Mr McClung supported Glasgow Rangers Football Club (Rangers) for around 42 years. He received a birthday card from them each year, spent most of his income on seeing them play, woke up “buzzing” on match days, and subscribed to Sky Sports to make sure he “never misses a match”.
Mr McClung “considered supporting Rangers was a way of life and that it was as important to him as it was for religious people to go to Church”.
Did Mr McClung’s belief in supporting Rangers amount to a philosophical belief that was protected from discrimination under equality laws?
The Employment Tribunal applied the tests derived from case law and found that:
- there was no dispute that Mr McClung genuinely held the belief;
- however, Mr McClung’s support was akin to support for a political party, which case law says is not a philosophical belief;
- the belief was not about a weighty or substantial aspect of human life and had no larger consequences for humanity as a whole;
- however fanatical Mr McClung’s support for Rangers was, it lacked cogency, cohesion and importance; and
- unlike matters such as the governance of a country or ethical veganism, the belief of supporting Rangers was not adequately worthy of respect in a democratic society.
Therefore, the Tribunal found that support of Rangers was not a protected philosophical belief, so could not be relied on for the purposes of a discrimination claim.
See the full decision here.
