Les Gray: The police view on new football hooliganism bill

Anything that helps tackle sectarianism has to be extremely welcome.

What has happened this season has been going on in Scotland for hundreds of years. In the past year or so, however, things have come to a head. It is not acceptable. We would not tolerate racism or homophobia, and we cannot tolerate this.

So this legislation is helpful, but we need resources. If we do not get extra resources, this will be doomed from the start.

That's not just police officers asking for more money. Police force budgets are already stretched to bursting point.

You can't just say to police officers: search through sectarian websites in your lunch break. It has to be done properly.

What is being discussed is very resource-intensive. You have to put resources into it, or it is a non-starter.

It's an excellent concept and the Scottish Government has done well in bringing this forward.

But they need to fund it because, if they don't, something else is going to suffer and that will come at a cost to someone.

The ideal situation would be the Scottish Government coming forward with extra funding - that way, we would have a very real chance of making a massive difference.

For example, tackling sectarianism outside stadiums on match days includes public houses. You can't just send two cops into a pub where there's sectarian singing going on - that would not be practical.

To do it right, you need the right numbers out on patrol. That is how you make a real difference.

You also need to have a dedicated team looking at online sectarianism. You have a dedicated team for internet fraud and internet pornography, so you also need a dedicated team for sectarianism.

This is not just me trying to squeeze money out of the Scottish Government. I genuinely want to see this succeed, and if it's not resourced, it will not succeed. I think to do that, you are looking at millions, but not tens of millions.

l Les Gray is chairman of the Scottish Police Federation.