The protests were triggered by the publication of a list of 198 fans banned from stadia around the country in Sydney's Sunday Telegraph newspaper the previous weekend.
Hundreds of fans of champions Melbourne Victory and Western Sydney Wanderers, two of the best supported clubs in the league, walked out after half an hour of their matches on Saturday and Sunday.
Fans of other clubs pitched in with silent protests and the display of banners, one at Central Coast Mariners stadium in Gosford reading: "SITTING IN SILENCE, LIKE THE FFA, NO FANS=NO FOOTBALL".
The leak brought to a head long-running dissatisfaction among supporter groups at Football Federation Australia (FFA)'s treatment of fans as well as the lack of due process in the handing out of bans.
The FFA initially came out swinging, denying being involved in the release of the information and defending their right to issue universal bans to fans for unruly conduct, even if they are not convicted in the courts.
A-league boss Damian de Bohun took a more conciliatory stance on Sunday, however, and indicated that one of the main demands of the protestors would be met.
"We are formalising a process that if a banned spectator can prove to us, through new evidence, that there has been a mistake made, they can bring that evidence to the club, that club can work with us and the fan through that issue," he told reporters in Gosford.
"I can tell you categorically that if the fan has not engaged in the alleged behaviour, that ban will be overturned."
Groups of fans who support their teams on their feet with coordinated chanting are relatively new in Australia and not seen in the dominant football codes of rugby league and Australian Rules.
The fans of Western Sydney Wanderers, which draws its support from the multi-cultural communities in the poorer suburbs of Australia's biggest city, have become particularly known for their passion.
That passion, however, has led some to sound warnings that Australia has imported the hooliganism that has for so long blighted European football along with the game.
It was a feeling articulated by the New South Wales Police Association president Scott Weber last week after a Federal Senator had complained about heavy-handed policing at matches.
"This is an elected official who wants ... police to stand by and let a group of grubs intimidate families, chant filthy sexual slurs at opposing fans in front of children and take over the streets every game day," Weber said.
Former Australia international Craig Foster reflected the sentiments of many soccer followers in Australia when he said that such comments were a complete misrepresentation of what was just a different way of supporting a team.
"(These) behaviours (should not be) criminalised or mistreated by authorities seeking to see our fans behave in the same, stationary manner of other sports," he wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.
"Football is different, and security and law enforcement need to find ways to acknowledge this."
(Editing by Greg Stutchbury)
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