Coming to the end of the year, many football fans and pundits believe the A-League has become stale.

Bolton played against hostile Melbourne Victory crowds in his time at Sydney FC and Melbourne Heart.

Victory’s active support were adamant they wanted to bring a unique atmosphere and spectacle to games. It has been limited in recent years after voicing their frustrations with the club and federation with the restrictions imposed.

The pundit said the A-League had stagnated in all areas over the years, but feels there is no reason it can’t be restored.

“Football fans in Australia are just disenfranchised with what’s going on in general with our code,” Bolton told FourFourTwo.

“Active support has been suppressed over time and it’s such a big aspect of our game and sport in general. So to suppress that side of it, it takes a big part out of the spectacle and the emotion.

“I’m just gutted that matches are being over-officiated in my mind.

“I’m doing media now for games and derbies, you see the amount of police and security at these games and it’s such an overkill.

“It’s really disappointing that that’s the environment that A-League fans are confronted with. I really hope it changes because that active support is at the heart of our sport and at it should be at the heart of what makes the A-League great and different.

“Clearly governance issues have to be sorted out first and they’ll start focusing on the issues in the A-League.”

The Christmas Melbourne Derby has proved to be one of the most anticipated clashes during the festive season, but received its lowest crowd of 22,515 last week.

Bolton playing in a Melbourne Derby

Victory veteran Archie Thompson said before the Christmas Derby it was not the same as it was when he played.

And with all the talk of expansion improving the game, Bolton believes derbies being too repetitive wasn’t an issue.

“They’re bigger than a normal match, you’re not talking about Melbourne City v Central Coast Mariners, it doesn’t matter that there are three fixtures,” he said.

“When you’re talking expansion, they’ll be looking at more derbies because they want to replicate these rivalries.

“There’s no way I had this mentality saying ‘oh no, we’re playing Melbourne Victory… again.’, they were the big games and were like finals games.”