiny (and I mean tiny) number of Wanderers supporters and Melbourne Victory supporters getting long banning orders from games. Both clubs banded round and defended the people removed and basically blamed the police for picking on them and not understanding true sports culture. Nonsense. I can honestly say that if they banned 20, they could reasonably have banned ten times that number. I've seen amazingly tolerable policing at these games and, after a trip to Gosford, would have had no objection to 20-30 of the Cove never being allowed back into any stadium for years.
Comparing with Rugby League, if 100 Bulldogs fans had behaved like this, the club and the Bulldogs Army would likely have come out and condemned this action. The difference, however, is that an average rank and file member of the Army would have thought the people di*kheads who were out of line. An average member of any of the core soccer supporters' groups would have thought those people near-heroes and blamed the police and/or authorities for overreacting and spoiling their atmosphere.
Soccer in Australia loves its victim mentality and its belief that they are the most passionate supporters of any code simply because they behave the least reasonably. You only have to look at the response to a tiny (and I mean tiny) number of Wanderers supporters and Melbourne Victory supporters getting long banning orders from games. Both clubs banded round and defended the people removed and basically blamed the police for picking on them and not understanding true sports culture. Nonsense. I can honestly say that if they banned 20, they could reasonably have banned ten times that number. I've seen amazingly tolerable policing at these games and, after a trip to Gosford, would have had no objection to 20-30 of the Cove never being allowed back into any stadium for years.
Comparing with Rugby League, if 100 Bulldogs fans had behaved like this, the club and the Bulldogs Army would likely have come out and condemned this action. The difference, however, is that an average rank and file member of the Army would have thought the people di*kheads who were out of line. An average member of any of the core soccer supporters' groups would have thought those people near-heroes and blamed the police and/or authorities for overreacting and spoiling their atmosphere.