Scotland and the Politics of Football

February 28, 2017

Scotland is a curious place. During my first day in the country, I had the chance to watch the sun set at 2:00 p.m. through the window of my class. Some of the first things I had to eat here were a stick of beer-battered haggis and a deep-fried Mars bar—I highly recommend trying a fried candy bar if you ever get the chance. However, apart from the somewhat trivial aspects of the culture, like early sunsets and candy bars, made twice as unhealthy by being battered and fried, there are so many other features of Scottish society that are telling of the country’s multifaceted nature.


On my way to Celtic Park for a match the other day, I found myself sauntering down a street with booths distributing pamphlets to any willing passers-by. The very first table I encountered was representing the Communist Party. I once joked with one of my history teachers in high school that I would register for the Communist Party USA when I reached voting age, but as it turns out, you have to go through over some extra hurdles to register as anything other than Republican, Democrat, or independent. This gross miscarriage of democracy did not allow me to follow through with a somewhat elaborate practical joke. Anyway, it probably is for the best that I’m not a registered communist. The booth was adorned with Soviet flags, so I’m not totally convinced that the booth’s owner’s weren’t joking a bit themselves, but Glasgow does have a reputation for leaning quite heavily to the left.

As I continued on my way, a few hundred feet down the road someone adamant that Israel was to blame in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict accosted me. They handed me a flyer whose headline read, “Free Palestine! Zionism is Racism!” The rest of the pamphlet read much like those letter templates that are sent in scores to your elected officials in Congress. The conflict between Palestine and Israel is not exactly straightforward, but people do seem to have some pretty firm stances on the matter. I have no clue what level of knowledge the majority of people speaking out on either side of this issue have, but if it is like any other problem in the world, there surely is a fair amount of shouting just for the sake of being heard.

Celtic fans, particularly those in the Green Brigade, have been known to make political statements, though all such actions are prohibited by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The Palestinian flag is recognized by every nation but Israel, yet it is considered a political symbol by UEFA. At any given Celtic match, you’re bound to see some of these flags waving in the crowd. There’s a running joke that the only flag you won’t see at a Celtic match is Scotland’s. So when the Celtic team was tied with an Israeli team in Champions League qualifying rounds, tensions were high. In both the home and away games, Celtic supporters displayed the Palestinian flag, which caused them to incur a fine. True to form, Celtic supporters raised the money and paid it.

I say all this to highlight a couple of things. The first is that Glasgow is a fairly liberal city, especially by American standards. The other is that political opinions are often tied to a particular club or organization, like the Celtic football team, for example. While you could argue that the Washington Wizards stand for everything that is good and noble in the world, you don’t necessarily see their games as a venue for fans to express their support for Washington, D.C. becoming the fifty-first state in the United States. Politics and sports are two separate entities in America, and the thought of them overlapping is never really seriously entertained. In Scotland, however, they are very much intertwined.
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