In the wake of the most recent ‘Old Firm Shame Game’ (copyright every hysterical tabloid back page) in March, SNP leader Alex Salmond organised a summit meeting with the police in order to discuss ways in which they could better control the behaviour of both teams, and supporters around Old Firm fixtures. I’ve written about this before, when one of the ways they decided to tackle it was to organise the second Old Firm match of the season for a Wednesday night in December, between Christmas and New Year. Given that the ‘shame game’ they were investigating had been a Scottish Cup replay, played at Celtic Park on a Wednesday night, and that most lunch-time fixtures between the two are usually played out without major incident, this seemed a rather backward move.
But Salmond didn’t stop there. His party have since decided to introduce a new law, called the ‘Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Bill’ which creates two new offences that relate to behaviour deemed to ‘incite religious, racial or other forms of hatred’. It is a bill that has been criticised by the opposition in Scottish parliament, and has previously been delayed until now after Salmond attempted to rush it through parliament in June. But what is the bill actually there for?
Well, the basic idea about it is to stop football fans (although really, it’s aimed at fans of Rangers and Celtic) saying things about each other that aren’t very nice.
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Because as we all know, it’s only in Scotland that football fans abuse each other or other teams during games (ahem). While there’s no doubt that sectarianism between fans of Rangers and Celtic is a problem, it’s not a problem created by football. Removing offensive chants from football matches will not make sectarianism disappear in the west of Scotland.
Another major issue with this bill is the SNP’s reluctance to announce what exactly they mean by inciting ‘religious, racial or other forms of hatred’. While the religious and racial elements are obvious, what comes under the heading of ‘other forms of hatred’? Whether it’s right or not, football fans around the world will regularly taunt opposition fans and teams, and players and even referees during matches. It’s not something that’s limited to football either, most team sports feature opposing fans taunting each other. Again, I cannot deny that Rangers and Celtic fans both have songs and chants that are designed to offend each other and that can offend other people too.
Where is the line drawn by this bill? Aberdeen fans will sing about the Ibrox disaster whenever they play Rangers, something that is clearly offensive, but is it a ‘form of hatred’? If Alex Salmond and his party fail to specify exactly what can be considered as an offence under the new bill, it will lead to confusion amongst fans, and inconsistency when it comes to arrests and charges.
If a list of songs are made “illegal” fans will subtley change the lyrics to confuse the police. Best that the brief is kept broad and the police are allowed to exercise their judgement. That is after all what they are paid for. In addition, it is the broad nature of the legislation that will action to be taken against songs relating to any stadium disasters or the death of ex players.
Confuse the police? I’m confused enough already. How about banning triumphalist religious marches rather that criminalise football fans. Salmond , we already know you are a fat chancer, the sad thing is, we aren’t shocked by your greasy opportunism any more.