USUALLY at this time of year I impart my thoughts on the Aintree Grand National, and I did promise last week to give the Scottish Rugby Union some views on their current activities, but I will have to leave that for I cannot let the events of last Sunday pass without comment.
When I wrote that football “isn’t life and death, isn’t an excuse for hate” and suggested that football supporters should improve their behaviour, I half suspected that the Old Firm match might prove too much of a challenge for the craven lunkheads among us. Tragically my suspicions proved correct and now, at the time of writing, a man is fighting for his life in a Glasgow hospital after being involved in a horrific violent incident in the Merchant City in the city centre after the match.
We don’t know exactly what happened or what caused the melee which left Francis McCann critically injured by a stab wound in the neck. Two other men were also stabbed in what was clearly violence of an exceptional order. The attacker or attackers must be caught and jailed for a very, very long time.
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Same goes for the gang of soccer casuals who attacked the Toby Jug pub on nearby Hope Street – you can see this madness on Facebook. I don’t know who these perpetrators were, but throwing chairs through the window of a pub on a Sunday afternoon is criminal lunacy of the highest order.
I ask again: what the hell has any of this to do with fitba’?
There is no doubt whatsoever that the behaviour of some “fans” has been beyond disgraceful for many months now. There was hooliganism before the repeal of the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act, but there’s little doubt the level of sheer hatred and violence has worsened since James Kelly and his pals forced through the repeal to score political points against the SNP.
I warned at the time – as long ago as October, 2017 – that though the Act was defective, repealing it would send the wrong signal to the people who see football as an excuse for their criminality.
Hate to say I told you so but here’s what David Hamilton of the Scottish Police Federation told John Beattie’s BBC Radio Scotland programme: “It’s despairing, the way some fans are behaving in Scottish football. We are seeing an escalation in violence, both in terms of severity and frequency.
“Some of the officers who were working at Celtic Park said it was the worst they’ve seen in 15 to 20 years of service.
“We have to look at this as a crisis in Scottish football. People are going to turn away from it, they’re going to walk away, and it’s going to continue to be a problem in future.
“Personally, I believe the repeal of the Offensive Behaviour Act has had an impact, because I think that some people feel wrongly legitimised to behave in a way that they wouldn’t otherwise behave.”
A lot of people are to blame for Sunday’s disgusting scenes. The players showed a dreadful example, and the two clubs must also accept responsibility. Rangers effectively banned Celtic fans from Ibrox and as always with these two, Celtic retaliated. That pushed ticketless fans from both sides of the divide into distant pubs and clubs – virtual no-go areas, some of them – instead of the stadia and the environs where the police have at least the semblance of a chance of imposing order.
Sectarian hatred can account for, though it never excuses, the events before, during and after the Old Firm match, but then you see a Celtic “fan” throw a pyrotechnic at the St Mirren goalkeeper and you realise that football’s insanity is not just about Billy and Dan, it’s just madness.
We all know that football has it within its power to stop all the nonsense that goes on in and outside stadia. Strict liability rules for every club, heavy fines, the deduction of points and, above all, the closure of troublesome spectator areas would solve football hooliganism very quickly, as has happened in the Netherlands.
Eliminating sectarianism is a different matter. I am prepared to accept that it is a societal and not just a football issue, though obviously the Old Firm shenanigans are the must obvious evidence of this shameful blight on Scottish society.
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To my mind, if we are serious about tackling the issue we must have a public inquiry into sectarianism and its causes and possible resolutions. We are currently seeing a public inquiry into child abuse. Bringing up your child to be a bigot – and the overwhelming evidence is that sectarianism is bred in the home – is a form of child abuse. So why not openly investigate this blot on our society?
The Scottish Government should institute such a public inquiry in a bid to root out this societal cancer once and for all.
Celtic and Rangers have tried, but have failed to curb the sectarianism of their fans. Is it now time to ask whether the Old Firm’s sectarian elements should be banned from football for life?
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Are separate schools a cause of sectarianism? Is the Orange Order? It’s time to ask the questions.
The inquiry should also look at the institutionally sectarian state that is the United Kingdom in which no Roman Catholic can be head of state. Article 2 of the Act of Union says so.
Let’s look at all the roots of sectarianism and then root it out.
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