ON July 1 at Glasgow Green, thousands of Orangemen and their supporters cheered when Depute County Grand Master Brother Stephen Brown referred to Theresa May’s disastrous snap election by saying “what a kicking the SNP got”.

Leaving aside the fact that the “kicking” still left the SNP with by far the largest number of Scottish seats, I am worried that certain people who want to repeal the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012 are doing so not because they care about criminalisation of fans but to give the SNP “a kicking”.

Do those fans who want the Act repealed seriously think that Labour, Tory, Liberal Democrat and Scottish Green politicians are joining in the campaign because they really care about football and its fans?

No, their support for James Kelly’s bill to repeal the Act is all about giving the SNP “a kicking”.

Now as an SNP member, I am not happy with the Act. It is far from perfect, and I have always maintained that its scope is too broad. It was also a licence for then Chief Constable Sir Stephen House to bring in the sort of rigid and deeply offensive aggressive policing that he favoured, as shown by the “kettling” tactics I personally witnessed at Old Firm matches.

The Act needs to be reviewed and altered, not repealed, because simply cancelling OBFA will send out a message to the sectarian, racist, and homophobic bigots that their activities are somehow legitimate.

I know people have been found guilty under the Act for a series of different offences, but by and large it is sectarian chanting and abuse which has landed most offenders in court, especially those prosecuted under the Threatening Communications sections.

Sectarianism remains the shame of Scottish football and while it’s not confined to just Celtic and Rangers, it is followers – I don’t count them as fans or supporters because they refuse to accept both clubs’ pleas to cease their activities – of those two clubs who consistently chant their hatred or display offensive banners.

Rangers and Celtic chanters always say the opposition is to blame, and “they started it” but they cannot have it both ways. If the Green Brigade et al want to be free to sing Roll of Honour and the Boys of the Old Brigade, then they must also allow Rangers chanters to sing the Famine Song and the Billy Boys. And they are all wrong to do so, because those and other songs are offensive and thus against the law.

I have a better idea. Why don’t all those Christians – Roman Catholics and Protestants – live up to the ideals of the founder of their religion and love one another and turn the other cheek. But then we know that these ‘Christians’ are nothing of the sort, and rarely darken the doors of chapel or kirk.

More practically, let’s change the Act. Recently the Sunday Mail quite bravely printed a piece by an anonymous trainee lawyer called ‘Paul’ who described how he had been charged by the police under the Act for singing the Boys of the Old Brigade while in the Celtic end at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock.

It transpired that ‘Paul’ did not lose his career but only did so because he went through an anti-sectarian course with community justice organisation Sacro. Leaving aside the question why he thought the Boys of the Old Brigade was anything to do with Celtic, he concluded at the end of the eight one hour sessions with Sacro that what he had done was wrong, and he now knew what he had done was offensive and against the law.

That seems to me to be something the Act could be changed to do – compel those who sing Roll of Honour or the Famine Song to be educated as to why it’s wrong.

And make no mistake, this is a football matter, though for the life of me I cannot see why singing racist anti-Irish songs or praising the IRA has anything to do with football, or religion for that matter.

In no other area of life – except for Orange walks – do thousands of people gather to display their adherence to sectarianism. Of course sectarianism exists in many parts of Scottish society but only in football is bigotry practised by thousands in a stadium or on the road to a match.

Today in Holyrood, Fans Against Criminalisation – founded by, and still largely composed of – Celtic fans will give evidence to the Justice Committee looking into James Kelly’s Bill to repeal OBFA. So, too, will the Scottish Supporters Association and Supporters Direct Scotland. They will do so after the Crown Office and Police Scotland give their views on the Act.

Perhaps someone on the Committee can ask the fans representatives and even James Kelly what laws they would bring in to tackle sectarianism. Maybe some new hate crime legislation?

At the weekend we saw an extraordinary gesture by FC Barcelona in support of the Catalan people. To hold the match against Las Palmas behind closed doors was a magnificent show of solidarity and was proof that Barcelona really are more than just a football club.

Yet I could not help but be uneasy at what transpired because once again a football match was hijacked for a political cause, and Fifa’s articles expressly forbid political and religious demonstrations by member clubs and their fans in their stadia. And for all the strength of their stance, Barcelona did not outrightly cancel the match because the Spanish league authorities had told them they would be docked six points.

Go on, SFA, I dare you to dock three points off Celtic and Rangers next time a sectarian chant goes up or an offensive banner is displayed.

Until the SFA grows a pair, however, we must accept that offensive behaviour at football is society’s problem, and that’s why the Act must stay, albeit changed to make the punishment fit the crime.