au.fourfourtwo.com understands Victory fan group leaders are drawing up guidelines to be signed off by the likes of the Victorian Police, the club, FFA and the Department of Sport and Recreation.

It details new strategies and procedures for policing Victory games in order to avoid what was witnessed at one point last season with heavy handed police and security firms on game day.

Victory’s fans – renowned as some of the most passionate supporters in Australian sport – are said to be confident these measures will help prevent issues arising in next season.

It’s believed Etihad Stadium and MOPT (Melbourne Olympic Parks Trust) will also be included in discussions before the season kicks-off in October with the Big Blue against Sydney FC.

These issues stem from a deteriorating relationship between Victory fans and police in Victoria this year.  

Active fans’ chanting, singing and jumping has often confused police at A-League games with many officers unable to understand the difference between football fan culture and thuggery.

This came to a head earlier this year after incidents at the Melbourne derby between Heart and Victory at Etihad.

Local newspaper the Herald Sun ran a story written by an AFL writer claiming “soccer” fans to be the worst of all football fans, citing his own injuries in the story.

Ten days later and police security went overboard when Victory hosted Newcastle Jets – a fixture that has no history of violence whatsoever.  Riot police came out in force and fans’ banners and musical instruments were confiscated.

The problem police have had is in providing evidence that A-League fans in Melbourne are as unruly as they paint them to be.

Superintendent Rod Wilson claimed his police were scared to take shifts at A-League games because of the behaviour of football fans.

But statistics appeared to contradict those claims, as this website pointed out at the time.

And the published quotes from Supt Wilson didn’t appear to back that claim, while Supt Wilson himself admitted it was only a small portion of the fans that concerned them.

As examples, in what is generally considered the most heated game in A-League history - the November 2007 clash between Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC - police branded fans "abysmal" and used capsicum spray on them.

But there were only five evictions from the packed stadium and no arrests among the near-32,000 fans.

At the 2010 Melbourne Cup, there were 11 arrests and 280 evictions. Superintendent Wilson said then that was "...just a handful - we hope this trend continues."

At the 2010 AFL Grand Final rematch, there were also 11 evictions and four arrests which Superintendent Wilson said at the time was "...pretty good."

And on the first day of the 2010 Boxing Day Test, police were delighted to report there were only 37 evictions and five arrests as it was down from 110 the year before.

However at the February 2008 One Day International between Australia and India in Melbourne, 189 people were evicted and at least 16 charged.

Despite that, Victoria Police said they were "generally happy" and the figures were "...not out of the ordinary."

Since then, some connected with police media have inflamed relations when tweeting during July’s peaceful friendly between Celtic and Victory, as a small number of fans were ejected from AAMI Park.

FFA condemned the tweets as ''inappropriate and provocative'' and Acting Chief Commissioner Ken Lay was apologetic, telling The Age he was disappointed at the tone of the tweets and that it would not happen again.