Western Sydney Wanderers were “found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute” by Football Federation Australia.
The FFA announced the Wanderers were fined $50,000 and imposed a suspended three (3) competition point deduction after finding the club guilty of bringing the game into disrepute following the misconduct of some of its supporters last Saturday.
The Wanderers accepted the punishment from the FFA.
Wanderers CEO John Tsatsimas speaking to the media after the FFA handed down its verdict:
“We have always been consistent in our stance on anti-social behaviour and use of flares – that is one of zero tolerance,” said Wanderers CEO John Tsatsimas.
“We have 18,000 members who represent our club and our region in a fantastic manner who are being tarnished by the few selfish and narcissistic individuals who are tearing down all our community has created as a Club.
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An FFA statement said the Wanderers fans “took part in a pre-meditated and coordinated series of incidents including the ignition of flares and detonators and the display of unauthorised banners.”
The FFA said if they find any future “serious incident” occurs, the club must lose three points “immediately”.
“This will apply to incidents that occur in or around any matches the club participates in and will be in place for a period of 12 months, through to February 6 2017,’’ the statement said.
Mr Tsatsimas said fan behaviour wasn’t just a Wanderers issue.
“This issue is not isolated to our Club and requires a whole of game response to not just reduce, but eliminate the incidence of flares and anti-social behaviour inside and outside our football matches,’’ he said.
FFA has also announced it will be formulating a National Flare Management Policy, which will be part of the Fan Banning Process review to be considered by the FFA Board next week.
