Offensive Behaviour at Football Act cave in.

[LongTimeLurker]

The reason for the legislation was basically to make it understood to the polis that loud and obnoxoius behaviour at the football that would constitute a BotP in other social contexts was only to be viewed as a major social problem to be dealt with through the courts when it is Billy fae Whitburn or Declan fae Carfin daein it, but to be treated as all perfectly acceptable light hearted banter when it is Torcuil from Bearsden sending folk homeward to think again while mooning passerbys in his kilt and projectile vomiting all over the place in pedestrian areas.

The main reason the last piece of legislation got campaigned against is that the SNP shifted the goalposts a bit from Joke McConnell's sectarian summit era by targeting Declan fae Carfin as well as Billy fae Whitburn. The MSPs of the main governing party had moved from being disproportionately Celtic minded types droning on about something most of modern secular Scotland is oblivious to in 2021 being Scotland's shame as a subtle way to undermine Scottish nationalism to mainly being OFGTF diddy team types that view the Old Firm collectively as being Scotland's shame for waving the wrong set of national flags.

[Michael W]

23 minutes ago, 101 said:

You don't need the OBFA to act in the courts. 

I agree if the SPFL or SFA were serious about tackling discrimination in the game there would be clear financial penalities and points deductions for doing so. As it stands fielding an ineligible player is a greater crime in Scottish football than any form of discrimination and I'm afraid that is a frankly shameful position for a governing body to hold.

We all know full well that this would've been addressed by now were it a problem consigned to a match outside of the Old Firm. It simply wouldn't be tolerated and the SFA/SPFL would implement fines and stadium closures until it stopped. They have a choice and they are simply unwilling to take the move knowing full well whom it would piss off if they actually did something. 

The OBAF similarly did nothing here either. Thousands sang sectarian songs at games with impunity and nothing changed. Meanwhile, some daftie does something that "a reasonable person" might find offensive = banning order. Or indeed if said daftie says the very words that thousands are chanting, they might suddenly then find they've committed an offence. But doing it with everyone else? well you'll be just fine. The OBAF was put in place to deal with low hanging fruit so the government could pretend it had done something, whilst in reality nothing changed. 

[craigkillie]

The SFA/SPFL are unable to act on this because it is outwith the stadium and they do not have strict liability rules in place. The clubs specifically voted against them (correctly in my opinion) a few years ago.

[realmadrid]

Its certainly easier to prosecute the smaller teams fans.

Look at the court roll today in Forfar.

"Did someone say court boys?"

[Detournement]

2 hours ago, craigkillie said:

The SFA/SPFL are unable to act on this because it is outwith the stadium and they do not have strict liability rules in place. The clubs specifically voted against them (correctly in my opinion) a few years ago.

Was there a proposal for strict liability outside the stadium? That would be crazy. 

[Detournement]

3 hours ago, LongTimeLurker said:

 

The main reason the last piece of legislation got campaigned against is that the SNP shifted the goalposts a bit from Joke McConnell's sectarian summit era by targeting Declan fae Carfin as well as Billy fae Whitburn.

This is why there will never be any real consequences to any of this and the current fudge suits the police and the government. 

Any sort of summit or new legislation will inevitably result in h*n being classified as hate speech which would send a fair proportion of SNP voters round the bend. 

[Gordon EF]

20 hours ago, G51 said:

The orange kit, as far as I'm aware, made the club absolutely no money because Hummel & Elite Sports kept the profits. If it was an attempt to drive profit for Rangers then it wasn't a very good one.

 

Of all the accusations thrown at Rangers, being financially savvy isn't one.