Australia : Sydney FC - Macarthur Rams - 14/08/2012Source : http://www.smh.com.au
'Just not acceptable': brawl breaks out between rival football fansA man has been knocked out and a young boy hit in the head with a rock during a brawl at a pre-season game between A-League club Sydney FC and the Macarthur Rams.
Witnesses say trouble broke out about 10 minutes before half-time in the game at Campbelltown Stadium last night when a group of about eight people, claiming to be supporters of the new A-League club, the Western Sydney Wanderers began chanting "RBB".
RBB stands for Red and Black Bloc, the supporters group for the new Sydney side.
The group then threw a flare towards a group of Sydney FC fans who in turn hurled it back which then sparked the scuffle.
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Witnesses say a bin was thrown and a Wanderers fan was kicked in the head and had to be taken to Campbelltown Hospital. Police said a six-year-old boy was also hurt by a rock in the melee which took place in front of 2300 fans.
On a Western Sydney fan forum, supporters said they had planned to attend the pre-season match to "politely let [Sydney FC fans] know that our time has begun".
But today RBB fans were distancing themselves from the violence saying they did not condone it and the incident had undone much of the good work they had achieved in drumming up support for the new club.
It is understood that four Sydney FC fans and one Western Sydney fan were spoken to by officers after the incident however a police spokeswoman said no one had been charged. Investigations are continuing.
Sydney FC chief Tony Pignata was outraged by the incident.
"I thought this sort of stuff had been eliminated long ago," Mr Pignata said.
"It's just not acceptable.
"We have mums and kids going to our games. We have to stamp this sort of behaviour out and stamp it out now.
"I can assure you the Sydney fan who injured the other fan will never be allowed to see another Sydney game and I would assume the Wanderers will do the same with their fans who caused the problems tonight."
The new Wanderers club is owned by Football Federation Australia, which is expected to investigate the incident.
A Wanderers spokesman said: "We're committed to working with Sydney FC to make sure the relationship is built on a healthy rivalry."
He said club boss Lyall Gorman would meet Mr Pignata today.
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Source: http://www.heraldsun.com.au
Man and child injured as soccer hooligans storm Sydney FC gameTHE mother of a six-year-old boy hit in the head with a rock during a brawl at a soccer match last night said it was one of the most "disgusting" things she has ever seen.
Six-year-old Maximillian got caught in the crossfire of a melee, which broke out at Sydney FC's friendly against Macarthur in Campbelltown after supporters claiming to follow Wanderers began chanting "RBB", a reference to Wanderers' fans group the Red and Black Bloc.
Soccer officials have vowed to root out and ban hooligans claiming to follow West Sydney Wanderers who sparked a fight at Sydney FC's first pre-season game of the season last night.
Wanderers executive chairman, Lyall Gorman, and Sydney FC chief executive Tony Pignata addressed the media today.
Mr Gorman said he had viewed a photo of seven of the suspected brawlers and they were not members or fans of either club.
"These are thugs in a sporting environment. They're there to cause grief and they achieved that,'' he said.
"Our job is to obliterate them from the game, and we will.''
When challenged on the ability to identify anyone as a fan, Mr Gorman said people who engaged in such behaviour could not be supporters of either team.
"I'm telling you, they're not fans of the game when they walk into our environment and behave like that,'' he said.
A man was also injured in the melee.
A flare was thrown towards the Sydney FC supporters, a handful of whom then began fighting with the alleged Wanderers followers. One was knocked out when witnesses said a bin was thrown.
Kylie Demain and her husband Paul were in the stand at Macarthur Stadium in Sydney's Campbelltown, waiting to watch their youngest son Max run onto the field for a half-time exhibition game.
When little Max failed to appear, Kylie and Paul frantically began looking for their child, before they saw him being carried away by his coach who was screaming "He’s been hit, he’s been hit".
"I looked at him, and he’s got this huge lump on his head," an angry Mrs Demain said.
A man was also injured in the brawl and taken to Campbelltown Hospital after having his head stomped on.
A devastated Max, who had been "excited for weeks" to play for the half-time entertainment, was treated by paramedics, before his disappointed parents took him home.
"He and his team have been so excited for weeks, that game was their very first big soccer game, and also the first proper big game me and my family have been to," Mrs Demain said.
"It is Max’s second season of soccer, and he is now so scared to play again."
As police continued investigating the brawl and identifying the culprits, Mrs Demain said she hopes those responsible never turn up to another game.
"I hope they do catch these idiots and ban them not for one season, but for life," she said.
"I have been to many NRL football games…I have never seen anything like this at any of those games."
Max today is at home recovering after his ordeal.
"He's okay, just upset that his big night turned out so badly," Mrs Demain said.
A furious Sydney FC CEO Tony Pignata witnessed the events and said those involved had been identified and would face bans from the A-League for the season.
"We think we know who was involved on both sides, and those guys had better think about getting Foxtel because it's the only way they're going to watch one of our games this season," he said.
"It's a disgrace, an absolute disgrace, the worst thing to see when both clubs are going about trying to attract supporters the right way.
"I will sit down with Lyall (Gorman, Wanderers executive chairman) tomorrow and make sure we deal with the people responsible in the toughest way."
A spokesman for Wanderers said Gorman would meet Pignata today to gather reports on the incident, and added: "We're committed to working with Sydney FC to make sure the relationship is built on a healthy rivalry."
“Last night was not about fans of the Wanderers or Sydney FC or indeed the A-League – they were thugs, simple as that,” Gorman said.
“They need obliterating from the game, our venues have to be safe for families and kids.”
Gorman said a range of penalties was available, including a five-year ban from A-League bans for those throwing flares to the possibility of a lifetime suspension.
A police investigation is underway with the possibility of criminal charges to follow, and both clubs will use the results of that to help identify the troublemakers.
“I’m sick and tired of thugs using our code to have some fun,” Pignata said. “It’s time to get them out of our game. We’ll get both sets of fan groups involved, there’s a lot of anger among them at what happened last night, they don’t want to see a repeat.”
Pignata said he had spoken to Kylie Demain, the mother of the boy hit by a rock during the disturbance, and offered to have his team accompany Sydney FC players onto the field at an A-League game in the coming season.
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Source :
Sydney FC lad viewWest sydney showed up to the match against macarthur. One of their lads stood in and around our end, we didn't attack him because 1 vs 20 is unfair. he then ripped a flare as a signal for his lads to come around from the other side of the stadium. I pulled a flare out that I had, lit it and hit him in the face with it. He ran off when that happened and our lads chased him, eventually running into west sydney, fight occured, good action, the security tried to stop us but they couldn't. Finally one of our lads knocked out one of their lads with a kick to the head (but it wasn't as he was on the ground, both were fighting on their feet). When that happened West Sydney started backing off and eventually ran off. All in all maybe 15 sydney lads and 10 West Sydney.
Today at 1:26 am by UFW Maltchickers
