Western Sydney Wanderers FC 0—2 Central Coast Mariners FC
Allianz Stadium, Sydney: att. 42,102.
21st of April 2013, Grand Final.
I know I’ve posted and reposted this about a billion times on this Tumblr, but one more time won’t hurt ;)
So hawt. This is how you use flares.
Zomg, moar flares at Soundwave. Wait, no, it’s just Metallica…
#Soundwave #Metallica #sw13 #metal #flares #pyro
Melbourne Heart FC 1—2 Melbourne Victory FC
AAMI Park, Melbourne: att. 26,457.
22nd of December 2012, round 12.
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Wow. Show people this photo and I don’t think they’d believe that it’s from Melbourne, Australia…
Illegal, or legal. The issue is flares in a crowded space. Maybe google images of the burns a simple flare can cause. Or the effect the smoke can have on asthmatics. Lighting flares isn't an act of passion, it's an act of stupidity and nothing more. The bullshit media hype it causes deters potential new fans from attending the sport. So how does lighting flares show you support your team?
AnonymousI’m aware the damage flares can cause. But so can many other things fans do. Jumping in the terraces, falling over seats and over each other, and a whole bunch of other things.
My argument is that there is a certain *hysteria* about flares which is completely disproportionate to the potential “danger” that it poses. That disproportionality is what makes me angry. It’s just hypocrisy.
Who is anyone to say that lighting flares isn’t an act of passion? The simple fact is that it IS an act of passion for thousands of people around the world.
In some contexts it is stupid. I’m not arguing everyone should love flares, or that flares are a great thing in all contexts. I have never lit a flare, and don’t particularly plan on doing so - even if I aesthetically highly appreciate them in a visual sense.
Well, how does jumping show you support your team? How does waving or cheering support your team? None of them are inherently showing or not showing support for your team, but culturally, they have come to be signifiers that you support your team. In some cultures and some contexts, lighting flares is one of several methods of showing you support your team.
All I’m saying is simple - flares shouldn’t be as much of an issue as they are in football. I can see legitimate reasons why some people dislike them. But I cannot see legitimate reasons why there is systematic hysteria kicked up about them, which is different from legitimate dislike of pyro.
positivejunk said: In the context of the NT, it’s a tricky subject for OTB. The club could revoke rights etc. because of them, however it’s a part of the culture. Those pro-pyro, it seems, have found a middle ground, outside the stadium for example.
You have a point there. I guess that raises the point about whether flares should be illegal in the first place. I would prefer them to be legalised.
But I suspect you and I have always come from the same point of view on these things. What I was getting at in my post is when the mainstream media attacks football, we should attack them back and not accept an inch of the argument in responding to them. Debating amongst ourselves, it’s fine to talk about the merits of pyro or no pyro - but I don’t like it when people push the blame onto fellow football fans, when Channel 9 and the media is the true axis of evil, not those who light flares.
If that makes any sense.
By the way there is nothing inherently wrong with a “crime”. What’s criminal is socially defined.
But attaching caveats to “passion is not a crime” along the lines of “BUT FLARES ARE BAD AND ILLEGAL AND HOOLIGANS ARE TERRIBLE”, means you’ve conceded the whole argument already.
Once you concede flares are “the issue”, you’ve lost the argument.
