Football fans across Fife are being urged to 'Kiss Goodbye to Bigotry' by posting a selfie online.
The campaign highlighting their love of the game, launched by Nil by Mouth, comes following a spate of negative reports relating to fans' behaviour.
The charity was founded by teenager Cara Henderson following the brutal sectarian murder of her school friend Mark Scott in 1995 as he made his way home from a football match. His killer singled him out due to the colours of his replica shirt.
The campaign has already been supported by football writers Daniel Gray and Ron Ferguson, national fans group Supporters Direct Scotland, junior Side Rossvale FC, and Partick Thistle mascot and social media phenomenon Kingsley. In an early contender for ‘Goal of the Season’ broadcaster Annie McGuire posted a photo of herself kissing Scottish footballing institution Chic Young!
Nil by Mouth Campaign Director Dave Scott said: 'Football fans often see us in the media responding to incidents that reflect badly on the game. So we have come up with a campaign which highlights that the vast majority of fans simply want to support their team and enjoy the beautiful game. There are many brilliant people involved in the game who run supporters buses, wash kits, drive kids to matches, coach teams free of charge and work behind the scenes at our clubs.
We all have our different teams and differing opinions, but we're all united by this love of the game, and its eccentricities. Sometimes it's easy to forget the joy, and forget that football isn't always the problem - it can be part of the solution.
The start of a new season is always an exciting time and with the national team also riding high we are hopeful that fans from clubs across all levels of the Scottish game will post their photo displaying their love of football and use the KissBigotryGoodbye hashtag.
So far we have seen fans posting photos taking their children to their first game, side by side with their footballing hero’s, sitting in favourite seats in the ground, celebrating a victory, and even wearing their teams’ colours on their wedding day. Our message is simple: Love Football, Banish The Bigotry.’‘
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