THE Western Sydney Wanderers have enjoyed a rapid rise to the top of Australian sport with a team that can outperform just about any other in the A-League. The side's support base boasts numbers that are so phenomenal they are the envy of all professional footy clubs.
Yes, after just two years, the Wanderers are a fairytale, the darling of the FFA and certain elements of the Sydney media.
Testament to the fact that this is a very, very valuable brand is that the FFA plans to sell the club for nearly $15 million to a private consortium.
So what is it about this that makes my skin crawl? Why do I feel extremely uncomfortable when I see the so-called RBB (Red and Black Bloc) in full voice at an A-League game, replete with a lot more than happy ditties and bonhomie?
Certain fans who boast that they are RBB members hide their faces behind masks, rip hundreds of seats out of the stands so they can stand where they choose and smuggle flares into grounds despite a security presence that far outweighs most football games in Australia.
Authorities desperately grappling with the increasing menace of a core group of fans have no answer to the trouble.
They are generally dumbfounded when it comes to sourcing the culprits, reluctant to ban anyone who dares to drag a row of nailed-down seats out of the concrete.
In England, police have adopted a zero tolerance approach, insisting everyone sits in their own numbered seats.
That way, the culprits are far more easily identified and thrown out. There has been very little hint of trouble at any EPL game for years because the fans know they will cop a life ban if they behave badly.
Last weekend in Melbourne, the RBB and Victory fans engaged in a brawl away from the ground, in the middle of the city, that was menacing, ugly and violent. The Wanderers claim the Victory mob had revenge on their minds after a similar riot in Sydney when the two teams last clashed.
Two men, from the RBB, have been charged, one with causing serious injury and another with using a missile during the affray. They have been issued with bans of five years from any A-League games, instead of being handed life.
Both clubs have been charged with bringing the game into disrepute and threatened with the loss of competition points. But authorities are still no closer to guaranteeing a majority of the crowd who come to watch the game will be safe.
Five flares, firecrackers and a surging mass of ugliness from within the RBB caused mayhem at Melbourne's AAMI Stadium last Saturday night.
It might only be a "small minority", as I'm so sick of hearing, but they manage to create a violent atmosphere and continue to ride roughshod over police and security.
This is a natural outcome for a code hell bent on protecting its reputation, on pumping up the tyres of the RBB and their "wonderful" fan group that the bad element was allowed to thrive without boundaries.
At the club's derby against Sydney FC at Allianz Stadium in October, the SCG Trust was so deeply disturbed by a string of incidents that they received briefings from the highest echelons of the NSW Police force.
Hundreds of chairs were ripped out, flares and missiles were smuggled in and let off and the innocents caught in the middle of it were shocked that this could happen in Australia.
The defence puts out the statistic dozens are evicted from a Test cricket match or a big AFL game. They are generally charged with drunken behaviour and spend the night in the lockup. This, Wanderers fans say, is akin to their own bad element. But they forget that those arrested are rarely violent, and, if they try anything on, they are kicked out rapidly.
These fans are not part of a gang culture. They do not attend post-match "celebrations" with the intent of accosting rival fans, and they do not go for a quiet drink with missiles in their pockets.
The private consortium set to purchase the Wanderers has a golden opportunity to shrug off the criminal element in their club.
It can issue life bans, make every single fan sit in a numbered seat and bolster gate checks to ensure the weapons are not smuggled into the grounds.
The RBB might be the mascot for the A-League in the minds of those who have bought the public relations hype but until very bad people are meted out of the core group, the Wanderers have no right to call themselves a role model for anyone.