SCOTTISH football clubs are close to winning the right to ban hooligans and bigots from stadiums.
Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland has said ministers are "looking favourably" at giving clubs the right to seek banning orders in the courts.
Currently, only chief constables can apply to the courts to have hooligans barred – leaving football authorities powerless to act without police support.
Mr Mulholland said: "Current legislation is that an application for a civil banning order can only be made by a Chief Constable. Clubs have asked whether that can be amended to allow them to apply to the courts.
"I understand the Scottish Government will look very favourably at that."
SPL and SFL clubs, including league leaders Celtic, are understood to be lobbying for the powers.
Football banning orders date from a previous round of legislation in 2006. So far nearly 300 people have been given banning orders of up to 10 years, all after police applied to the courts.
Clubs, meanwhile, have the right to ban fans from their grounds, but are unable to police travelling fans.
The latest move comes amid growing controversy about the way football fans are being policed.
The Herald last week revealed that senior lawyers were concerned about last year's Offensive Behaviour at Football Matches and Threatening Communications Act. They claimed innocent fans were being targeted by over-zealous police officers.
Mr Mulholland has said he is happy with the way the law is being enforced. The Crown Office prosecuted 177 out of 200 cases brought by the police up until the end of last year.
However, this weekend the Lord Advocate said he was a "big fan" of the Green Brigade, the Celtic hardcore fans.
Mr Mulholland said: "They have improved the atmosphere and brought fantastic noise and support to Celtic Park.
"But there is a line in the sand. Bring that brilliant support. Bring that banner display. But don't engage in racist, sectarian or offensive chanting."
Some in the Green Brigade – and other groups of hardcore fans – have felt policing has been over-zealous since the new law came into force.
The latest laws were imposed after the 2011 "shame game" between Rangers and Celtic.
At least one solicitor, former police officer Bill McCluskey, has claimed supporters are now routinely subject to surveillance. Police have rejected the suggestion, saying filming at one recent Celtic game lasted just 30 seconds.
Mr Mulholland said: "I don't speak for the police but I inquired into whether there is a policy of systemic surveillance. There is not. My target is zero prosecutions – because then there won't be a problem."
One expert recently suggest the 2012 legislation suggested lawmakers thought of football fans as "vermin".
Mr Mulholland responded: "If I believed fans were vermin I would be branding a lot of my good friends and family as vermin.
"The vast majority of football fans are great. It is a fantastic sport and it's part of Scotland's culture and lifestyle."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article