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meetoo
It is barely comprehensible that Jones would equate alleged issues involving football fans with the horrible slaughter in the French capital. It’s tawdry, squalid broadcasting, yet where football is concerned it seems, no comparison is off limits.
This disgraceful slur is one of many from those who appear to live in an Australia stuck in some 1950’s time warp. Where anyone with a surname longer than three syllables is somehow “suspect” - particularly if they like “soccer.”
The disease is particularly prevalent among those involved in sports in competition for fans (and corporate dollars) with football. One is Malcolm Conn, one-time cricket writer, now in the employ of Cricket NSW. Conn furiously re-tweets any negative story regarding football, in order to paint his own sport in a better light. There are many others desperately trying to recreate the “glory” days of Sheila’s, Wogs & Poofters.
Quite why his employers allow Conn to continue with his daily diatribe is a mystery - though maybe a clue can be found in the attendance figures for Test series’ outside the Ashes, not to mention the Sheffield Shield, where the players regularly outnumber the crowd.
It is also indicative of a landscape in which code wars have been allowed to flourish among the media cognoscenti, who - by and large - still originate from, and hanker after, Australia’s Anglo past, rather than its modern multicultural reality.
Hence the traditional sports are ferociously defended by such groups as properly “Australian”, while football is treated with the same sort of shrieking hysteria normally reserved for boat people.
Grubby pack animals indeed.
Still, times they are a changing, and maybe sooner than they think.
Ms Wilson’s column may well have outed some who indulge in violent behaviour, and for them, I have no sympathy. Behave badly, and you deserve all you get.
But by naming and revealing the identities of ALL those purportedly on the banned list, she has not only invited opprobrium, but opened up a potential can of worms.
There are already allegations that some of the names are incorrect, while some are reportedly underage. Others are not necessarily guilty of criminal acts. It’s also believed some of the photographs published were taken from social media sites, and used without permission. On top of that, none of those listed had any course of redress for their bans via an appeal.
If that’s the case, then we would appear to have conviction by media without proper judicial process. That would be a very serious matter indeed, and litigation may well follow from some of those involved.
Senator David Leyonhjelm meantime, has already called for an investigation by the NSW Police Integrity Commission, to find out whether they are the source of the leak. If proven, it’s a serious breach of ethics on their behalf too.
Colour and excitement at a Wanderers game.Source: Getty Images
FFA absolutely refute allegations they leaked the confidential list - so unless it’s the police, that only leaves the stadiums and A-League clubs with access to such information.
Some are claiming the source is the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust. The SCG trustee list, incidentally, contains not a single person connected to football - that despite Sydney FC being Allianz Stadium’s biggest tenant.
There is undoubtedly much more to come on this story, but in the meantime, and in the absence of public comment from FFA (which in my view, sells the majority of fans short), what response should there be from football?
Get out and cheer your team this weekend.Source: Getty Images
In my opinion, the best response is to turn up in even bigger numbers to games this weekend. Be loud, and be proud of the world’s favourite game.
But we must also demand to see the names - and faces - of all those banned in the other football codes and cricket, so the public can make a fair comparison. Even if there are - as Wilson claims - only a handful, then so what? Let’s see exactly who they are, and what they get up to. #ShameonYOURgame anyone?
I’ll close with the best quote of this entire saga, which came from veteran broadcaster and football fan, George Donikian. It’s simple, but pithy.
“Words have consequences.”
Indeed they do George, and as we wait for the defamation cases, we can take solace in the fact that this current football-phobic generation, which controls so many spheres of public influence, will eventually retire, and be replaced by a more enlightened one.
It can’t come too soon.
it's not the 1st time that the RBB
have done it
