Clearly the rising force of Scottish politics knows how to play the football card as well as the beleaguered First Minister. In an entertaining, quickfire Q&A with The Sun the other day Labour’s leader north of the border, Anas Sarwar, was tossed a live grenade and expertly volleyed it into the long grass. Was he Celtic or Rangers?
“Listen, I’m from Asian origin, I watch cricket. I’m not going to go there. That’s even more divisive than politics, by the way.” In another interview just before the election, Sarwar talked about “squeaky bum time”, “hairdryer treatment” and “Fergie time” and it all just rolled naturally off his tongue. He warned that Labour’s lead in the polls was like everyone thinking a tie was over because you’d won first leg. In case these football references were too subtle, Sarwar dished out the quotes while taking part in a penalty competition. And was he wearing a Scotland top. Of course he was.
To be fair he looked more comfortable in that than John Swinney did. The First Minister rocked up for the disastrous Euro 2024 opener in Munich in the full gear: Scotland top and kilt plus dress shoes and flashes in his socks as if he was halfway towards preparing for a wedding until an aide reminded him there was a game on. He had his Scotland top tucked in. If there were nearly 200,000 Scottish fans in Munich none of them looked quite like Swinney.
Politicians are drawn to football like moths to a flame, when it suits them, and they were always going to be all over the Euros. It was predictable, transparent and as galling as ever, especially when the relationship between the Scottish Government and the football authorities over the past decade could be described as frosty at best. The SFA and the SPFL have rarely turned to Holyrood expecting warmth and unequivocal support.
So a question comes to mind after the industrial-level gushing about what wonderful ambassadors the Scotland fans were in Germany, with Swinney saying on the eve of the tournament, “I know the Tartan Army will be an absolute credit to Scotland,” and them being all of that and more. And the question is how come his party was in power for 17 years and continually looked down its nose at those same people and all the others who go to games up and down the country every week? How come they were good enough to mingle with, to pull on the Scotland tops and laugh and joke with when the cameras were around, when all the while there was the underlying prejudice that football supporters were to be treated as second-class citizens and not fully trusted? When it comes to one of the oldest issues of all, the sale of alcohol at football grounds in Scotland, all of that still applies.
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There was even a headline on one story from Munich — “John Swinney drinks beer with Tartan Army ahead of Euros opener” with a picture of him happily raising a glass — which could make a reader spit out his or her pint in incredulity. His government would allow rugby supporters to drink around him at Murrayfield too, but not permit football fans to do the same at Hampden. Numerous Holyrood administrations have denied Scottish fans a freedom enjoyed by supporters in England.
We’ve been over this before. The topic feels tired and unchanging but even though it is a devolved issue the landslide victory for Labour should be taken as an opportunity to ventilate the debate and, in due course, to drive a review. The status quo is lazy. Over the years some Labour and SNP ministers have privately sympathised with the argument for a change but feared being held personally responsible should there be some subsequent issue in which alcohol could be held up as any sort of contributory factor. The politics of, “Ach, I might get the blame, maybe this is more trouble than it’s worth.”
It has been politically expedient to not look under this particular stone no matter how anachronistic that has looked as the years passed since 1980. The Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act was introduced that year because Old Firm fans rioted on the Hampden pitch after the cup final. Those were the dark ages, so long ago that supporters could take their own drink into grounds. Today fans are seated, they are under the watchful surveillance of CCTV cameras, they are more likely to have driven to the game, to be female, and to be there with or near children, yet they are being treated as if they are still the same mass of ungovernable, boozy youths and men who scrapped with each other in a game in Glasgow almost half a century ago.
Scottish football fans can have their moments but in general the behaviour has been transformed and the law has never moved to reflect that. Pilot schemes could be done and with intelligent control and licencing alcohol could be sold inside stadiums at nearly every fixture in Scotland — the obviously challenging and most high-profile ones could be kept dry — while making no discernible difference to fan behaviour or overall levels of alcohol consumption. It could even help crowd management by addressing the culture of fans necking drinks in nearby pubs before a late dash to the turnstiles, creating bottlenecks which are troubling for the police and stewards (some politicians might be sufficiently disconnected to believe crowds are entirely sober now and would be entirely drunk if the law was repealed).
Crucially, while it would not be welcomed by the owners of those nearby pubs, being able to sell alcohol would be a precious new revenue stream for struggling clubs. There is already a blurring of the lines with the proliferation of hospitality lounges and even club bars at — but technically outside — stadiums, but opening the doors to the broader mainstream support is long overdue.
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The argument for it was made in Munich, Cologne and Stuttgart when tens of thousands of Scotland fans drank the city centres dry and caused no trouble whatsoever. The locals and the civic leaders were virtually throwing rose petals at their feet. There was so much positivity washing around with the lager that the German satirical newspaper, Der Postillon, ran a story that “Drunken Scottish fans save 40 children from burning orphanage”. Everyone got the joke. The fans were happily boozy and their behaviour was exemplary.
So let’s not have yet another prominent politician being happy to pull on a Scotland top and be one of the lads before sticking his fingers in his ears when questions come about treating those same fans with respect. The conversation is long overdue and the message from the Euros was loud and clear. If those fans want a drink at a ground they should be able to get one as easily as they can at the rugby or a concert. They can handle it.
