Passionate fan base: The Wanderers fans have been out in force in recent years. Credit:Getty Images Another chance for Rebecca Wilson and Alan Jones to do their best, perhaps? Oh, no. Erm, well, not quite. Fourteen arrests in the past year. Fourteen too many. But, four from NRL. Three from that disgraceful bunch of thugs in white with that dangerous weapon made of willow, the beasts, and two during AFL. The indecency of that game. And, rating nary a mention, football. With one. Were I to run such a headline, then, I'd surely be lacking balance and perspective, don't you think? Numbers mean little, without context.

This is why the past week has been a boon for football. It has outed those still incapable of applying equal reasoning to our game, brought the fans together and made us proud of the manner in which the vast majority dealt with it, and gave us the collective recognition that the football haters in the media still exist, and forewarned is always forearmed, so to speak. Football doesn't stand idly by any more, we fight for what's ours and what we have built, of which everyone is proud. Hell of a week, that. Perspective. Let's look at what it is, and is not. It is not linking the banning of an incredibly small minority from any sporting venues to those that shot, bombed and tore their way through more than 130 souls in Paris the week before, Alan.

It is not placing a story about people being ejected from A-League games on the front page of a Sunday newspaper, when Paris is but one of the atrocities daily testing our sense of humanity, News Corp. It is not arguing that FFA refuses to act or acknowledge the issue when the very fact that fans have been banned, and fan fury at their treatment tells the exact opposite, Rebecca. It is not trying, vainly it must be said, to paint an entire sport with a brush that doesn't fit, has no relevance to our fans, and in many cases is misrepresentative of the people under discussion, at any rate, Rebecca. It is understanding that more than 1.7 million A-League fans enjoy the most intense and passionate atmosphere of any sport each year, with those falling foul of authorities representing - quick grab for the calculator - less than 0.00001 per cent of attendees. Yes, you read it correctly. That's perspective.

Less, if we use the SCG example. That one football fan among more from other sports represents 1 in approximately 200,000-plus Sydney FC fans in the regular season alone. My calculator won't even process that fraction. For balance, I am delighted to point out that our game respects the rights of every fan to enjoy the game in a safe environment, and we support the treatment of any type of behaviour that crosses the boundaries of decency or the law. Absolutely, as long as those behaviours are not criminalised or mistreated by authorities seeking to see our fans behave in the same, stationary manner of other sports. Football is different, and security and law enforcement need to find ways to acknowledge this. Scipione's comments are incredibly unhelpful, not to mention inaccurate, outdated and embarrassing, in this regard. As was the intention by Rebecca and Alan to apply no context or balance to their verbal bile.

The only "'naming" and "shaming" that went on this week, then, was of the accusers, who have quickly become figures of ridicule to the millions of us that love football in this country. And that is the harshest punishment of all, from which there is very limited right of appeal.