Anti-sectarian RME activities for secondary schools
Activity 6: Sectarianism and Football
Learners consider football's relationship with sectarianism. This activity involves research in small
groups and talking about the issues beforehand will prepare learners.
Football clubs, as well as organisations such as the Scottish Football Association, are working
together to tackle sectarianism. This follows initiatives like Show Racism the Red Card that have been
very successful in raising awareness about racism in football, as well as encouraging everyone to
challenge racism when they see or hear it. You may wish to read the page Football and Sectarianism
and the use the links there.
Sectarian songs and chants may lead to serious violence during and after the game. Activity 8 looks
at the work of Nil by Mouth and refers to the sectarian murder of Mark Scott in 1995. This sectarian
violence can end in the tragedy of people being killed: both culprits and innocent people.
Whose responsibility?
Learners should:
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consider football teams' responsibilities and initiatives in addressing sectarianism
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explore what responsibility football teams have for addressing the issue of sectarianism
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identify the initiatives that the teams have developed or joined.
Football teams, Celtic and Rangers in particular, often get bad publicity, and get accused of not doing
enough about sectarianism. But can clubs change attitudes and, if so, how can they do it?
Talking
Working in groups of 4 – 6, select one of the following and examine the role that each person can play
in combating sectarianism and draw up a list of recommendations from each person:
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The chairperson of a football club
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A football player
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A journalist
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A football fan
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A visiting fan from another team
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A stadium security officer.
Groups can then come back together and share recommendations with the rest of the group. How
much impact would each suggestion have? How feasible would it be? Is there anyone else that could
have helped?
Anti-sectarian RME activities for secondary schools
Reading
Working in small groups, research what the football teams have done and are actually doing to
combat sectarianism. You could do this by visiting team websites or doing searches on the internet.
www.celticfc.net
www.rangers.premiumtv.co.uk
Projects or initiatives you might want to look out for include:
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Old Firm Alliance
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Unacceptable Behaviour
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Bhoys Against Bigotry
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Pride Over Prejudice
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'Old Firm United' or 'Fans United' workshops
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Sense Over Sectarianism
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Work with supporters' clubs
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Match day visits for schools
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Social charters.
A good follow-up activity for this activity could be the Responsibility Continuum in the Youth worker
section of this resource.