Official Report 465KB pdf
::I ask those members who are leaving the chamber to do so now, and do so quietly, because we now move to the next item of business. The final item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S6M-20769—[Interruption.]
I ask members to leave the chamber quietly, please.
The final item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S6M-20769, in the name of Gillian Mackay, on recognising the contribution that football clubs and their fans make to society. The debate will be concluded without any question being put. I invite those members who wish to speak in the debate to press their request-to-speak buttons now.
I point out, given the lateness of the hour and the fact that other receptions are not able to start until we finish, that I expect members to keep their time, which is seven minutes for the opening speech, four minutes for the speeches in the open debate and seven minutes for the minister to respond. Just to let members know, I have a button that can help to enforce that.
With that, I call Gillian Mackay to open the debate—up to seven minutes, please.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament notes that football is one of the most loved and successful sports in the country and that Scotland boasts some of the most loyal supporters anywhere in Europe, but believes that, often, fans feel they are taken for granted or are an afterthought; considers that, across the country, including in the Central Scotland region, supporters groups and community trusts or charitable foundations attached to professional clubs are often enhancing their environment and giving back to those who find themselves in challenging situations, from foodbank collections to mental health initiatives; believes that football fans are often the beating heart of their communities, creating unity in spaces where division can be prevalent; considers that, with rising living costs, varying ticket prices and high transport costs, the current landscape is making it difficult for working-class fans and families to afford to follow their club, an outlet, it believes, that allows hundreds of thousands of people across the country an escapism and a sense of optimism in a time of struggle; recognises that a price cap has been in place in England for over a decade and means that travelling fans do not pay more than £30 for a ticket, yet understands that no such cap exists at present in Scotland; notes the calls for all 42 Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs, as well as the Scottish Football Association (SFA) to put fans first; further notes the view that the voices of supporters should be heard by decision makers and amplified within the Scottish Parliament, and notes the belief that those running the national game should listen to the calls from the Scottish Supporters Collective and many fans across the country and cap away football ticket prices at £25.
18:51
::Warning noted, Deputy Presiding Officer.
It does not take politicians speaking in the chamber to highlight just how much football means to the people of Scotland. We can see from the jubilant scenes up and down the country last November, when Steve Clarke’s men’s squad qualified for our first world cup since I was seven, that football is, for many, not only escapism but a way of life. Our national game can often be an outlet. Football allows hundreds of thousands of people across Scotland an escape. It can bring much-needed optimism in a time of struggle, and a sense of purpose, belonging and civic pride. It creates friendships and family bonds that can last a lifetime.
Moreover, football can open up to people a world beyond their locality. It gives supporters an opportunity to visit places that they may never have considered visiting; to learn about other cultures that they knew little about before; and to have experiences that go beyond the 90 minutes on the pitch.
Last month, independent academic research revealed that Scottish football contributes £820 million to the Scottish economy and supports 14,315 jobs. That assessment, from the Fraser of Allander Institute, underlines the growing contribution of our national sport and its clubs to the Scottish economy. The study also found that attendance at professional matches involving Scottish teams topped 6.8 million during the 2023-24 campaign.
In my Central Scotland region, I am extremely proud to have several football clubs that go above and beyond in the communities that they serve. In the Scottish premiership, both Motherwell and Falkirk—two fan-owned football clubs being driven through the Well Society and the Falkirk Supporters’ Society—are punching well above their weight, sitting comfortably among the top six teams in the country and mounting challenges for those lucrative European spots.
Recently, I had the pleasure of visiting Derek Allison and the team at the Falkirk Foundation. The work that the foundation does is invaluable, from providing a full pathway for under-seven girls’ football to the senior team, to baby bairns classes for kids, starting at just 18 months. The organisation leads the way in offering mental health training; football classes for people living with Down’s syndrome; monthly engagement initiatives to tackle social isolation for people over 60 and so much more. The Falkirk Foundation is a well-established anchor organisation at the heart of my community.
Similarly, the wonderful Dawn and the team at Motherwell Football Club Community Trust use the power of football as a tool for community engagement. In 2021—a year disrupted by lockdowns, and by restrictions on numbers and travel—the trust brought benefits of £13.64 million to the local community.
When we talk about football, we often talk about the clubs: the enthralling matches, the less enthralling matches and the trophies won. Without fans, however, those moments would be diluted, and the financial contribution would be significantly less.
I brought the debate to the chamber to highlight the contribution that football clubs and their fans make to society. As I touched on, football is one of the most loved and successful sports in the country, and Scotland boasts some of the most loyal supporters anywhere in Europe. However, the more I speak to supporters and supporters’ organisations, the more aware I become that fans feel that they are being taken for granted. They are the only stakeholder that is consistently removed from debates—to put it simply, decisions that affect football fans are being made without the input of football fans. That is nothing new, but I believe that it is something that we, as parliamentarians, must seek to change.
Match-going fans have long been misunderstood. Those attending matches in Scotland have, at times, been targeted by the media, by politicians and by police. Instances of disorder, even though they typically relate to only a tiny minority of spectators, have led to football fandom suffering from stigma. However, when football fans unite and organise, they can achieve some incredible things—just ask those who run fan-supported food banks in stadiums across the country; the ultras groups who have organised toy collections or helped those in need in their communities; and Medical Aid for Palestinians, which receives significant donations following campaigns by Celtic fans. I would like to see, from my colleagues across the chamber, a commitment to see the best in football supporters, to value their contribution and to support them to grow our game and create a positive culture.
As football becomes increasingly commodified and sanitised, it loses its identity. A huge factor in that has been the rising ticket costs that we are seeing across the board. Football is meant to be for everyone, but across our country, there are families and working-class fans being priced out of attending matches. As an example, for the upcoming Rangers-Celtic match in the Scottish cup, adults are being charged £53, with concessions being around £10 less. The estimated ticket revenue from that game is more than £2.5 million. Both clubs will receive more in gate receipts from that game than the winners of the cup will receive in prize money. It is totally exploiting the loyalty of fans.
The Scottish Greens are calling for a £25 cap on away tickets in Scotland. In January, I urged the First Minister, at First Minister’s question time, to back the cap, and I wrote to all 42 professional clubs, urging them to support a fair pricing agreement that would keep football accessible for supporters during the cost of living crisis. I am delighted that that campaign has been backed by several supporters’ clubs already, and by organisations such as the Scottish supporters collective and Supporters Direct Scotland.
At recent matches, supporters have taken matters into their own hands, holding up banners demanding a £25 cap and sending a clear message to clubs and football authorities across Scotland that it is an issue that fans deeply care about. I am grateful to fans at Falkirk, Motherwell, Kilmarnock, Celtic, Hibernian, St Johnstone, Partick Thistle, Dundee United and Aberdeen. We have also previously seen support for lower ticket prices at St Mirren. Fans of Falkirk and Hibs have gone a step further and boycotted recent matches at Celtic Park, stating that the pricing structure is unacceptable, and I commend their efforts.
Clubs should listen to their supporters. The passion and organisation that we have seen from fans show that there is a strong appetite for change, and it is time for football authorities and clubs to respond. We need more democracy at the heart of Scottish football. We must look at a fairer distribution of resources and at marketing our game better to attract further ethical investment that does not come from health-harming products or from gambling. We must do more to put supporters’ voices at the forefront. We must ensure that fans can have an ownership stake—
::Ms Mackay, you need to conclude.
::Sorry.
Fans need to have a strong voice in how the clubs are run. Scottish football is a unique melting pot of passion, colour, joy and—at times—heartbreak. We must ensure that fans are centred at the heart of it, and I thank members for supporting my motion.
18:59
::I thank Gillian Mackay for lodging the motion for debate. This is the third debate in which I have taken part in recent weeks on the value of Scottish football—I see some regular contributors to those debates, including Mr Adam and Mr Whittle, in the chamber. I see nothing wrong in that—it speaks to the centrality of football as part of the lived experience of many of us in Scotland. For my part, I very much enjoyed being at Firhill on Saturday, watching Partick Thistle beat Airdrie 1-0—I always enjoy watching Airdrie lose against Partick Thistle, it has to be said.
I am looking forward to being at St Mirren in a couple of weeks’ time, where I will watch my team defeat Mr Adam’s team in the Scottish cup quarter final. As an aside, I commend to all members my motion recognising the 150th anniversary of Partick Thistle Football Club—if colleagues have not yet signed it, I would urge them to do so. I declare an interest as a member of the Jags Foundation, which is part of the fan-owned nature of the club.
I will focus most of my remarks on what is given back by football fans. It is important to reflect on that because, all too often, we hear negative reporting in that context, but an awful lot of good does happen. The Minister for Drugs and Alcohol Policy and Sport will be able to testify to that, given her role; I am sure that she will have engaged with many of the trusts and foundations out there. I did similar when I was Minister for Sport, Health Improvement and Mental Health, in the dim and distant past, and I was very heartened to see what was being done.
The sum total of the activity of those foundations and trusts—I am sure that someone has quantified it; I might have been able to testify to that back in the day—is significant. The figures in relation to Motherwell alone, which Gillian Mackay talked about, show that the impact on Lanarkshire is significant, and we should reflect on that. I see that with my own team through the efforts of the Partick Thistle Charitable Trust and the activity that it undertakes in north Glasgow, and through jags for good, which is an informal organisation in which supporters have been raising funds for local food banks and initiatives to welcome refugees to the city.
In my own area, which is part of the Central Scotland region, we see that as part of the core activity of grass-roots football clubs, and that core activity is, in and of itself, a social good. There is a commitment to ensuring that people have an outlet for leisure and sporting activity, and those who volunteer their time are drawing good from it. I see that with the various amateur and youth teams in my area, and with the four teams in the area that are part of the Scottish football pyramid and some of the activities that they undertake. Cumbernauld United play Cumbernauld Colts in a Cumbernauld cup game every year, which raises funds for local charities. I have seen those clubs taking part in food bank collections and in safety awareness campaigns with Network Rail for their young players.
I see that I do not have much time, but I will touch briefly on ticket costs. Something needs to be done about that, although I recognise that it is not within the gift of this Parliament to legislate in that area. The figures that were cited for the upcoming old firm Scottish cup quarter final are, to be frank, staggering. I have to tread carefully, as a west of Scotland MSP, speaking in such a vein rather than as a Partick Thistle fan per se, but I would recommend other Glasgow football teams to people who want to be able to go and watch a game. Nevertheless, that amount of money is ridiculous, and something should be done.
The football authorities should be considering the notion of a price cap—it seems to me that £25 is still a little bit too much, but there certainly should be a cap. That should be looked at, and I thank Gillian Mackay for bringing the debate to the chamber.
19:03
::I thank Gillian Mackay for lodging her motion and bringing the debate to the chamber, allowing some of us, once again, to talk about football.
Two or three weeks ago, I chaired an event at the festival of politics on the soft power of sport, which members who are in the chamber for this debate would have enjoyed. I opened that event by saying that sport does not care about colour, creed, religion or sexuality—sport cares only about performance, and it has an inextricable ability to draw communities together around a passion. I have talked about that in the chamber many times before: how sport can break down barriers and have an influence and an impact on people’s lives.
We are talking about football today, and I will mention—as I always do—the last football match that I saw. It was on Sunday, when my grandson was playing for Ayr United—these are only 12-year-olds, I should say—against St Johnstone.
There is a community around that football club, which is drawn from all over the place. We in that community all gathered there to watch those kids joyfully knock lumps out of each other, as it turned out. With my eldest grandson, it is rugby, which involves a different community of people who come together around a passion for that particular sport.
Gillian Mackay rightly talked about the influence of football in communities, and there are many instances that I could talk about in that regard. I am at Motherwell Football Club every Monday night, when I join my good friend Tommy McKean, who coaches there, and we get our squads together. When Tommy was looking for somewhere to house his squad, Motherwell Football Club allowed him to use its indoor facility for free. Clubs are the centre of our communities.
I have previously talked about things such as the changing room initiative at Hearts and Hibs and the ability of football clubs to reach into communities and go where statutory services cannot. That is incredibly powerful. I will not go into St Mirren in great detail, because I am pretty sure that it will be mentioned later. However, we have talked about the way in which community clubs bring people together—they coalesce around that passion. Frankly, we undervalue that. We undervalue the soft power of sport and the impact that it can have. We are trying to stop conflict and create a community ethos and spirit. We undervalue the power of sport, and we also underfund it.
We must be careful when we talk about ticket prices. The last time we debated the issue, I was approached by somebody from St Johnstone who said, “Did you know that we offer a free ticket to a child who goes along with an adult?” Those are the kind of initiatives that we need to be aware of.
I am running out of time.
::Yes, Mr Whittle, you are indeed.
::I thank Gillian Mackay for once again allowing me the opportunity to talk all things sport.
19:07
::I welcome the opportunity to speak in the debate. Jamie Hepburn commented that it is one of a number of debates that we have had on football recently. I have not participated in all of them, but some might say that we have had some fixture congestion when it comes to debates on football in the chamber. I thank Gillian Mackay for bringing this particular one to the chamber to recognise the importance of fans to our national game.
It is worth repeating the immortal words of Jock Stein that football without fans is nothing. That is absolutely true anywhere in the world, but the passion and support that there is here in Scotland is seldom surpassed. The Scottish premiership already has a higher weekly match attendance per head than any other country in Europe, and that was before the rollercoaster that we have witnessed this season, with St Mirren winning the league cup, Scotland qualifying for the world cup and an exciting title race involving four teams, with Hearts and Motherwell not just winning games but playing fantastic football. As we have heard, we also still have eight teams that could win the Scottish cup. What a brilliant time to be a football fan in Scotland.
As we have heard, we must recognise the costs for fans of attending games. I have said before in relation to the world cup, and I would say in relation to football at any level, that we cannot or should not price ordinary working people out of the game that they love. Therefore, as Mr Whittle has done, I welcome and commend the schemes that are operated by clubs such as St Mirren and others that offer significantly reduced ticket prices for children or indeed free tickets for local schoolchildren. For families on low incomes, attending football matches can be particularly challenging.
::Does Mr Bibby recognise that the cap that we are looking for is on away tickets? Although there are great initiatives at individual clubs, there is an issue to do with people being priced out of following their clubs on the road.
::I do. There are affordability issues, particularly for away fans but also for home fans, so we need to consider both in the round. For families who attend matches, as well as the ticket prices, there is everything else that goes along with that, even for home matches.
We must recognise the significant economic contribution that Scottish football and its supporters make. A recent report by the Fraser of Allander Institute that was commissioned by the Scottish Professional Football League, the Scottish Football Association and the Scottish Women’s Premier League showed that the national game creates £840 million in gross value added in the economy and supports 14,315 full-time equivalent jobs.
It is clear that ticket revenues are an important part of clubs’ revenues, and we must recognise that. However, I hope and expect that our football clubs will look carefully at what more can be done to balance revenue needs with the need to make attending football matches more affordable, not just for away fans but for home fans. There is no doubt that away fans help to create an atmosphere at football matches, but our football clubs will surely want to boost attendance and fill any seats in the home stands, if they can.
I thank Gillian Mackay for securing the debate. I look forward to hearing the response from the 42 clubs and from the Scottish Government. I agree that clubs should listen to and engage with fans, and I join other members in praising the work that fans do.
19:11
::I thank Gillian Mackay for securing this important debate. I know that she has campaigned passionately on various football issues to ensure that football remains focused on the fans—the very people who sustain it.
On any match day in my Lothian region, whether people are walking through Leith towards Easter Road stadium or heading to Tynecastle park, the atmosphere on our streets is transformed. People can feel the energy, the vibrancy and the unity.
On match days, our local businesses thrive, too. Cafes, pubs and shops are full, so the local economy feels the boost.
However, match days are not just about sport; they are about community life. Families and friends gather to celebrate the beautiful game. When sons and daughters attend their first live match, the experience stays with them for ever. I remember my first visit to Tynecastle, with my uncle and other members of my family, to watch Hearts play. I am a Hearts supporter, and my team are at the top of the league at the moment. I hope that, at the end of the season, Heart of Midlothian will have won the premier league. Of course, I look forward to Scotland winning the world cup, too.
At that first match, I still remember the roaring crowd, the anticipation and the pride—that experience has never left me. I cannot remember who won, but that feeling has stayed with me since I was a very young age.
In challenging times, football offers something powerful. For 90 minutes, people can set aside their daily worries. Supporters have told me that, after a win, they feel lifted, re-energised and ready to face the week ahead with renewed optimism.
Fans are the life-blood of our clubs. They are the 12th person, pushing their team forward and creating a sense of camaraderie and belonging. However, their impact goes far beyond the stadium walls.
Earlier this week, I visited Spartans Community Foundation in Pilton. Its work brings together football, youth work, education and community engagement. It supports about 2,500 local people each week, and it employs 77 staff, many of whom are loyal supporters of the club. The foundation’s new education pavilion includes a science, technology, engineering and mathematics club, and it works with 940 pupils to create academic and sporting opportunities for young people from all backgrounds.
North Edinburgh would not be the same without the Hibernian Community Foundation. With the help of volunteer funds, it runs active school initiatives, football for all sessions and holiday camps for young people. For the 2025-26 season, Hibernian FC has brought back its football for a fiver initiative, which helps to remove barriers for families who want to attend matches.
Other football foundations, such as the Big Hearts Community Trust, have amazing community programmes, such as welcome through football, which supports young refugees to integrate and find jobs. Heart of Midlothian also runs a free lunch club called warm welcome every Wednesday at the 1874 fan bar at Tynecastle, and that is a lifeline to many vulnerable and socially isolated people in the local community.
::Please bring your remarks to a close, Mr Choudhury.
::That is why we must give greater power to football fans.
I end by wishing the Scotland football team all the best in the world cup.
19:15
::I, too, have been involved in many of these debates, but I will ensure that I give an entirely new speech and that you do not have your finger anywhere near that button, Presiding Officer.
I am delighted to contribute to the debate, which was brought to the chamber by my friend and colleague Gillian Mackay, and to recognise the vital contribution that our football clubs make to their fans and to our society. I have said before that football is not just a game in Scotland but is woven into the fabric of our communities. In Paisley, St Mirren Football Club has been a cornerstone of our community for generations, bringing together people from all backgrounds and ages.
I am particularly proud of the work that I established and led in the St Mirren Independent Supporters Association. We have built a fan ownership model in Paisley and SMISA now holds a majority stake in St Mirren FC, ensuring that supporters have a genuine voice in how their club is run. Our partnership with our corporate stakeholder Kibble mirrors the successful German model of fan ownership, in which clubs must follow the 50-plus-1 rule, ensuring that members retain majority voting rights. We have created a similar structure at St Mirren, where community ownership works alongside responsible corporate partnership. Kibble’s involvement has been transformative but, crucially, fans remain at the heart of all decision making.
Fan ownership has grown across Scotland and there are currently supporter-owned or part-owned clubs in Scottish football, including Hearts, Motherwell, Dunfermline Athletic and Stirling Albion. That model is even more established in Germany, where all but three Bundesliga clubs operate under the 50-plus-1 rule and 15 of the 18 clubs have majority fan ownership. That has created one of the most affordable and fan-friendly cultures in Europe, with average ticket prices significantly lower than in Scotland and England.
I have witnessed first-hand in my constituency the transformative work that is being done by St Mirren. The club is a beacon of inclusivity and has achieved recognition as a disability-friendly club through its partnership with the charity I Am Me Scotland. That groundbreaking work ensures that everyone, regardless of ability, can enjoy the beautiful game in a safe and welcoming environment. That is what football should be all about: opening doors, not closing them.
We must acknowledge that football is facing an affordability crisis. Working-class fans and families are being priced out of the game that they love. When someone on a modest income has to choose between paying bills and taking their child to see their local football team, something fundamental has gone wrong.
I support the calls for a £25 price cap on away tickets in Scotland. I recognise that ticket sales form a more significant proportion of revenue for Scottish clubs than for those in many other European leagues. Unlike England’s Premier League or Germany’s Bundesliga, where there is a substantial income from broadcasting deals, our Scottish clubs rely heavily on gate receipts. According to recent analysis, ticket sales account for 20 to 30 per cent of revenue for most Scottish Professional Football League clubs.
However, that should not be used as an excuse; instead, it should serve as a call for creative thinking about how to balance financial sustainability with accessibility. How can we ensure that our clubs thrive while keeping the game affordable for ordinary families? The German model shows us the way forward. By combining fan ownership with affordable pricing, they have built sustainable clubs with passionate and loyal supporter bases. Those clubs are financially stable precisely because they prioritise accessibility, community engagement and affordability.
Football clubs such as St Mirren do remarkable work in their communities, from food bank connections to mental health initiatives, but we should always put the football fan first. Let us recognise that affordable football is not a luxury but is essential for the health of our communities and the future of national game and let us champion the fan ownership model as a pathway to sustainable, community-centred football that serves everyone.
::Thank you Mr Adam. I did not have to use the button, which is always good.
I call the minister, Maree Todd, to respond to the debate.
19:19
::Tapadh leibh, Oifigeir Riaghlaidh. In Scotland, football is more than a sport. It is a cultural anchor—a weekly ritual that is passed from generation to generation—that makes a significant economic contribution to society.
Gillian Mackay referenced the recent independent academic research by the Fraser of Allander Institute, which revealed that Scottish football contributes £820 million in gross value added to the Scottish economy and supports more than 14,000 jobs. The former figure includes fan spend that is related to matches across the country, with attendances at professional football matches involving a Scottish team in the 2023-24 season topping an incredible 6.8 million. Those figures clearly demonstrate the significant contribution that Scottish football makes to society, which is hugely encouraging.
Supporting a team regularly involves a significant commitment in time and money, whether fans attend only home games as a season ticket holder or they follow their team home and away every week. In Scotland, season ticket prices for home fans in the Scottish Premiership this season vary greatly, from £225 at Livingston to £608 at Celtic. Gillian Mackay is correct to say that there are no set ticket price caps for away fans, and that prices can exceed £30 a ticket, but that is not always the case, with tickets for five of the six Scottish Premiership games this weekend costing £30 or less.
It is important to note that the SPFL rules require that visiting supporters cannot be charged more than home supporters for a similar seat, and that pricing discrimination between home and away supporters is prohibited. It should therefore not be the case that visiting fans are being unfairly treated compared with home fans.
That is also not an issue below the premiership. Outside the top tier, it is commonplace for clubs to offer tickets below £25 to attract supporters. At Arbroath Football Club, for example, terraced away adult tickets cost £21 or £22 this season. Last Friday night, St Johnstone fans paid £24 for a ticket to see their team at Raith Rovers. In the women’s game, prices are much cheaper, with the average Scottish Women’s Premier League match this season costing £9.10 for an adult.
Scottish clubs already actively implement a wide range of pricing initiatives and incentives to ensure that football remains accessible to supporters of all ages and backgrounds. Those measures illustrate that clubs are responsive to affordability concerns, and it is in their interests to be so. This year, for a second consecutive season, Hibs ran its football for a fiver initiative for the club’s fixture against Motherwell in January, at which the offering of tickets at £5 to both home and away supporters led to a full stadium. St Mirren has a grass-roots and family offer. Aberdeen has had a season ticket price freeze for two seasons. Many clubs operate schemes to encourage family attendance, such as the one at St Johnstone that Brian Whittle described.
In the English Premier League, which is the richest league in the world and does not rely on gate receipts to anywhere near the same extent as the leagues in Scotland, there has been a price cap of £30 for away fans since the 2016-17 season, and Premier League clubs have agreed another extension through the 2026-27 season. However, that cap is only for that league—it does not apply to the tiers below in the English Football League, where away ticket prices vary significantly and can exceed £40 for higher-demand games. Interestingly, the cap does not apply for cup games, either, which would be equivalent to the ones that Ms Mackay mentioned.
It is also important to note that there is no price cap for home fans in the English Premier League. The cost of adult season tickets at Arsenal, for example, ranges from £900 to more than £2,000. At Everton, season ticket prices range from £640 to £900, and at Bournemouth this season, adult season tickets cost between £423 and £1,164, so although away ticket prices are capped in the Premier League, home fans pay a premium.
Football is substantially cheaper in Scotland than in England, but I absolutely appreciate that cheaper is not necessarily the same as affordable, and affordability is at the heart of the matter. Supporters’ groups have been vocal on the issue, and I have sympathy with the twenty’s plenty campaign. However, clubs have their own challenges. Operating costs have surged—from energy bills to stadium maintenance to the cost of improving squads. Simply lowering prices is not always economically sustainable for SPFL clubs.
::It is important to recognise that one club in the top flight is already implementing £25 tickets for away fans. Falkirk has been doing that for a while, and its stadium is absolutely jumping every week. There is a balance of affordability to be struck, but the question is also whether clubs can afford not to do it.
::I absolutely agree that a creative response is at the heart of the issue, as Gillian Mackay and George Adam have said. Clubs need to look at what they can manage. It is a delicate question of keeping tickets affordable but also keeping clubs alive. The answer to the question of whether football ticket prices in Scotland are becoming too expensive for ordinary supporters is, clearly, not a simple yes or no.
Football in this country has always thrived because of full stands, local identities and the roar of passionate communities. I am passionate about football—indeed, about sport—being accessible to everyone, where communities gather, where young supporters fall in love with the sport and, ideally, where no one feels that they are being priced out. Football belongs to the people—the families who save up for season tickets and the kids who dream in club colours. Protecting accessibility is not just good economics but essential to the soul of the Scottish game.
It has been interesting and helpful to hear the views of members on this important issue. However, we also need fan groups and football authorities to contribute to what is an important debate. I therefore propose that we add the topic to next Monday’s agenda for the round-table event on enhancing Scottish football, which I chair and on which Gillian Mackay sits, so that we can have a full and open discussion.
Let us support our clubs but also champion the supporters, who are the lifeblood of Scottish football.
::That concludes the debate.
Meeting closed at 19:27.
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