Police say the behaviour at the Melbourne Derby was the worst hooliganism they had ever seen at any sporting event in Melbourne.
They have blasted the rogue soccer fans who caused tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage at Etihad Stadium on Saturday, endangering the 41,000 strong crowd.
About 170 seats were destroyed at the stadium during the Melbourne Victory-Melbourne Heart game. Ten flares were also lit during the game – nine inside the stadium, and another outside.
Victory and Heart have both joined police in condemning the attack, pledging to help identify the offenders and ban them.
Victoria Police Inspector Paul Ross said most incidents were caught on CCTV.
”We are certainly confident of apprehending those responsible,” he said. ”The CCTV footage we’ve got on the whole is pretty good.”
Ross said five people had been charged with lighting the flares but police were yet to charge anyone with damaging the seats.
He said about 120 chairs were destroyed in the Heart supporter area and 50 in the Victory supporter area.
Ross was honest and said the behaviour last weekend was not the behaviour of the majority of fans.
”The troublesome minority behaves a lot worse than what they would at say an AFL game,” he said. ”But I just reiterate that it’s a very small minority [who misbehave] out of the 41,000 people who were present. We are only really talking about a couple of dozen.”
Both teams have been assisting Police and the FFA says those charged will be hit with five year bands.
Ten fans were ejected at the game, while police are still looking for more fans involved.
Source: The Age.