[QUOTE]Net used to fire soccer riot
Jonathan Porter and Peter Kogoy
March 17, 2005

MEMBERS of Melbourne''s Croatian community used the internet to incite the riot that erupted at a Sydney soccer match at the weekend, which led to a clubhouse being raked with gunfire this week.

Two weeks ago, fans in a chatroom on the Croatian-backed Melbourne Knights website openly discussed rioting at Sunday''s first meeting between two rival Balkans-supported clubs in 22 years.

"Boys . . . c''mon up . . . your (sic) the next bunch of rioters we need in Sydney ..." one Croatian fan wrote on the Melbourne-based site.

Five people were arrested and several police injured when about 50 fans clashed at the match between the Premier League''s Serbian-backed Bonnyrigg White Eagles and Croatian-supported Sydney United at Edensor Park in Sydney''s southwest.

The next day a car belonging to an employee of United''s King Tomislav Club at Edensor Park was firebombed and early Tuesday morning the White Eagles'' club in the neighbouring suburb of Bonnyrigg was sprayed with gunfire.

Fairfield local area commander Acting Superintendent Peter Marcon said police were aware of the messages, which included a call to "wreck the club" of the White Eagles.

"Police already had that information before the game as a result of intelligence gathering," Superindendent Marcon told The Australian.

"As a result we brought the threat assessment from low to medium and resourced the situation consistent with that assessment."

Superintendent Marcon said police had also set up a team to examine videotapes and photographs of the riot "to identify offenders involved" and bring them to justice.

A trawl of the internet by The Australian yesterday also revealed the depth of hate some members of the communities have for each other.

The pro-Serb avala.cjb.net, in a forum devoted to discussing the Bonnyrigg match, had one fan suggesting the chant: "Mrtav hrvat dobar hrvat (a dead Croat is a good Croat)."

Another poster said: "u''s also raped all the old women ... expelled over 200,000 serbs, killed anyone left behind."

NSW Police Minister Carl Scully said it was irresponsible to "stir up supporters and encourage them to come to matches to cause trouble".

"I would hope the people who run those websites have some way of deleting messages that incite riotous behaviour," Mr Scully said.