Meeting of the Parliament 14 January 2026
I agree, but that issue has been policed recently. Some clubs need to engage with it. At St Mirren, we had a situation where we sat down with the club’s young ultras, and the older fans actually policed the younger fans because they were embarrassed by what they were bringing the club into. It is the responsibility of the clubs to deal with that as well.
Most fans behave themselves at football grounds, and alcohol at football could be regulated in exactly the same way as it is in other licensed premises. I am open to constructive discussion on how we achieve that, but the current reliance on short-term, temporary licensing offers no way for clubs to plan or invest. Licensing should sit, as always, with the local authority licensing board, which can provide proper oversight, and enforcement where it is needed. Done properly, that one change could help football clubs to grow their community impact, strengthen their finances and keep those clubs firmly embedded at the heart of the communities that they serve.
There is much to celebrate in Scottish football, so let us celebrate it: not just the trophies or the European nights for St Mirren after 37 years, but the lives touched, the skills nurtured and the hopes that are woven through our whole nation. In Paisley, St Mirren belongs to its fans. St Mirren also belongs to Paisley, and that reminds us that, when community comes together, there is nothing that we cannot achieve. We cheer for the goals and celebrate the wins, and we cry at the heartbreak. That is football and that is St Mirren and, above all, it belongs to us, to Paisley and to the generations yet to come.