SCOTTISH football’s efforts to address sectarianism are tokenistic with clubs and authorities hiding behind a mantra that is a societal problem, a new report claims.
Academic Dr Duncan Morrow, who heads the Scottish Government’s expert group on sectarianism, said the connection between the problem and the sport was much stronger than the football authorities were “willing to allow for”.
Dr Morrow also revealed that during the two years since the publication of a major report on sectarianism was published and throughout his work updating it he had not met with any major club, including Celtic and Rangers.
In his report, Dr Morrow said football’s governing bodies, the SPFL and SFA, stated that they believed there had been no incidents of mass sectarian singing in Scottish stadiums in the past year and that the game had come along way since the notorious 2011 clash between Celtic and Rangers.
The report also states that neither body recognised reports by the worldwide players’ union that 23 per cent of Scots-based players felt discriminated against during a game against global average of just five per cent.
Calling on the Scottish government to shift its emphasis away from historical blame, the Belfast-based community relation professional said football’s attempts to self-police had to be independently measured, casting doubt on whether the game’s plans would have the desired effect.
It comes against a push by some within politics for the introduction of ‘strict liability’ within the Scottish game, where clubs would be held responsible for the behaviour of fans, and a push by opposition parties for a repeal of the contentious Offensive Behaviour at Football Act.
His report states: “They were of the view that football is not responsible for what they see as a societal issue. However, in making this claim they also appear to be using the categorisation of the issue as ‘societal’ as a way of distancing themselves from the need to take anything more than the most tokenistic action to address sectarianism.
“It needs to be clearly kept in mind that Scottish football is very much part of Scottish society and needs to take full responsibility for tackling the offensive and abusive behaviour that occur within commercial spaces (football stadia) that they own, operate and govern.”
In a joint statement both organisations said: “This season both the Scottish FA and SPFL have updated and tightened rules and guidelines on “Unacceptable Conduct to help ensure our stadiums are safe and friendly environments where all fans can enjoy their football.
“We will monitor the success of those changes and we continue to work with the Scottish Government on further actions and future improvements in this area.”
The expert group’s report said evidence would be required see how successful the measures were and that these should be judged by a cut in police presence at games, a reduction in sectarian singing which could be “replaced by other forms of identification”, a decrease in abuse of players, within crowds and on social media and the sport putting its own cash into anti-sectarian programmes.
Although the report calls on local authorities to ensure that formal policy and practice guidelines are developed to address sectarianism at community level, Dr Morrow expressed his disappointment that neither councils umbrella body Cosla or some of the major authorities responded to an invitation to discuss the matter. No “substantive response” was received from Glasgow City Council.
It also calls for a review of hate crime legislation to consider how sectarian incidents could be integrated into a more general approach.
Dave Scott, campaign director of anti-sectarianism charity Nil by Mouth, said: “It’s clear from the report that Scottish football continues to be an obstacle to progress and it’s consistent refusal to manage its own environment undermines efforts in wider society.
“Given the millions of pounds of public money the sport benefits from each year this cannot be allowed to continue and our political parties must ensure that the game steps up to the plate or faces the consequences of its inaction.”
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