UEFA - helping to end Scottish sectarianism

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Ending Scottish sectarianism
Friday, 15 December 2006
by Mark Chaplinfrom Nyon

UEFA's campaigning against racism and other forms of intolerance is receiving particularly outstanding support in Scotland where the Scottish Football Association's major clubs are tirelessly spreading the message against sectarianism inside and outside football stadiums. The European body's communications and public affairs director William Gaillard had the opportunity to witness at first hand the work being done on a fact-finding mission that took him to four major Scottish clubs - Celtic FC and Rangers FC in Glasgow, and Heart of Midlothian FC and Hibernian FC in Edinburgh.

Rangers fined
Last spring, in the wake of a UEFA Champions League tie against Villarreal CF, Rangers were fined ?19,500 by UEFA and severely warned about their responsibility for any future misconduct by their fans in relation to sectarian and discriminatory behaviour. Consequently, UEFA and Gaillard were delighted to take the chance to find out about the efforts that Rangers and other clubs are undertaking on this delicate issue.

'Perspective'
"I was happy to receive an invitation from Celtic FC, and as a result, was able to expand the visit to talk about the subject with the Scottish FA, the Scottish police, and the clubs from Edinburgh and Glasgow, who were ready to show what they were doing - and put the issue into perspective," Gaillard told uefa.com. "The issue goes back to the 17th century, and culminated in the massive immigration from Ireland at the end of the 19th century.

Attitude change
"This phenomenon was reflected in the birth of the major cities' football clubs at the time - Celtic and Hibernian from the Catholic communities, and Rangers and Hearts from the Protestant communities. What is happening now is that the four clubs are determined that, in view of their backgrounds, what may have been acceptable and tolerated behaviour in the past cannot be accepted today."

'Tolerance'
Gaillard says he is particularly impressed by the joint campaigning by the Glasgow rivals Celtic and Rangers as part of an educational drive against sectarian attitudes. "Children in schools are being taught about tolerance and what can be considered acceptable conduct in a civilised society," he reflects. The two clubs are also concentrating their educational efforts on domestic away games, where the phenomenon sometimes still raises its ugly head.

Education
The Edinburgh sides are now more focused on fighting other kinds of discrimination, such as homophobia. "The carrot-and-stick approach - combining a promised reward with a threatened penalty - is having an encouragingly positive effect," Gaillard explains. "Hearts have produced a booklet which they give to fans, warning them of the sanctions - bans, fines, exclusion from matches - for sectarian or other unacceptable behaviour. Hibernian are also working tremendously hard to educate their supporters with activities within the community.

Postive reward
"Problems are gradually being solved at domestic level by excellent stewarding and banning orders for those fans who don't behave properly. Rangers fans do not sing particular songs any more - supporters are beginning to understand you can't behave in 2006 like you would have done in the 1950s." Widespread efforts are being made throughout Europe to banish intolerance from football - and sterling work in Scotland to wipe out sectarianism will hopefully bring positive rewards in the future.

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Unless you've witnessed what this sectarianism is like in reality it's hard to explain how mental it is, but I really hope that these measures have some effect. Glasgow without all the bigotry would be far better place, even though it's already pretty damn great!