Melbourne Victory's A-League outfit have avoided penalty despite the club's second-tier team being stripped of six Victorian Premier League competition points because of fan violence.
Football Federation Victoria's punishment from a brawl involving 32 Victory supporters who clashed with South Melbourne FC fans during a National Premier League match in April won't enact a suspended sanction hanging over the A-League entity.
Last February, Football Federation Australia (FFA) fined Melbourne Victory $50,000 and imposed a suspended three A-League competition point deduction after finding the club guilty of bringing the game into disrepute.
The FFA sanctions related, in part, to Victory fans igniting flares inside and outside of AAMI Park during a derby match against Melbourne City.
The FFA said when announcing the penalties that "where a serious incident occurs that FFA determines should trigger the suspended sanction, the club will immediately lose three points in the A-League".
But the FFA said it wouldn't enact the A-League penalty, given because the second-tier sanction was a separate issue in another competition.
A Football Federation Victoria tribunal ruled the Victory fans' behaviour was "unruly, anti-social and dangerous", with South Melbourne supporters spat on and punched, while a vessel containing fluid, possibly chlorine, was thrown into the crowd.
The melee was sparked shortly after halftime when supporters of the A-League club tried to steal a South Melbourne banner.
"The video evidence shows a number of hard physical blows being delivered by Melbourne Victory supporters to the face and body of South Melbourne supporters," the ruling said.
"This was all done in the presence of children and a special needs spectator."
The club faces a further six-point deduction pending a repeat of poor fan behaviour, while an initial ruling in May banned 17 fans from attending premier league games for five years.
The tribunal has also called for the club to identify all fans involved and bring them before Victorian Police.
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