WHEN Football Federation Australia designated this season's marketing slogan as ''Fan Made'' it probably had no idea what it was setting off.

The key to soccer is not just the game but the supporter experience. Soccer crowds are generally louder, more involved and more active than crowds for other sports.

And that passion, hitherto confined to the ground, has now spilled out into the public and policy domain.

Unleashed by technological change, supporters, through social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter, now demand not just to be heard but to influence the shaping of policy direction. Fans are demanding input.

Grassroots activists have taken the ''Fan Made'' slogan at face value, organising discussion and debate forums in Sydney last month and Melbourne this week through an organisation called Football Fans Down Under, run by expatriate Liverpudlian Lee Sutherland.