Court condemns soccer fans’ Nazi salutes at 2022 Australia Cup final

Three men were convicted and fined $500 for ‘deliberately and intentionally’ performing the salute

Three Croatian men have been convicted and fined after separately making Nazi salutes during the 2022 Australia Cup soccer final.

Nikola Marko Gasparovic, 46, Dominik Sieben, 25, and Marijan Lisica, 45, performed the salute at Parramatta’s CommBank Stadium on October 1 2022, during the match between Sydney United 58 and Macarthur FC.

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Police arrest three A-League men’s players from Sydney club over alleged betting corruption

NSW police allege a senior player was arranging ‘for yellow cards to occur during certain games’ in late 2023

Three A-League men’s players have been arrested in Sydney after an international investigation uncovered an alleged betting corruption scandal.

New South Wales police on Friday said they had arrested the three footballers following an investigation by the organised crime squad which began in December and was assisted by the UK gambling commission.

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Melbourne Victory and Wellington Phoenix grind out draw in A-League Men semi-final

  • Victory and Phoenix locked on 0-0 after first leg at AAMI Park
  • Hosts had 20 shots to the Nix’s six but could not break deadlock

Melbourne Victory and Wellington Phoenix have it all to play for after a cagey 0-0 draw in the first leg of their A-League Men semi-final at AAMI Park. In a clash of two styles, the Victory were allowed to control the tempo and territory for much of the contest but were unable to create enough clear-cut chances to unlock a determined Phoenix defence on Sunday.

The hosts were the more positive throughout with 20 to six attempts, and five shots on target, while the Nix were content to sit back and play on the counter without managing a single shot on goal. The Victory pushed hard in the dying stages to find a goal to take to Sky Stadium as the Phoenix all but settled for a stalemate from halfway through the second half, with the return leg to be played in New Zealand on Saturday 18 May.

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Central Coast Mariners star Angel Torres charged with sexual assault and stood down from A-League

Football Australia imposes interim suspension after Torres arrested over alleged incident in March

The Central Coast Mariners’ star striker Angel Torres has been stood down from playing in the A-League Men after he was charged with sexual assault.

Torres, 24, was arrested at a property in Terrigal on Monday in relation to an alleged sexual assault of a woman on 24 March.

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Ads for gambling company forced to leave Australia digitally imposed on overseas A-Leagues broadcasts

Digital ads for 8XBet inserted into matches played by clubs that rejected money from gambling companies

An offshore gambling company that breached Australian law and was forced to withdraw from the country has paid the national football league to promote it overseas.

The Australian Professional Leagues has digitally imposed ads for the gambling company, 8XBet, on to international broadcasts of A-Leagues matches. The company’s logo can be seen in 10 locations simultaneously during some games.

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Socceroos goalkeeper Joe Gauci joins Aston Villa in record-breaking Australian transfer deal

  • Keeper leaves Adelaide United for record fee for A-League player
  • 23-year-old to be understudy to Argentina’s Emiliano Martinez

Australian goalkeeper Joe Gauci has sealed a dream move to Aston Villa, amid a rush of transfer activity in the Socceroos’ Asian Cup camp.

The Premier League side have reportedly broken the transfer fee record for an A-League Men player heading overseas to secure Adelaide United’s Gauci on a deal until 2028.

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Police charge 32 people over Melbourne A-League pitch invasion and search for 11 more

One man believed to have been involved in the clash left Australia shortly after the match, Victoria police say

The number of people charged after an A-League pitch invasion has grown to 32 and police are searching for 11 others they believe to be responsible for serious offences.

About 150 spectators stormed the AAMI Park derby between Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City earlier in December, injuring the goalkeeper Tom Glover, referee Alex King, a TV cameraman and two security guards.

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Football Australia issues lifetime bans to Melbourne Victory fans after pitch invasion

Two Melbourne Victory fans involved in the AAMI Park pitch invasion that resulted in Melbourne City goalkeeper Thomas Glover being injured have received life bans from Football Australia.

Saturday night’s violence forced the abandonment of the A-League Men derby.

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Wong urged to raise human rights concerns on Beijing trip – as it happened

This blog is now closed

It’s officially a week before Christmas, which means the forecasters at the Bureau of Meteorology are fairly confident they can tell us what whether we can set up for an al fresco Christmas lunch or not.

For some parts of the country, there is a chance of showers:

Particularly in the south, we can get some volatile weather but all the patterns really starting to change as we move into later part of this week.

So we’ll see a weather system move through southern parts of the country, Thursday and Friday. Then a big high-pressure system behind it will quickly move into the Tasman Sea and then kind of sit there over the Christmas weekend into early the following week and normally that drives a lot of warm weather across much of southern parts of the country and our guidance is showing a similar pattern with that as well.

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Three men charged over mass pitch invasion at A-League Men Melbourne derby

Melbourne Victory could be hit with heavy sanctions for the behaviour of their fans

Victoria Police have charged three men in relation to the mass pitch invasion at the A-League Men Melbourne derby on Saturday.

All three of the men, aged 23, 19 and 18, presented at police stations on Monday, Victoria Police said in a statement.

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Police vow to prosecute A-League pitch invaders as FA pledges to ‘weed’ them out of game

Victoria police is reviewing footage of the pitch invasion during Saturday’s A-League Men’s Melbourne derby and has vowed officers will be “knocking on doors very soon”.

Three alleged assaults are under investigation – to City’s goalkeeper, Thomas Glover, a referee and a Channel Ten camera operator.

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Victoria police to prosecute pitch invaders; more contaminated spinach cases in Queensland – as it happened

Sport governing body says ‘such behaviour has no place in Australian football’. This blog is now closed

‘We will look at the facts’

James Johnson is asked whether Melbourne Victory has any outstanding sanctions for past incidents. He says he is not aware of any but past events may be considered as an “aggravating factor” as an investigation into the incident unfolds:

There is no other suspended disciplinary action that I’m aware of, but what I will say is that we will be working through that today. We have already started working on the show cause process as of late last night, and we will be moving forward as quickly and swiftly as possible to finalise it, because it is important we get ahead of this issue as a sport.

What I can say is that we will look at the facts, we’ll look at it objectively and we will take a decision that we believe is in the overall best interest of the game but I prefer not to comment on the specifics of the outcome because we have to go through that process first.

What happened during the game last night and what happens with the result;

A “show cause letter” to Melbourne Victory;

An attempt to identify individuals involved in the pitch invasion.

This is an element that … infiltrates our game and tries to ruin it for the people who love us was in. We’ll be looking to weed out those people from the sport.

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‘Our game is in tatters’: Australian football reacts with shock to Melbourne derby violence

Australian football has reacted with a mixture of shock, anger, sadness and disbelief to the chaotic and violent scenes that resulted in the abandonment of the A-League men’s Melbourne derby on Saturday night.

City’s goalkeeper, Thomas Glover, was left bloodied after he was hit by a metal bucket allegedly thrown by a Victory fan as supporters stormed the pitch midway through the first half of the match at Aami Park.

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Western United confident of fightback in A-League Men semi-final

  • Melbourne Victory take slender 1-0 advantage into second leg
  • Jake Brimmer’s strike at AAMI Park the difference on Tuesday

Melbourne Victory have one foot in their first A-League Men grand final in four years, but Western United remain confident of turning around a 1-0 first-leg deficit. Jake Brimmer’s strike gave Victory a one-goal lead on Tuesday, with the Saturday’s semi-final second leg also at AAMI Park.

“To be honest, we’re well and truly in this tie. This is the first-half, we’re 1-0 down,” United coach John Aloisi said. “We’re back here. We don’t have to go away, we don’t have to play away from home. We’re back here so pleased with the performance.

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Beautiful chaos reigns as A-League basket cases deliver box office show

On paper it was eighth plays ninth, both teams flawed and prone to imploding. But the Mariners and Jets’ rivalry is exactly what the ALM needs

To ape Bill Hader’s famous Saturday Night Live character Stefon, the A-League Men’s hottest rivalry is the F3 Derby. Located on a sodden field in Newcastle, the latest edition of this regional rivalry had everything. Twists and turns, emotions bubbling over, VAR disallowing goals, dramatic comebacksand Matt Simon almost coming to blows with a red-carded Daniel Penha.

After serving as the unexpected highlight of ALM’s opening round of the 2021-22 season, overshadowing the greater ballyhooed Sydney Derby, punters were incredulous they were forced to wait 153 days for Saturday evening’s rematch between the Central Coast Mariners and Newcastle Jets, a fixture ready to resume its place amongst the pantheon of box office ALM fixtures.

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Perth Glory CEO admits Daniel Sturridge move has failed

  • ‘We had high hopes… It hasn’t worked,’ says Tony Pignata
  • Striker unlikely to be offered new contract at end of season

Perth Glory’s gamble on Daniel Sturridge has been labelled a failure by chief executive Tony Pignata, who admits it is unlikely the English striker will be offered a new deal with the A-League Men club.

Sturridge, a former Liverpool forward with 26 England caps, was the highest-profile signing heading into the 2021-22 ALM season but has featured for just 93 minutes across five substitute appearances – failing to find the net.

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Uruguayan Bruno Fornaroli set for shock Socceroos call-up for World Cup qualifiers

  • Striker, 34, expected to be named in extended Australia squad
  • Must-win games coming up against Japan and Saudi Arabia

Perth Glory coach Richard Garcia predicts Bruno Fornaroli will become an asset for the Socceroos, with the Uruguayan set for a call-up for Australia’s crucial World Cup qualifiers. Fornaroli played for Uruguay’s under-17 youth team in 2003, but a change in the Fifa eligibility rules in 2020 means the 34-year-old is now eligible to represent the Socceroos.

Football Australia on Tuesday refused to confirm the star striker’s inclusion, but he is expected to be named on Wednesday morning in Graham Arnold’s extended squad for the crunch matches against Japan and Saudi Arabia this month.

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