On Tuesday, Football NSW handed down possibly the toughest sanctions on a club in years.
Football NSW statement regarding Western Sydney Wanderers FC
“After an extensive investigation into those incidents, Football NSW laid a number of charges against WSW for alleged breaches of the 2024 Football NSW Grievance and Disciplinary Regulations (Regulations).”
The breaches in question relate to the Wanderers away game to Sydney United on May 5th and home game against Sydney Olympic.
Our understanding is that the RBB were kicked out of Edensor park and threw flares over the fence onto the hill.
The other incident that they’re referring to is where flares and fireworks were set off en masse in a grand spectacle, which we covered here: https://thecleansheet.net/fnsw-continues-freeze-of-wanderers-fans/
Wanderers pleaded guilty to the charges and accepted the following sacntions:
- $33,500 in fines payable to Football NSW;
- A loss of 6 Premiership Points in the 2024 season;
- An additional loss of 6 Premiership Points (suspended for the remainder of the 2024 season and for the entirety of the 2025 and 2026 seasons);
- All remaining WSW NPL NSW home fixtures are to be played under ‘Restricted Entry’ conditions and are to be played during daylight hours; and
- WSW attendance at all remaining NPL NSW away fixtures is to be limited to WSW nominated officials, parents/family members of players (maximum of two per player), committee members and club guests.
The fine is probably the least harsh of these sanctions, WSW will just have to sell a few extra memberships to cover it and they’re golden. In reality though it’s a tough hit to the club as it’s being announced that A-Leagues clubs will only be receiving $500k from the TV deal this season, this fine taking up 6.7% of that money.
6 premiership point deduction has thrown WSW into the mid table now, with Wollongong Wolves & St George City both overtaking them, with finals footballing now in doubt, particularly with the usual post May drop in form when academy players come off contract.
With the threat of a further 6 point deduction hanging over the clubs head for a further 2 and a half seasons, we are keen to see the position they take on supporter entry over those years.
Restricted entry home matches for the club with games needing to be played in daylight hours is certainly a unique sanction, although perhaps the players of the visiting team may appreciate getting an early night. And finally the continuation of no spectators aside from club officials, guests, committee members and a max of 2 family members per player (yet they’ll still average higher attendance than half the other NPL sides).
We can compare these sanctions to those handed out to Sydney United and Rockdale Ilinden in 2021: https://mens.nplnsw.com.au/2021/08/11/update-rockdale-ilinden-fc-v-sydney-united-58-fc-incident/
For the “post match riot” (FNSW words, not ours), both clubs received $11,500 fines and a further $9,000 suspended for the following season. The clubs were also stripped of 6 points each and a further 6 suspended for the 2022 season if found guilty of specific offences. Finally any matches between the two sides would have to be played behind closed doors for the rest of 2021 and 2022 seasons.
In 2022, the Wanderers were handed a $6,500 fine and a 6 point deduction (3 suspended), again for flares and fireworks. Perhaps this was taken into account by FNSW for the latest breaches.
If we go back 19 years, we have the incidents between Sydney United and Bonnyrigg: https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/sydney-united-get-boot-and-bonnyrigg-on-outer-in-tough-response-to-club-thugs-20050505-gdl9di.html which also included a full 51 page report https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/tp/files/59175/Independent%20Soccer%20Inquiry%20Rpt.pdf as well as the State Government making comments.
If we take away a positive, at least supporters of Wanderers and their opposition have certainty on whether or not they are allowed to attend matches at least for the rest of this season.
Perhaps it’s also time to update the $50k, 3 point deduction meme, although $33,500, 6 point deduction doesn’t quit have the same ring to it.