'No place' for sexist, racist, homophobic abuse in Canberra's NPL says peak body, as Canberra Croatia FC is docked three-points

A group of spectators at Canberra Croatia FC's 2-1 win last Saturday yelled racist, homophobic and sexist remarks at Gungahlin United players and staff during the match.

Remarks such as "f****t c***ts" and "*b***hes" were heard during the round 18 fixture at Deakin Stadium.

Capital Football's independent tribunal found the club guilty of breaching supporter and spectator misconduct, not operating a safe environment and bringing the game into disrepute last weekend.

As a result the club lost three competition points (leading to a rescinding of their minor premiership trophy), were fined an undisclosed amount, and have had restrictions placed on spectators access at the ground.

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Capital Football chief executive Chris Gardiner said the nature of the abuse directed at Gungahlin was completely unacceptable.

"It was repeated and it wasn't stopped by vested officials. So in our view, it sends a signal to not just this club's spectators, but all spectators, that we are cracking down on this sort of behaviour," he said.

"If you come to our games, and you scream racist, misogynistic, homophobic, offensive things to players, other spectators, referees or coaching staff. You have no part in our game. You completely ruin the game.

"Clubs should be communicating regularly with their spectators and their supporters about what's expected, and if they don't follow the codes, sanctions will follow.

"I've communicated this with clubs that we've toughened the sanctions, and I'm determined to enforce them."

The spectators behaviour became worse after a penalty was awarded to Gungahlin in the 29^th minute for a handball.

Following its conversion, the referee addressed the group and asked for something to be done off-field by Croatia, but it continued.

Gardiner acknowledged it was challenging for club's vested officials to intervene in such matters, and said training and club culture would be key moving forward.

"It is challenging. I've run a club and it's very hard. You'll use volunteers, ordinary club supporters putting on a vest to try and control the behaviour of people," he said.

"What we've said to the clubs is that we will work with them to train vested officials and to work on how we together start affirming the better part of the game, and shaping culture that makes this kind of spectator behaviour unacceptable."

Croatia can appeal the tribunal's sanctions that were handed down late on Friday, but were choosing to focus on their round 19 fixture this weekend.

The Deakin incident is, however, not the first instance of spectator abuse this season in the NPL men's competition.

A community league O'Connor Knights player was de-registered by the club for sexually harassing a match official at an NPL game the club was not even playing in in July.

And a melee, believed to be triggered by a racial slur, followed an NPL match involving the Monaro Panthers and Gungahlin earlier this month that forced match officials to abandon the under 23s match that was due to follow.

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