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06th December 2005

Report on the future of Scottish football

The following recommendations are part of a special report by members of the Scottish Parliament's enterprise and culture committee which carried out an 18-month inquiry into the future of Scottish football. The report was published on 1st December.

Show Racism the Red Card campaign and policies on racism and sectarianism.

170. One particular strand of public policy that emerged is the role that government has in supporting efforts to tackle racism (and sectarianism) in Scotland and in football in particular. The Scottish Executive has recently agreed to additional funding of £39,000 in 2005/06 to help the Show Racism the Red Card (SRtRC)Campaign expand and continue its important work in Scotland. This brings the total for Executive funding to £114,000 for the period 2003/04 - 2005/06108.

171. Nearly seven-in-ten of those participating in the Committee’s online survey agreed that the Scottish Executive should continue to fund SRtRC. The Committee also heard calls to encourage any football club which has not yet done so, to sign up to UEFA’s ten-point plan to tackle racism in football, launched in 2002. The Committee is keen that all football clubs and associations develop policies and an action plan to tackle both racism and sectarianism in football.

172. Evidence of the progress being made is exemplified by the commendable actions of St Mirren FC who recently ejected two corporate guests from the ground after the aforementioned guests were reported to have engaged in racist abuse. These actions were recently the subject of a Members’ Debate in the Parliament, tabled by Wendy Alexander MSP, on 26th January 2005, whilst the activities of SRtRC were endorsed during a Members’ Debate initiated by Bill Butler MSP, on 18th May 2004.

173. The Committee welcomes the comments from the SFA that109:

“The support from UEFA for the SRtRC campaign was obtained on application by the Scottish FA and through the efforts of the Scottish FA. The Scottish FA continues to provide one-off support for projects and considerable PR and other support in kind. We are, of course, now stepping up our work with the Scottish Executive in the field of sectarianism.”

174. The Committee supports the work of the Show Racism the Red Card (SRtRC) campaign and the initiative of the First Minister to convene a summit to tackle sectarianism and the efforts of clubs to do likewise. The Committee believes that the Scottish Executive should continue to provide SRtRC with appropriate funding to enable its work to be taken forward. Furthermore, we agree that the SFA should demonstrate its commitment to the campaign by providing money and in-kind support in addition to those already provided by UEFA.