Scottish football stadiums could be closed down if clubs fail to take action on sectarian and violent behaviour, the Justice Secretary has warned.
Humza Yousaf solutions being looked at by the Scottish Government include sanctions which would close entire grounds.
He said he is considering a model used in England where a Sports Ground Safety Authority has wide powers.
SNP MSP James Dornan asked Mr Yousaf about the government backing his members bill introducing strict liability where clubs are responsible for behaviour of fans inside the stadium.
Read more: Scottish football great slams clubs' stance on sectarianism - and calls for strict liability
Mr Yousaf said: “Strict liability remains on the table.”
He added: “Where we have power in our hands, i.e. around licensing we will also look at that.
“Every stadium with a capacity of 10,000 or more is required to hold a safety licence and if parliament was minded, we could look at the authorising for this.
“We would look at south of the border in England, where they have the Sports Ground Safety Authority, an overarching body that looks into stadium licensing, that we don’t have here in Scotland.
“I can say we are absolutely looking at with the sports minister and local government minister, whether or not we should have a similar body here in Scotland and along with that body the appropriate sanctions such as closing down sections of the ground or indeed stadiums altogether if it is in the best interests of public safety.”
Read more: Scottish football needs strict liability - here's why we won't get it
The issue has been highlighted again in recent weeks following sectarian abuse directed at Kilmarnock manager Steve Clarke from Rangers fans and striker Kris Boyd abused by Celtic fans.
A bottle was thrown at Celtic striker Scott Sinclair at Hibernian’s Easter Road stadium at the weekend and seats were ripped out and thrown over a safety cordon segregating fans at Pittodrie by both Rangers and Aberdeen fans during Sunday’s match.
Mr Yousaf said he has met with football authorities but is not satisfied with their response to the problem so far.
He said: “While words were warm, we are yet to see demonstrable action on this.”
Mr Yousaf said he wanted the clubs to take responsibility and “step up” and take effective action to stamp out sectarianism and unacceptable behaviour in grounds.
In a warning to the clubs he added: “We reserve the right to act.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel