Yes, all Glover’s fault. Can’t believe he lit flares and threw them into the crowd to instigate a pitch invasion and be on the end of an assault himself. What was he thinking?
I’m tipping those fans won’t need to worry about where the grand final will be played for a quite a while.
That’s if there is still going to be an A-League in 2-3 years time.
Shocking scenes.
Following shocking scenes during the first half of the of the A-League Men’s match between Melbourne Victory FC and Melbourne City FC at AAMI Park on Saturday 17 December, where fans from the Melbourne Victory FC end entered the field of play, Football Australia match officials have abandoned the match in accordance with Law 5.3 of the Laws of the Game in order to protect the integrity of the match.
Such behaviour has no place in Australian Football, with a full Football Australia investigation to commence immediately, where strong sanctions will be handed down.
Is is why soccer will never be number 1 in Australia. Disgraceful and disgusting behaviour from so called fans of Australian soccer…
This caps off a week from hell for the A-League.
Any chance of a halo effect from the Socceroos performance in the World Cup was already squandered with the terrible decision to hold the final in Sydney for the next few years against the wishes of virtually all supporters. With these events tonight and the appalling behaviour of that particular set of Victory fans, I fear the domestic game may end up going back to the dark days of the '90s and early '00s when the NSL was in decline.
These sort of chaotic scenes help cement the impression that the fans of football are largely restricted to young males. Th A-League isn’t the sort of sporting event that is female or family friendly. You can even see this in the demographics of who is watching the World Cup. The game can’t grow without a broader fan base and this will set it back years.
Selling the broadcast rights to 10 was also a failure for the sport
2 decades of positive goodwill to the professional viability of this sport in this country wiped in one week. As bad, if not worse than the NSL days.
With the somewhat success of the Socceroos at the World Cup just two weeks ago, and the World Cup Final around 24 hours away, this should have been the perfect opportunity to pump up the A League. Promote the living crap of our comp. Welcome back our Socceroos stars. Etc.
Instead, the Board decided to not promote our game, and thus announce a three year deal to host Grand Finals in Sydney. Last nights actions unfortunately didnt help. Although i agree with the fans walk out, i dont agree in what they did on the field. This set back is a huge turn down. And cant be fixed for years!
Remarkable fuckwittery from the Victory fans.
Croatia defeated Morocco 2-1 in the World Cup third place playoff overnight, with all three goals scored in the first half.
Melbourne Victory statement
Tonight, Melbourne Victory Football Club is devastated. The Club unequivocally condemns the actions of fans at Saturday night’s match against Melbourne City at AAMI Park.
The actions that occurred, that saw spectators enter the pitch and injure a Melbourne City FC player, an official and a Network Ten cameraman, are not acceptable under any circumstance and have no place in football. The security and welfare of everyone involved in a football match is paramount and the Club will not accept this behaviour.
The Club would like to formally apologise to Tom Glover, match official, Alex King and the camera operator as well as all players, officials and those who witnessed the appalling behaviour.
This conduct will not be tolerated and the Club, along with AAMI Park and Victoria Police, will undertake a full investigation into the incident.
Melbourne Victory would like to reiterate there is no place in football for what was witnessed tonight.
Melbourne City statement
Following last night’s pitch invasion during the Melbourne Derby, we can provide the following update on the condition of Tom Glover after receiving the formal medical report this morning.
Tom suffered a concussion and severe lacerations to the face.
He was taken to the Epworth Hospital for further checks and was cleared of any further trauma, returning home in the early hours of this morning.
He’ll stay home today and will then be managed by the club in his return to training based on concussion protocols.
Media conference starts soon.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Melbourne Victory are actually kicked out of the comp. This isn’t the first time that Melbourne Victory fans have been involved in throwing items at players.
I think it’s more likely that the next Victory v City match will be played behind closed doors, and/or that particular group of Victory fans will be banned from attending all A-League matches for the rest of the season.
The media conference said that today’s Melbourne Victory W-League game against Newcastle is proceeding.
That’s a good idea - or they should take it to a regional venue like Ballarat, that might deter some fans from coming and give regional fans the chance to watch A-League games.
A-League Womens
If security is as lax as it is at AAMI Park, it won’t.