Two of Australia’s biggest football supporter groups are set to boycott their club’s A-League fixtures this weekend as Football Federation Australia’s fan crisis deepens.

A press conference by FFA CEO David Gallop on Tuesday failed to convince fans that the sport’s governing body was supportive of them while they remain under-fire from sections of the media, police and community.

In a statement on its Facebook page, Western Sydney Wanderers’ Red and Black Bloc [RBB] group slammed Gallop’s media call as a “shambolic press conference”.

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“This [a boycott] is the only way to continue sending a strong message to the FFA that we will not stand for their inept administration of our game,” the statement read.

They pledged to boycott the Wanderers’ clash with the Roar at Parramatta Stadium on Saturday night in its entirety, a step-up from last Sunday’s mid-match walkout in Gosford.

Later on Tuesday evening, Sydney FC fan group, The Cove, made the same pledge, ahead of their home fixture against Newcastle Jets on Friday.

Boycotts from supporters of other clubs are likely, too.

“This is not an action taken lightly,” The Cove statement said.

“We have tried to discuss issues with the FFA directly, this did not work, what we were told was quickly contradicted and contradicted again.

“It appears that the FFA needs to better understand how serious the issues are.”

During his press conference, Gallop held the FFA’s line that supporters must produce their own evidence to have stadium bans overturned. 

However, A-League fans are irate that they will still not be allowed to see the evidence that leads to bans, and that Gallop failed to strongly back supporters who’ve been sensationally labelled and characterised by the media.

In the past two weeks, both representatives of the police and media have branded A-League fans as “grubs”, “louts” and “suburban terrorists”.

Arnold: other sports have fan controversy ‘swept under the carpet’ by media

On Wednesday morning, Sydney FC coach Graham Arnold backed his fans and took a shot at the media for their reporting of crowd troubles in football.

“There is plenty of other things in other sports that get swept under the table,” Arnold said. 

“They’re [FFA leadership] now realising how people are passionate about this sport.

“It is totally different to rugby league. It is totally different to any other sport … supporter groups have a right to a say.”

On FFA leadership, the RBB statement said: “The FFA cannot use the fans as a marketing tool but then continually mistreat them, while asking them to help grow the game. It is counter intuitive and hypocritical.”

The issue erupted almost two weeks ago when a private list of banned supporters – all who have had no avenue of appeal and some who claim to have been wrongly banned – was published in a News Corp article.

The piece named each supporter and featured their photographs.

One supporter told SBS he had been sacked because of the story.

Days after it was published, all photos and information of the supporters were removed from the online report amid threats of legal action and investigations by privacy bodies.