A-League fans have been spied on, had their privacy breached and been slapped with unjustified bans with no avenue of appeal, according to exclusive testimony given to The New Daily by angry supporters.

As tensions between the league and supporters approach boiling point, information gathered by The New Daily raises questions about the integrity of the process that leads to supporters being banned.

A range of documents, photos and testimonies allege intrusive intelligence gathering by security working on behalf of the A-League, administrative errors and bans being imposed on innocent people by Football Federation Australia (FFA) and its security company Hatamoto.

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Victory fans walk out en masse in protest during their round 8 match. Photo: AAP

At a press conference on Tuesday, David Gallop, CEO of FFA, confronted the criticisms being made by fans. He defended FFA’s banning process but stressed that fans were not locked out without strong evidence, despite the accused not being allowed access to it.

While acknowledging that a recent leak of banned supporters’ names to News Corp was wrong, he said the onus remained on fans to prove that FFA had made a mistake before the ban would be overturned.

Two of Australia’s biggest football supporter groups responded by announcing a boycott of their club’s A-League fixtures this weekend in a worsening of FFA’s fan crisis.

Supporter grievances

One joint FFA-police banning notice claimed a fan “breached their Banning Notice and engaged in disorderly conduct including riotous behaviour” at a 2009 pre-season game, even though they were at home at the time of the alleged incident.

The banned fan denied ever receiving an original ban notice and revealed another supporter was banned while holidaying overseas.

“They banned me for apparently being arrested at a game, when I didn’t even go and I was at home,” the supporter, who did not want to be named, told The New Daily.

“I never received the banning notice, nor was I ever told about it. About six months later, after continuing to go to matches unaware I was banned, they issued me with a ban extension because of that ‘breach’.”

The other supporter’s ban was overturned when an A-League club official intervened, but other fans have no official avenue to appeal penalties.

Despite that, fans can still be judged guilty by FFA, which can choose not to take into account whether police press charges or not.

Issuing and appealing bans

A FFA security worker (R) allegedly taking images of fans. Photo: Supplied

While Mr Gallop said there had always been an avenue for fans to appeal bans, supporters argued this was wrong because clubs and other FFA officials were on the record saying there wasn’t. Mr Gallop conceded this was a communication problem on FFA’s behalf.

At least two other supporters who spoke to The New Daily allege they were unaware of receiving banning notices until they were apprehended at the ground. Ban extensions were then applied on top of the initial punishments.

Many fans have been banned under FFA rules but were then found to have no charges to answer from police.

Fairfax Media previously reported on such an incident, where a fan was banned by FFA for assault, but was later found to be a victim and cleared by police.

Last week, News Corp published a front-page print and online interactive report that named and identified 198 banned A-League fans, which led to death threats being issued to journalist Rebecca Wilson.

While many of those blacklisted had been found guilty by police, others were underage, not facing police charges or had no avenue to appeal the offences for which they were named.

News Corp later removed the pictures and names of the banned supporters from its online story.

FFA’s security operator ‘a concern’

Image captured by supporters who claim the man pictured (centre) is filming football fans at an A-League fixture. Photo: Supplied

FFA’s relationship with private security company Hatamoto is cited as another source of concern for supporters, who claim that Hatamoto has harassed and spied on them as part of their role in FFA’s security operation.

Fans allege that undercover Hatamoto employees film and photograph patrons at games or establishments and venues like pubs near the ground.

Dossiers containing photos from public and private social media accounts are created and then handed to security, ground officials and police to target individuals who breach or were believed to be conspiring to breach FFA’s policy of entry.

These allegations were put to Hatamoto but the company declined to comment due to its commercial agreement with FFA.

Supporter sources expressed concern over the information gathering carried out on them and questioned the accuracy of Hatamoto dossiers.

They claim Hatamoto has consistently misidentified people, leading to innocent people being harassed by security and police.

Hatamoto declined to answer questions on the issues raised by supporters.

Bungled intelligence gathering

A page identifying supporters found and photographed by journalists at National Youth League match. Photo: Supplied

There has been at least one confirmed incident of an employee involved in the security arrangement misplacing copies of the dossiers at a National Youth League match.

Ben Clark, a Brisbane Roar active supporter who says he has never been warned or banned by authorities, alleges a tense interaction with Hatamoto employees at an away game at Sydney’s Allianz Stadium in 2013.

“Well, they’d just been up the back of our active bay, in plain clothes, but with earpieces. [We walked up to them and asked] ‘You guys cops?’ ‘None of your business,’ they said.

Mr Clark says the security workers then said: “We’ve been watching you, f*** off now.”

Mr Clark has also noted their presence at a range of home and away games, standing at the back of bays in civilian clothing wearing earpieces.

Other supporter sources alleged Hatamoto’s authority extended to directing the security operation at games. A Victoria Police source acknowledged Hatamoto’s intelligence gathering activities, but denied the “directing security operations” claim.

FFA was approached for comment on these matters but declined to respond.

Ben Cuzzupe is a Melbourne-based freelance journalist who has worked for Sportal, Guardian Australia, Southern Cross Austereo and Eurosport. He has also appeared in Vice and Tone Deaf.