Fans and flairs- what’s the difference?

MELBOURNE- On Saturday 13 February, a soccer match was played between reigning champions Melbourne Victory and their biggest rivals Melbourne City. During the game, flairs were let off by Victory cheer squad.

The flairs are dangerous to all spectators, referees, players and other match officials. If you get in contact with flair you could get server burns, as well as the smoke itself could cause breathing problems

Just the week earlier, the Western Sydney Wanderers fans were letting off flairs with some fans getting injured, 15 people were arrested, 10 were intoxicated and 3 were not being responsible. This behaviour

can be seen by most A-League cheer squads.

The Melbourne Victory club has been threatened with a $50,000 and 3 points taken off their score on the ladder. The club chairman Anthony Di Pietro said that he was appalled with the fans behaviour and wanted it to stop.

Luke Brenan, the referee’s manager of the Football Federation Victoria, has stated that “the FFA has worked with clubs and supporter groups to ban flairs from entering the stadium. If clubs cannot control spectators brining flairs into stadiums there will be major punishments.” Flairs create a great deal of damage to the image of the game.

“Media outlets quickly cover these stories in a negative way which damages the public view of football,” stated Luke Brenan.

Education is the key to stopping people from bringing flairs to football matches. Flairs have no place in our stadiums. It is not only about the players and spectators. There are safety issues for referees, Luke Brenan states, “thank fully no referee has been hit by a flair. Bottles have been thrown without injuring

any referee. The people who threw the bottles were banned for five years”

Flairs are dangerous and can cause server problems to the human body. So for the safety of football supporters should not bring them in.