‘Good riddance’ – Rangers fans react as controversial law scrapped by MSPs
The Scottish Parliament have voted in favour of repealing the controversial Offensive Behaviour at Football Act (OBFA) after a vote at Holyrood on Thursday – and Rangers fans are delighted with the news.
The controversial act saw fans on both sides of the Old Firm divide up in arms, believing the legislation was simply an attempt to criminalise football fans.
Labour MSP James Kelly led the campaign to repeal the OBFA and called it “the worst piece of legislation in Scottish parliament history,” as quoted by the BBC.
Gers fans were glad to hear they no-longer faced prosecution under the flawed legislation – with one saying
Here are some of their comments on Twitter:
The catalyst for the introduction of the OBFA was the so-called Old Firm “shame game” in March 2011 that saw over 30 arrests from a crowd of 60,000 at Celtic Park and Ally McCoist and Neil Lennon having to be pulled apart at the final whistle before the Scottish Government called a special summit.
MSP’s voted 62-60 in favour of repealing the act meaning it will be removed from the statute books next month.
Fans have long condemned the act as an attempt to criminalise football fans while ignoring other issues in Scotland – with critics pointing to the violence at the 2016 Scottish Cup final as an example of its toothlessness.
In other Rangers news, this BBC pundit has said Murty must do these three things or wave goodbye to Ibrox.
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