January 17 – Football Australia has issued a ‘show cause notice’ to A-League club Melbourne Victory following homophobic chanting by supporters in a match against Adelaide United on January 13.
The chanting was aimed at Josh Cavallo (pictured) who last October become one of the world’s first active male professional footballers to publicly come out as gay, saying “he couldn’t be happier with his decision”.
The midfielder made the announcement saying he wanted to create a safe space for other players to come forward.
Clearly Melbourne Victory isn’t such a safe place, prompting the action by Football Australia. A show cause notice is a formal document given to a party in a dispute, outlining the details of the alleged offence and gives the receiving party an opportunity to explain themselves.
Melbourne Victory have until tomorrow (Tuesday January 18) to respond.
Football Australia CEO James Johnson said: “Football Australia has today issued Melbourne Victory with a Show Cause Notice after receiving detailed information from Adelaide United player, Josh Cavallo and others that relates to some Melbourne Victory supporters taking part in actions that fall well short of the safe, positive and inclusive values modelled by our sport…
:I want to applaud Josh for his courage in calling out this behaviour. I also welcome the strong responses from Melbourne Victory, Adelaide United, the Australian Professional Leagues, and the broader football community towards this incident,” he continued.
“Football Australia is committed to ensuring we provide an inclusive environment for all involved, whether on or off the field. These instances emphasise that as the most multicultural, diverse and inclusive sport in Australia, we must continue to do more to harness the power of football to promote social cohesion and inclusivity.”
The club and the governing bodies said they are seeking to identify the individuals and intend impose bans on them attending football matches anywhere in Australia.
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