Respected football personality Mark Bosnich has suggested authorities are biased toward A-League fans after the latest controversy in the competition's semi-final in Sydney on Sunday evening.
The 47-year-old made the comments on Fox's Bill and Boz program on Monday night in the wake of Sydney FC fan Rory Carroll being evicted from Netstrata Jubilee Stadium after he allegedly wasn't allowed to take his daughter to a disabled toilet in another section of the venue.
Bosnich believes there is prejudice from authorities against football supporters, and cited the visible over-policing in the video posted of Carroll's removal from the stadium.
"I've been back here for 10 years now and I've heard a lot of stories of people talking about the bias against football," Bosnich said.
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"I was always a little bit skeptical but after 10 years and looking at all the evidence, I think that there is a general bias toward football from the authorities.
"We've got a federation, the FFA, who got a policy the NCIP [National Club Identity Policy] that is at worst racist, at best it's discriminatory.
"When you have your own board that has that type of policy, the fact it filters out to other authorities, that you're supposed to be working in conjunction with to control football games and make sure everyone has a good time, is not good at all.
"The amount of police that were brought over in the end, for me personally, for somebody who is 70kg, which Rory Carroll is so I've been told with three young kids, you really don't need 10 police to sort this out."
The Sky Blues' regular season matches at the Kogarah venue are run by the club themselves, but all finals matches are organised and conducted by the FFA.
Bosnich pointed out there had been no previous issues at the stadium when Sydney FC had been in charge, hinting that the governing body had to lift their game during the finals series.
"Sydney FC have no problem [hosting games at Jubilee]. I think they have had eight games at the venue," he said.
"These [finals] game are handled specifically by the FFA. They take all the money from the games so hence they should have the responsibility.
"Because they haven't had experience in running games at this venue, basically certain sections were open they should have been closed and vice-versa."
The former Manchester United shot-stopper believes it's time for supporters and authorities to come together to discuss crowd behaviour and policing at sporting contests: "I really think it has come for a time for a meeting between the police force and fans to agree a general guideline to what is and what is not acceptable at public events."
