Loading

Access to seating behind the goals at the northern end of AAMI Park will be blocked for the rest of this season and the finals series, while Victory fans will not be given allocated seating at away matches during that time.

Surprisingly, Football Australia has ordered the match itself – which was abandoned when a fan threw a metal bucket of sand at Glover’s head, concussing him – to be replayed in April, from the 22-minute mark, with City’s 1-0 lead intact.

Competition integrity was again one of the reasons behind that decision, with Johnson saying it “wasn’t appropriate and wasn’t needed in this situation” to award City the three points, as many had assumed would happen.

Glover, meanwhile, will not be formally censured because King wrote in his referee’s report that he did not think the 25-year-old had purposely thrown a flare back into a section of Victory fans in the crowd – the touchpoint for the scenes that followed. While FA regulations mean that an incident that has been seen and adjudicated by a referee during a match can’t be reviewed again, Glover will receive a personal call from Johnson.

“I think he gets off on this occasion. But it is something that I will be talking to Tommy about, saying, look ... don’t do that next time,” he said.

FA, which has already issued 17 individual stadium bans to people who entered the field of play including two lifetime bans, also said it would establish and manage a taskforce, together with experts from Victorian and NSW police forces and other stakeholders including clubs, to curb the use of flares at matches and review the management of active supporters.

While Victory is expected to accept the sanctions, Johnson said FA was prepared to go “all the way to Switzerland” and the Court of Arbitration for Sport to defend them if the club appealed.

“The field of play is a sacred place, it’s the workplace of our players and our match officials, and this needs to be paramount in football,” he said.

“Those individuals that illegally entered the field of play caused damage and verbally and physically assaulted players and officials. They really crossed the line, and that is completely unacceptable in Australian football.”