Offensive Behaviour at Football Act

[Tom Rogic]

Sorry, what's the issue with the video here?

The police acted in that way OTT manner purely because they were singing loudly and swearing whilst doing so walking along to the game

Anyone who seriously thinks the police were justified in acting like that and ordering their bus to leave straight away needs to have a fucking word with themselves

[williemillersmoustache]

Looks to me like some silly wee boys were acting all big and clever then learnt the hard way that if a police officer tells you to do something, you should do it. A few apparent grown ups need to learn that lesson too.

Hands up who's had an argument with a police officer at the football that ended well?

You need to calm yourself and try your faux outrage, candlelit, victimhood roadshow elsewhere.

[CowdenConvert]

Seems like its old firm fans saying plod are ott here. They'll be claiming they're angels and playing the victim card next.

[D.A.F.C]

Pretty sure I heard a large majority of rangers fans singing billy boys and we hate Celtic fen&&n bassers yesterday more than once.

If you were really serious about stopping bigotry forth official should just tell the ref to abandon the game.

Is it really that difficult? Or it it that it suited all the pundits and journalists that the gruesome twosome were back to their usual nonsense?

If you were a numpty signing this after one or two cancelled games it would sink in. It hits them in the pocket.

This applies to all clubs. It is getting better but it's always there bubbling under the surface and will be sung in clubs and pubs away from the game.

[Billy Jean King]

Pretty sure I heard a large majority of rangers fans singing billy boys and we hate Celtic fen&&n bassers yesterday more than once.

If you were really serious about stopping bigotry forth official should just tell the ref to abandon the game.

Is it really that difficult? Or it it that it suited all the pundits and journalists that the gruesome twosome were back to their usual nonsense?

If you were a numpty signing this after one or two cancelled games it would sink in. It hits them in the pocket.

This applies to all clubs. It is getting better but it's always there bubbling under the surface and will be sung in clubs and pubs away from the game.

That would require willing and backbone all round, something in very short supply when it comes to stamping out sectarian bigotry in Scotland unfortunately.

[bennett]

The police acted in that way OTT manner purely because they were singing loudly and swearing whilst doing so walking along to the game

Anyone who seriously thinks the police were justified in acting like that and ordering their bus to leave straight away needs to have a fucking word with themselves

The neds should've been themselves then, lippy wee bams.

[Mr Waldo]

Pretty sure I heard a large majority of rangers fans singing billy boys and we hate Celtic fen&&n bassers yesterday more than once.

Hate crime IMO.

[topcat(The most tip top)]

Pretty sure I heard a large majority of rangers fans singing billy boys and we hate Celtic fen&&n bassers yesterday more than once.

If you were really serious about stopping bigotry forth official should just tell the ref to abandon the game.

Is it really that difficult? .

Possibly people were more serious about not sparking a riot.

[mjw]

Round em up, put em in a field and bomb the b*****ds!

[StreetwiseHercules]

It's an illiberal and silly piece of legislation, but it is supported by the overwhelming majority of people in Scotland so rightly it's staying on the statute books.

People in Scotland support this law because they have lost patience with the issue, and that's understandable. People are just sick of it.

I blame the football authorities for their decades of failures which have brought us to this point.

The best thing that can be done with regard to this legislation is for cases to be robustly challenged in the courts and had the police's arses to them. Do that enough times and they will stop using this legislation.

[CowdenConvert]

Round em up, put em in a field and bomb the b*****ds!

Rangers v celtic thread for this pish.

[7-2]

That would require willing and backbone all round, something in very short supply when it comes to stamping out sectarian bigotry in Scotland unfortunately.

 

Spot on. When you have senior politicians tweeting sectarian nonsense with no comeback what hope do we have? It genuinely is Scotland's shame.

[Tom Rogic]

Spot on. When you have senior politicians tweeting sectarian nonsense with no comeback what hope do we have? It genuinely is Scotland's shame.

For all that Murdo Fraser guy is a nugget there wasnt anything sectarian in that tweet though. You cant just label everything and anything connected to the two clubs as sectarian.

His tweet was certainly daft and poorly judged but contained nothing sectarian

[Miguel Sanchez]

Police scotland as usual acting like a shower of arseholes using this ridiculous act as their back up.

Special kudos to the wee fanny shouting "Wind your neck in you and shut it" and the polis woman with the baton drawn for.. ....well what exactly.

This is how young people and young football fans are being harrassed and victimised all over Scotland, these young guys were singled out for the henious of singing loudly with a few swear words in amongst it, their bus driver was ORDERED to leave Kilmarnock at 3.20 giving the guys the choice to miss the game or be stuck in Kilmarnock.

Plenty on here support this horrendous piece of legislation as they think its getting tore into Celtic and Rangers fans when the truth is its doing anything but.

Is this really acceptable the shocking actions of the police here?

Is this the same group of children and bus which RandomGuy describes here?

Because they were all twelve years old, and when the police checked their bus they found buckfast everywhere. The bus driver got fined and cautioned, and when he phoned his employers to tell them they'll also be getting a fine they ordered him to drive straight back. Cue twenty children sprinting through Kilmarnock hoping they reach the bus before they get left stranded.

[Swello]

It's an illiberal and silly piece of legislation, but it is supported by the overwhelming majority of people in Scotland so rightly it's staying on the statute books.

People in Scotland support this law because they have lost patience with the issue, and that's understandable. People are just sick of it.

 

 

Like plenty of others, I'm of the view that a lot of what the OBFA purports to do could have been done under existing powers anyway and I'm instinctively against anything that treats football fans differently but I think the bolded bit above is spot on. 

 

Sections of (mainly) the Rangers and Celtic support have been seen for decades to act with impunity inside and outside of grounds and have generally made people's lives (including plenty within their own supports) a misery - or at the very least been an utter embarrassment. The huge majority of the population that couldn't give a f**k about caricatured Irish history and all the other pish that goes with the greatest rivalry in the world are simply never going to be motivated enough to join with a killer coalition of wee fannies and a couple of right wing columnists in calling for OBFA to be repealed (which is a vanishingly rare event for any new piece of legislation in any case). The best realistic outcome is that the act is quietly amended after a review to the point it is significantly watered down but that will only happen when the public perception is that the type of behaviour that led to the act in the first place has improved significantly (which based on Sunday's folk singing display by the Rangers fans is as far away as ever). 

[williemillersmoustache]

Best way to get rid of the act is for fans of 2 clubs to start behaving themselves, expose its unfairness by making it unnecessary. Anytime scumbags.

[topcat(The most tip top)]

Best way to get rid of the act is for fans of 2 clubs to start behaving themselves, expose its unfairness by making it unnecessary. Anytime scumbags.

Which two?

[williemillersmoustache]

Which two?

 

THEY fucking two.

[topcat(The most tip top)]

THEY fucking two.

 

If you mean the old firm then that's a bit of a red herring.

 

The data shows that their supporters are disproportionately unlikely to be arrested under the act

Celtic supporters account for only 10% of last seasons charges under the act despite accounting for about a quarter of attendances which is less than Aberdeen (16%) and just a little more than Hibs (8%).

Partick thistle had more charges per capita than Rangers over the last two seasons.

 

While public support for the bill seems to be based on the idea that the old firm are "Scotland's shame" and "something must be done" (or at least seen to be done) about them. Even broadsheet criticism of the bill on freedom of speech grounds accept the idea that if it's targetting offensive football fans then it must be all about the old firm.

The way the bill is actually being enforced isn't actually like that. 

 

http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0047/00479042.pdf

[7-2]

If you mean the old firm then that's a bit of a red herring.

 

The data shows that their supporters are disproportionately unlikely to be arrested under the act

Celtic supporters account for only 10% of last seasons charges under the act despite accounting for about a quarter of attendances which is less than Aberdeen (16%) and just a little more than Hibs (8%).

Partick thistle had more charges per capita than Rangers over the last two seasons.

 

While public support for the bill seems to be based on the idea that the old firm are "Scotland's shame" and "something must be done" (or at least seen to be done) about them. Even broadsheet criticism of the bill on freedom of speech grounds accept the idea that if it's targetting offensive football fans then it must be all about the old firm.

The way the bill is actually being enforced isn't actually like that. 

 

http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0047/00479042.pdf

 

Good grief. Do you still believe in the Tooth Fairy and Santa too?