(Remy Davies is a Melbourne Victory fan and BPL A-League contributor.)

'SOCCER FANS THE WORST' read the big bold words on the front page of Friday's Herald Sun. For the rest of the day, besides enjoying the notoriety and a fear I knew I would induce in any common member of the general public I came across ("Yes, I follow soccer! Watch out I'm dangerous!"), I wondered what recent incident had provoked the comment by Victorian Police Superintendent Rod Wilson that soccer fans were the worst behaved of any code.

The Murdoch tabloids do have a long history of beating up football disorder stories both here and abroad. From their disgusting disparaging of Liverpool fans after the Hillsborough disaster, through to the NSL days of ethnic wars at the football, to their coverage of 'football hooliganism' in the A-League, such as the comedic sounding dispute a couple years back which ended with a Melbourne fan throwing a computer through a pub window. 

So, given my distrust of the Herald Sun's quality of journalism, when I read Rod Wilson's comments, I thought naturally they were offhand remarks taken out of context. Yet in an interview on SEN radio, Supt Wilson backed up his comments that elements of Melbourne Victory's fanbase were dangerous, that flares were especially dangerous, that active support's chanting was racist and could incite violence and that the police's heavy-handed tactics were needed. 

Now the football fan can be forgiven for being just a little bit suspicious about the timing of these criticisms. The recent success of the Ultimate Football Forum discussion last Wednesday night at the Melbourne Town Hall where fans were finally able to express their concerns regarding security and fan treatment to the movers and shakers of the league renewed an optimism in the football community. 

Melbourne Victory FC, agreeing that the treatment of fans had to change, had booked in a meeting with the Victorian Police for this Monday. But now a spanner has been thrown in the works as all the kerfuffle brought about by the Herald Sun article threatens to derail any progress being made between fans and clubs, especially if the FFA fall into the trap of caring about the A-League's public image among the wider non-football community moreso than the actual A-League fan experience for those already part of the football community. 

Having a debate about whether or not soccer fans are more violent than AFL, rugby, cricket, or tennis fans does not solve any issue fans or the police may have at matches - nor is it a viable argument without the proof of studies and research comparing incidents at each code.

Personally (and I do understand that each person's experience is different), I have witnessed more violence, more profanity, and more racism at an Aussie Rules match. The most unsafe I've ever felt was at semi-professional Aussie Rules match when a massive on-field brawl between players exploded into the stands between fans, where I witnessed a grown adult physically assault a 15-year-old boy.

The only racism I've ever heard at a Victory match was directed tongue-in-cheek at New Zealanders, while I'm frequently disgusted by the racist jokes and insults made at indigenous players when I attend an AFL match at the MCG. This is just my own experience as a fan, just like Rod Wilson only referenced his own experience as an officer at an AFL grand final and at a regular A-League match. 

Now, of course, trouble can occur at an A-League match and flares can be dangerous (which is why they're banned everywhere around the world), and I fully support the presence of the police and security, but they need to try harder to understand the culture of football fans. The clapping, the banners, the chanting, the jumping and the intimidating atmosphere is not a precursor to football hooliganism but a vital element of the game.

Victoria Police have already said that they will look to Europe to find out how they can improve their methods (and I'm sure in their minds they're imagining more riot vans, police in full body armour, water cannons, etc), and what they will find is that European police and security use a much lighter hand with fans when they are in the stadiums. 

Experts in football control encourage the use of 'soft power'. It's been two decades since the football terraces have been eradicated and replaced with all-seater stadiums. And while most of the elimination of inside-stadium crowd trouble can be put down to this move, extensive research into the psychology of football crowds and into methods to reduce confrontations between fans and authorities is also largely to be thanked. 

A rudimentary understanding of the 'group mentality' held by football supporters is necessary. A key difference between soccer fans, especially those at the home ends of the grounds, and fans of other codes is their strong sense of camaraderie. The fans chant together and are (usually) perfectly in sync. When they raise their hands to clap, each fans movement is so precise and similar it has astounded researchers. 

The police/security must also not engage in displaying a show of power or encourage an 'us vs them' attitude among the fans. Researchers have found that football supporters feel more compelled to act against authorities when they feel hemmed in and treated like football hooligans. Put simply, if you treat them like animals they will behave like animals. 

All this seems like commonsense and hopefully the authorities do look overseas for inspiration and try to improve their methods of crowd control.

From my own experience in Melbourne's North Terrace, I remember witnessing a young skinny wiry boy with glasses, maybe 16 - someone who looked more at home playing Dungeons and Dragons or World of Warcraft - getting irate and angry at police officers roughly dragging out another teenager suspected of lighting a flare.

This kid wasn't a hooligan, he looked like he had never been in a fight in his life and he didn't seem to be the naturally aggressive type. Yet he felt an injustice was being done due to his belief that the police had got the wrong person. And apparently this kid and his kind have caused some police officers to request shifts patrolling the mean streets of Melbourne, full of its apparent booze-induced violence, rather than a crowd of football fans.