A FOOTBALL fans group has urged an SNP minister to correct the official Holyrood record after wrongly suggesting the campaigners backed changes to a controversial law.
Community Safety Minister Paul Wheelhouse last month announced moves to soften the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act by diverting more offenders away from prosecution.
Mr Wheelhouse implied in the Scottish Parliament that a scheme, carried out by offenders' charity Sacro, had the support of one of the most vociferous opponents of the legislation, Fans Against Criminalisation.
However, the group, which largely represents Celtic supporters, retains its outright opposition to the act and does not support the new tact which would see sanctions imposed by clubs, diversionary measures to avoid criminal disposals and short-term football banning orders.
A spokeswoman for FAC said: "Mr Wheelhouse made a statement to Parliament in which he implied that we supported the Sacro scheme. Shortly before he made this statement in the Chamber we made it clear to his adviser that we did not yet, he still reported it to MSPs.
"He was then invited to retract this by Labour MSP Michael McMahon but refused to do so and repeated the assertion in even stronger terms.
"Subsequently Mr Wheelhouse admitted in writing that he did not discuss this project with us which surely gives the lie to his claims.
"Notwithstanding all of this, now that we have corrected him his only course of action is to publicly withdraw the statement and have the Parliamentary record amended."
The Herald asked the Scottish Government if Mr Wheelhouse would comply with the request. A spokeswoman issued a statement that did not address this but said Mr Wheelhouse had been given "a clear impression" of support from FAC.
The spokeswoman said: “The introduction of the Sacro diversion from prosecution programme responds positively to the concerns that have been raised with us by a number of stakeholders about the criminalisation of football fans through the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act.
“The Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs met with representatives of FAC, at their request, and, while FAC restated their desire to see the Act repealed, in a discussion around the impacts of the legislation the Minister was given a clear impression that Scottish Government action to ensure that fans were not unnecessarily criminalised would address one of the organisation’s key concerns about the implementation of the Act.”
Mr Wheelhouse made his statement to Holyrood on June 16 and met with FAC on June 4.
Last week he wrote to FAC after they complained about being misrepresented. In his letter, he said: "I recall, in fact, you saying I ‘hit the nail on the head’ when I stated my desire to avoid criminalising individuals when that could be avoided, given concerns about the impact on their employability of having a criminal record."
Mr Wheelhouse added: "While the Sacro programme was not specifically referenced at our meeting, the concept of diversionary work was discussed and you gave a clear impression that FAC was supportive of actions which would prevent the criminalisation of football supporters.
"As I have already stated, I fully appreciate that your position remains seeking the repeal of the Act, but am surprised that you would wish to oppose any actions which go at least in part towards answering or ‘chiming’ with your stated concerns."
FAC responded by saying the only way to avoid criminalising young people was to "repeal this heinous legislation".
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