Abject failure to tackle racism is Scotland's real secret shame

SCOTTISH football can often appear smug about racism. It is almost as if, because there are so few non-white faces on the pitches and in the stands, because the sectarian blight is consistently highlighted, agonised over and now even acted upon, that there is no appetite for addressing any other form of bigotry.

Yet there is evidence to suggest that not only are attitudes towards race allowed to remain poisonous at football grounds in this country, but that the Scottish Football Association are either impotent or wilfully ineffectual when it comes to tackling such abuse head on.

It is easy to dismiss the Airdrie supporters who donned Ku Klux Klan masks to taunt Gretna player Matthew Berkeley last Saturday as the lunatic fringe. Members of club's notorious Section B hooligan group are well known for their Nazi-saluting and for glorying in their fascist tendencies on their website. Undoubtedly, the Lanarkshire club stands alone in the Scottish game when it comes to attracting such open extremists. But lower level - though no less insidious - racial abuse is meted out on a weekly basis at games across the country.

It often goes unreported because victims let it slide for fear that in going public they will simply become victims all over again. "You have to develop a thick skin because I believe people use words and terms of abuse without ever thinking about what they are saying or appreciating how hurtful these are," said one black player, who did not want to be named.

"If you react either in games or in the press then opposition supporters know they have you, they know how to get to you. It can be hard to rise above it, especially when sometimes nothing is done to stop it. I've played in games where monkey chants have been aimed at me and I've looked across to where they are coming from only to see stewards laughing."

The SFA are sensitive to the claim that they are not doing enough to tackle racist incidents in our game. Previously, anti-racists groups have claimed these occur weekly at amateur games and every other week in the senior set-up. But it is the very policy of the Association not to act against clubs.

"We believe that criminal prosecutions are the way to deals with those guilty of racist activity at football games," said SFA spokesman Andy Mitchell. Yet only around a dozen such high-profile cases have made it to court in the past three years. "If supporters are shouting and ranting in a racist manner - which is extremely rare - they are easily pinpointed. What we have been doing is working closely with Show Racism the Red Card on anti-racist initiatives because our view is that the key is education in schools rather than fining clubs. We are also making headway with club licensing, which obliges clubs to have an anti-discrimination policy which demonstrates that they promote equality.

"The SFA takes a different approach from UEFA, who will punish clubs for the actions of supporters within their stadiums. Our view is that, however vigilant a club might be, supporters will still be able to throw coins or objects and shout racist abuse. As long as all reasonable preventative security measures have been put in place, the SFA believes clubs should not be held accountable for the actions of rogue individuals."

Yet, in the context of UEFA, it is only punitive measures against clubs, or the threat of them, that seems to bring about positive changes in supporter behaviour. When they fined Rangers for inflammatory chanting earlier this year, UEFA's warning that severe sanctions would follow future misconduct was the impetus for the club's already -established anti-sectarian drives to begin to have a genuine impact.

Disturbingly, the SFA stands accused of an unwillingness to take affirmative action even when faced with a racism charge made against a player from a member club. East of Scotland league side Spartans, regarded as the country's best-known 'senior' non-league side after their recent Scottish Cup successes, are currently awaiting a response to an appeal on a ruling they lodged a fortnight ago. That followed the SFA's disciplinary committee returning a "not proven" verdict over their complaint that Spartans player Dan Gerrard was racially abused by Whitehill Welfare's Wayne McIntosh in a league match on August 5.

Spartans claim that the handling of the case points to something more sinister. "They are simply trying to sweep the incident under the carpet the carpet; racism is awkward for them and in spite all the hot air about stamping out racism with various drives and initiatives, the reality is that they don't want to know," said Spartans secretary Jim Murray. "But we have a duty of care to Dan, who is an educated, honest young man, and will not allow this to go unpunished.

"We are flabbergasted as to how the SFA have acted over the incident from start to finish - as is a lawyer now acting on our behalf. But we can't in conscience give in. We have set up a youth academy and have several Asian players. There is no way then we could let this drop because that would simply be saying to them 'come along and play for us and if you happen to be racially abused then we will simply accept it if the person responsible is let off scot-free'. What signal are the SFA sending out?"

Spartans contend that McIntosh called Gerrard "a black bastard", a comment heard by two other players in their team. "One of them is a director with the Royal Bank of Scotland and the other a doctor, so their character is beyond question," Murray said.

They also contend that McIntosh was brought into the Spartans dressing room afterwards by the Whitehill Welfare coaching staff to apologise to Gerrard, a gesture the Spartans player rejected because he claimed to have been racially abused by the same player previously. This is not disputed by Whitehill co-manager Raymond Carr. "I didn't hear any racist comment but I said to Wayne that if he had said anything that might be even construed as offensive, which happens in the heat of a game, he should apologise," Carr said. "But the Spartans crowd were having none of it."

Spartans and Whitehill were notified of a disciplinary hearing on September 16. But when both Gerrard and McIntosh (both of whom declined to talk to this newspaper about the incident) informed the SFA that they were unable to attend, Spartans waited for word of an alternative date. "Instead, we received a phone call two days later saying the committee had met and decided it was not proven," Murray said. "How could they go ahead without the persons involved, or the key witnesses? Our lawyer says it is a joke, that such a thing as due process needs to be followed."

Not so, according to Drew Herbertson, who heads up the SFA's disciplinary and referee department. "The committee observed fully all the procedures we have in place for players' hearings," he said. "The player facing the disciplinary action was happy for the case to be dealt with in his absence, which the committee has the power to do. I cannot comment on what was allegedly said or done on the day of the complaint but, one way or another, the committee took full account of the submissions made by all parties and concluded that the case could not be proved. It was therefore closed with no further action to be taken."

Herbertson would not be drawn on when or if nine of those on the 10-man committee - Whitehill Welfare representative Andrew Renwick requires to sit out because of vested interest - will consider Spartan's right of appeal. "It would be inappropriate of me to comment on a possible appeal at this time," he said. "Their letter will be responded to when business allows."

Murray believes Whitehill officials handled themselves impeccably on the day, but that the SFA's "cop out" has since resulted in them feeling that they are the wronged party. Whitehill co-manager Carr believes an appeal would serve no purpose.

"It is Spartan's right to request one but it has been dealt with by the SFA and is over and done with," he said. "I don't see any point in bringing it up again."

Carr would not reveal whether any action had been taken against McIntosh. "We are dealing with it within the club and what goes on within the club will remain within the club," he said. "We are dealing with Wayne in another manner. As far as we are concerned it is over but Wayne is dealing with it personally through other means. He is not happy at being branded a racist when he has Asian friends. Wayne is by no means a racist. We live in a very touchy world where us whites have to be careful what we say to persons of other colours, in my opinion."

Spartans and McIntosh are now dealing with this matter in different ways - Spartans by resorting to legal avenues, McIntosh "through other means" - in order to reach a satisfactory conclusion. In both cases, the SFA is not involved in solving a problem that should be central to its role as a governing body. The SFA may find that convenient, yet it is surely entirely unsatisfactory that clubs self-police on such sensitive matters. Racial abuse festers where inaction creates a vacuum.