New campaign to end sectarian singing

A CAMPAIGN has been launched to put an end to sectarian singing and slogans at football matches.

Ahead of the Old Firm match on Sunday, leading charity Nil by Mouth has released three short films focusing on the legal, physical and emotional consequences of sectarian chanting on individuals and society.

The “Sing Something Else” online campaign videos are from the perspective of a police officer, nurse and father

The videos are available on YouTube and the Nil by Mouth website and the charity is asking football clubs and fan groups to share the hard-hitting message through their social media platforms in order to reach as many people as possible.

High schools in Gourock have already got behind the campaign and will hold a song competition where pupils will adapt current football chants and songs to promote messages of tolerance and change later this month.

Nil by Mouth was set up by Glasgow teenager Cara Henderson in response to the brutal sectarian murder of her school friend Mark Scott in 1995 as he made his way home from a football match in the city.

Mark’s killer singled him out because of the colour of the scarf he was wearing.

Nil by Mouth campaign director Dave Scott said: “Sectarian singing and chanting remains a very real issue in Scotland and as the debate around the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act proves there are no easy answers to the problem.

“That is why we feel there is a need for a campaign that highlights the very real human conse- quences of such behaviour, which can range from the courtroom to the employment tribunal to the accident and emergency ward.

“The ‘Father and Son’ video is particularly poignant as we have worked with several men whose sectarian behaviour has cost them their relationships with their children and many more who have expressed their regret that their kids have learned sectarian words or slogans from the mouths of their fathers.

“It’s 2018 and truly time people learned to ‘sing something else’.”