WESTERN Sydney Wanderers are paying police an average of $10,000 per game for security, with the club to seek a breakdown of the figure as complaints continue about the level of policing from fans throughout the stadium.

Wanderers chairman Lyall Gorman will meet the Parramatta Local Area Command today in the wake of widespread claims that supporters are drifting away from attending games.

Though the average attendance is up a fraction on last season at 14,800, the club has 16,000 members and the club’s new owners are understood to be concerned at a substantial number not attending each week.

News_Image_File: Security staff keep an eye on the RBB after flares are thrown during an ACL game at Pirtek Stadium.

Parramatta officers decide on the level of policing at each game and the consequent cost to the club. It’s understood that police reduced their numbers significantly for the Asian Champions League against Ulsan Hyundai, as a concession to fans’ behaviour, but a number of flares were lit during the game — leading to reinstatement of high-profile policing since.

In particular there has been a very visible presence by riot squad officers, which supporters in areas all around the ground say has changed the atmosphere. The club has sought to give stewards in the ground more responsibility for dealing with crowd behaviour initially, believing that if police are less visible it would encourage a less confrontational atmosphere..

The Daily Telegraph approached Parramatta Local Area Command for comment but none had been provided by the time of publication.

News_Image_File: The RBB offer support the Western Sydney Wanderers against Ulsan Hyundai at Pirtek Stadium.

Gorman said he would report supporters’ views to Wednesday's meeting, but emphasised he wanted to find common ground with police.

“Certainly the feedback from our members, including mums and dads with children, has been that they have found some of the policing arrangements quite distressing,” he said. “The point of our meeting is to share that with the police and see where they stand.

“We’ve just had three great home games in a row with very little issues but a lot of the focus is on the security side of things. I imagine the police don’t want to share in any sort of negativity around the games, and we’re really keen to work with them in a collaborative way.”

Meanwhile, Football Federation Australia hopes to reconvene the tribunal hearing allegations of racist abuse in the Sydney derby later this week, after the hearing was adjourned late on Monday night.

News_Rich_Media: Wanderers striker Brendon Santalab may not find out for days if he'll be banned over allegations of racial abuse, after last night's lengthy A-League tribunal hearing was adjourned after hearing six hours of evidence.

Sydney FC midfielder Ali Abbas was questioned for several hours about his sworn testimony that Wanderers striker Brendan Santalab had racially abused him during the game on March 8, with witness statements from several of Abbas’s teammates also put forward to the three-man panel hearing the charges.

Santalab denied the claims, and with his evidence still being heard past 11pm on Monday night, the case was adjourned by the chairman, John Marshall SC.

The difficulty in continuing it lies in finding availability on a common date among the various lawyers involved, but attempts were being made last night to continue the hearing before the end of the week.

Originally published as Wanderers’ backlash against police