Victoria Police regularly sends tweets in relation to major events including sporting events and significant police operations. Given the significance of last night's soccer match the Media Unit made the decision to send out specific tweets in relation the event.

A number of the tweets included information on the evictions from the ground. This is no different from information provided at other sporting events including the Ashes where we gave information on the number of people who were removed from the MCG. At the time we received no feedback that people were unhappy with information being provided about evictions or other crowd behaviour.

Victoria Police doesn't regularly tweet from AFL or A-League round matches as they are regular, ongoing events. We have tweeted from the cricket, Australian Open and AFL finals to name just a few of the major sporting events.

We also regularly tweet information and figures such as arrests or the number of drink drivers detected from major police operations such as Operation Unite and Operation Aegis.

If people misunderstood our intent then that is regrettable. We certainly did not want to antagonise soccer fans who were generally well behaved at last night's game.

This was never about soccer and again, we tweet from any number of high profile events and operations. It’s a about getting a safety message out.

Police have been working closely with Football Federation Australia and Melbourne Victory to ensure the games are safe and enjoyable for all. Police have also been engaging with the active supporter leadership group.

On this occasion it appears there was a bit of a breakdown in communication, and if that has antagonised some of the fans then it is unfortunate. We are sure everyone will be able to move on from this and work together cooperatively at matches in the future.

Share This Page