LAST night I sat in the Maracana among an explosion of colour, noise and nationalities for the Argentina/Bosnia game.

In front of me were two Englishmen — to their left, two Aussies of Greek extraction wearing Argentina jerseys. Behind me were Brazilians, to my right, a pair of Frenchmen sporting “Les Bleus” jerseys, but brandishing an Algerian flag.

At various stages last night, we encountered Mexicans, Dutchmen, Colombians, Croatians, Chileans, and a whole host of locals clad in their favourite club shirts.

The atmosphere was incredible, as the Brazilians and Argentines in particular gave it to each other, via a series of songs and chants clearly designed to gain one-upmanship in the South American battle for supremacy.

At one stage, the whole ground appeared to be in unison, singing for — or against — the Argentines. It was football fandom in its purest form, and there wasn’t a hint of malice.

The World Cup of course, is a special tournament. But last night’s experience only magnifies the incredulity at reading the news from back in Australia.

In case you are unaware, the FFA has opted to incorporate new rules for “active fans” in the A-League.

The new rules will make the active zones members only. The governing body believes this will “protect” the atmosphere created at A-League grounds around Australia.

On the contrary, in my opinion, it seeks to control such areas, and is a sop to security, who still — by and large — don’t quite understand the concept of football fandom, of the sort that I witnessed at the Maracana.

Furthermore, it is a response to a media still in thrall to the other codes.

Let’s make one thing clear. No-one condones poor behaviour, and at times we have had to endure the adolescent stupidity and lawlessness of some A-League fans hell-bent on causing trouble, or letting off flares inside stadiums.

Specifically, a small minority of supporters from Melbourne Victory and Western Sydney Wanderers dragged the game through the mud last season, with the horrible scenes that accompanied their meeting in Melbourne — leading to widespread condemnation, and a suspended three-point penalty for both clubs.

But they have been isolated incidents.

If Victory and Wanderers want to introduce a members-only “active” area for their clubs, then that is their business, and for them to discuss with their own fanbase — but why should the rest of the competition have to follow suit?

Why should the FFA insist fans of — say — Perth Glory register their intent to sing and chant, just because a few idiots in Melbourne or Western Sydney have misbehaved?

What this does, is tarnish all fans with the same brush. It suggests they need to be herded away from the mainstream, tagged, and watched over, in the way unruly elements of society are kept under constant surveillance by the authorities.

You can understand the FFA being twitchy to avoid the sort of publicity that followed the incidents in Melbourne last season — but a clampdown on active areas is not the way to go about it, at least not in a “one-size-fits-all” edict.

It’s strange, but within the last month, two major incidents have happened at AFL matches, the sort of which would have led to front page headlines for the A-League.

First, Collingwood fans clashed with police in Adelaide, leading to three arrests and 19 evictions. Earlier in May, a man was brutally bashed outside the MCG after a Carlton/Collingwood game.

Yet the AFL (and the Melbourne media especially), are careful to treat such incidents for what they are — occurrences that are distasteful, but not the norm.

Collingwood club president Eddie McGuire even refused to comment on the first incident in Adelaide. Can you imagine David Gallop getting away with that?

The FFA should not be justifying the stereotype, nor reacting to the paranoia around football — they should be identifying individual troublemakers, while attempting to educate the media and security services that poor behaviour is no more widespread in the A-League than in AFL, rugby league, or cricket.

Why? Because it happens to be true.

Instead, they have chosen to persecute the very people who give football its flavour. Worse still, the language chosen to explain their move suggests they are trying to “own” the unique atmosphere football fans create. They don’t.

Fandom is organic. It cannot be bought, controlled, nor penned into official sections — as the late Margaret Thatcher found out during her time as UK prime minister many years ago, when she tried to introduce an ID scheme for all football fans in England.

The FFA would have been wiser buying plane and match tickets for the security services, and some of the scaremongers in the media to this World Cup, and taken them to the Maracana last night. I’d love to see them try to curb that sort of spontaneity by insisting they carry a membership card.