The Scottish Government has unveiled draft legislation to tackle the issue of sectarianism in football. You can read the Bill here but good luck, it is in very confusing legalise.
The essence of it all is this (thanks to the BBC)
- The legislation introduces two new offences on football-related behaviour regarded as offensive and threatening
- One will look at disorder around football matches including European and national games. This covers behaviour inside the ground, when leaving the ground, whilst travelling to and from stadiums and fans watching games for example, in pubs or on big screens outdoors.
- The second offence deals with serious threats - including murder - made on the Internet.
- Both offences carry a maximum penalty of five years in jail
The aim is for the Bill to be enacted in law before the start of the new Scottish season at the end of July.
The immediate context has been the explosion of 'sectarian' abuse at Old Firm matches in Glasgow between Celtic and Rangers fans and the violent hate campaign conducted against Celtic manager Neil Lennon and other prominent Celtic supporters. Last year Neil Lennon was sent bullets and viable parcel bombs through the post and was assaulted by 'a fan' at a game against Hearts. The historical context is complicated to say the least. The video below is from 1996 which was a point in my memory where things were much less 'charged' but the debates are the same.
As a citizen of Scotland with a preference for peace and as Glasgow Celtic have officially welcomed the Bill and I am a Celtic season ticket holder, I feel I need to as well but, I have a few questions and a few worries.
The Bill is reactive. Last year was the most tense year in my experience of living in Glasgow (not long mind - 18 years) in terms of 'the Old Firm' and clearly something needed to be done. However, I feel that the consultation period for the Bill is far too short. I am not a lawyer but I feel the Bill is very vague and open to so much interpretation or misinterpretation. For example, for behaviour at a football match to be deemed offensive under the terms of the Bill, a person must both be doing something bad (section 2 for a better definition) and also this behaviour must then be deemed likely to incite public disorder. I think that is confusing and obscure. There is also lots of mention of acts which a 'reasonable person' could consider to be alarming or threatening. What does that mean?
The kind of behaviour that the first part of the Bill would cover when enacted and interpreted by the police would I imagine be things like the singing of certain songs at football matches and the use of certain words at football matches, both of which would need to clearly be defined as motivated by religious or other types of hatred as described in the Bill and additionally, likely to incite public disorder. This again will be open to wide interpretation and I think some further clarification will need to be considered. At the launch of the Bill, some clarification was sought from high ranking police representatives but no response was given. What songs are okay? Which songs are about celebrating cultural identity and history and which are about celebrating violence motivated by religious bigotry?
I am not sure how the legislation will be enforced where such behaviour as described in the first part of the Bill could be engaged in by tens of thousands of people at the same time. How will that work?
The second part of the Bill is slightly less contentious for me and it seems a little clearer. Basically don't be going around sending emails or posting things on the Internet saying that you wish to commit a seriously violent act against somebody. Doing a quick facebook search I see a group called "Kill Neil Lennon". I imagine that would fall under the Bill?
Above and beyond my clumsy attempts to dissect legislation that I don't understand (lawyers please!), my biggest issue with this Bill is in the title - football games.
I have never understood 'sectarianism' to be a footballing issue. The 'stuff' manifests itself at football matches and is the one time perhaps that people from outside Scotland see it (which interestingly is the point at which our politicians are most keen in my view to act). It is much, much deeper than football. Much deeper.
What I would really like is for the Scottish Government to engage in some Truth and Reconciliation type discussions with the Scottish people. Let's start asking the difficult questions and having a proper debate about the root causes of 'sectarianism'. Neil Lennon wasn't sent bombs because his job is managing a football team.
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