Stop buck-passing on hooligans

HOOLIGANISM has returned, or at least become more visible, in Scottish football in recent weeks.

That has led to a festival of one of our other national sports, hand-wringing.

Football pundits demand that the ‘authorities’ take urgent action. The authorities, in the shape of the First Minister, demand that football acts.

It speaks to an alarming lack of leadership in Scotland, from politics to wider society.

Before somebody, somewhere, thinks of the bright idea of getting Henry McLeish to write another report on the state of the game, perhaps they could reflect on the fact that both sets of ‘authorities’ already have all the powers they need to try to combat the problem. They just need to act. What we don’t need is another Act of Parliament in place of leadership. The Offensive Behaviour at Football Act did nothing to stop sectarian chanting at football grounds, for example. Just ask Kilmarnock boss Steve Clarke.

The police can arrest offenders, and courts can put them in prison for a very long time. Football authorities can close grounds where behaviour is particularly bad and make teams play without a crowd. If those measures fail, we can come back to commissions and reports – but not before.

This is not comparable with the knife crime wave south of the Border. Instead of headshaking, people in the game and government who take the salaries commensurate with leadership should lead.