Labour look to scrap Scottish Government's Football Bill
Labour will today formally launch a bid to scrap the SNP's Football Act.
Labour will today formally launch a bid to scrap the SNP's Football Act.
Labour MSP James Kelly has officially lodged his proposal for a bill to repeal the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act with the Scottish Parliamentary authorities. Mr Kelly’s proposal would repeal the legislation in its entirety.
The Glasgow MSP will today also launch a public consultation asking for the views of experts, football clubs, members of the public and others. As part of a campaign to consult as widely as possible Mr Kelly will write to every football club in Scotland, as well as a range of supporters groups and other stakeholders.
Labour MSP James Kelly said:
“It’s time to scrap the Football Act. The SNP's Football Act has damaged trust between football fans and the police without doing anything to combat sectarianism and intolerance in our country.
“Sectarianism in Scotland has existed for hundreds of years but the government's approach was to try and fix it in 90 minutes. As always with the SNP, they thought a simple headline would fix a complex problem.
“The SNP arrogantly bulldozed this piece of legislation through. It was the first law passed by Holyrood without any cross-party support. Opposition parties, supporters groups, legal experts and academics opposed it.
“Now the SNP have lost their majority in the Scottish Parliament we can scrap the Football Act and get real about tackling sectarianism off the pitch, in our classrooms and communities.
“My consultation will seek the views of people from all across Scotland. The way to tackle sectarianism is by consensus.”