ABSTRACT
Although the behaviour of football fans has a sense of the carnivalesque, it may also comprise animosity and loathing (Giulianotti 1995a, Giulianotti and Gerrard 2001) and the distinctions between these elements are often blurred. Although supporters of the Scottish international team have actively constructed a non-violent identity (Finn and Giulianotti 1998), domestic club football in Scotland has long been associated with sectarianism and disorder (see Murray 1984, Dunning et al. 1986b, Bradley 1995, Devine 2000, Burdsey and Chappell 2003, Bruce et al. 2004). Consequently, when the Scottish Executive made tackling sectarianism a key priority, a particular focus was placed on domestic football and more specifi cally the ‘Old Firm’ of Glasgow Celtic and Glasgow Rangers (see Scottish Executive 2006a, 2006b; Flint 2008; Flint and Powell 2009). The Scottish National Party (SNP) Scottish Government has reaffi rmed its commitment to tackling sectarianism, including undertaking work with the Promoting Citizenship Through Football Partnership, greater use of Football Banning Orders and tackling abusive behaviour at marches and parades (Scottish Government 2009). The behaviour of Rangers supporters, in particular, has received prominent attention following the disorder at the 2008 UEFA Cup Final1 in Manchester and controversies over the singing of ‘The Famine Song’. Directed at supporters of Celtic (a club strongly linked to the Irish community in Scotland), the song makes reference to the potato famine in Ireland in the 1840s and includes the line ‘why don’t you go home?’ (see BBC Sport 2008). The problematisation of sectarian chants has a long history, with a police offi cer in 1934 indicating that an incident of disorder in Glasgow had been caused by Rangers supporters: ‘they sing that song-The Billy Boys’2 (cited in Davies 2006: 215).
