SPFL chief Neil Doncaster has been criticised after saying Scottish football can be "proud" of its efforts to combat sectarianism.
Justice secretary Humza Yousaf last week that not enough had been done to cut down on sectarian abuse and called on Scottish football chiefs to support new proposals to help clamp down on bigotry.
But Mr Doncaster believes headway is being made in eradicating sectarianism.
"Everyone is actually extremely aligned in terms of the need to address unacceptable conduct," Mr Doncaster said.
"We shouldn't be anything but proud of the fact that the clubs, Police Scotland and the Scottish Government are all committed to taking action where it requires to be taken."
But Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesman Liam McArthur MSP said that Mr Doncaster should not be proud that data on the extent of "unnacceptable" conduct in football grounds is the subject of a secrecy agreement.
READ MORE: Humza Yousaf asks for end to Scottish football sectarianism report secrecy
He has urged Mr Yousaf to tear up the contract and make the entire database publicly available.
Mr Yousaf spoke to Mr Doncaster last week to outline the Government's preference for the data to be made available.
It came as ministers were urged to rip up the agreement which meant the withholding of nearly two years of data on “unacceptable conduct” on a claim it is confidential.
Mr McArthur said: “Neil Doncaster shouldn’t be proud of his organisation keeping critical data on sectarianism at football out of public view.
“It’s obvious this is wrong. This underhand agreement should never have been cooked up between the Scottish Government and the SPFL in the first place and if it wasn’t for our work to expose the existence of these reports there’s no doubt the Cabinet Secretary and Neil Doncaster would have carried on keeping it secret.
“This information should be made public immediately. It shouldn’t have to wait for the next Board meeting.”
Mr Doncaster has said the issue of unacceptable fan behavour should not be allowed to overshadow the positive aspects of Scottish football.
READ MORE: SNP Government in secrecy row over football sectarianism report
"We've seen several high-profile incidents that took place last season," he said. "Clearly that has given a profile to unacceptable conduct, but I think the broad picture is of a game in really good health.
"Scottish football remains an incredibly exciting place to be. Huge drama, huge passion, huge excitement and a great deal of positivity.
"I think it's important we do keep things in perspective, as much as we are committed to working hard with the Scottish Government and Police Scotland to address unacceptable conduct."
In February, the then Kilmarnock manager Steve Clarke, responding to chants of “sad Fenian b******” that echoed around Ibrox, said it was reminiscent of the “Dark Ages”.
Derek McInnes, the Aberdeen manager, also hit out after he said Celtic fans had branded him a “sad Orange b******” during a Scottish Cup semi-final.
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 here