A Rangers fan has said he plans to lodge an appeal against a judge's "disgusting" ruling that his devotion to the club can't be classed as a religion.
Eddie McClung claimed he was fired from his job for being a Rangers supporter and sought £80,000 in a discrimination battle. The 51-year-old said he now has plans to lodge an appeal after an employment tribunal judge dismissed his landmark case.
Eddie, from Bonnybridge, near Falkirk, alleged that he was sacked from a subcontractor role at a Grangemouth energy site due to his allegiance to the club.
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Eddie told the Daily Record: “I am disgusted with our justice system that protects discrimination.”
The dad-of-two said evidence had been “ignored” and there had been a failure to cross-examine witnesses he claims were lying.
Representing himself during a hearing in Glasgow in June, Eddie asked the tribunal judge to find supporting Rangers constituted a “philosophical belief”.
That would mean it merited similar protection against workplace discrimination to religion or gender.
But Judge Lucy Wiseman found being a football fan is merely “a lifestyle choice” and “does not represent a belief as to a weighty or substantial aspect of human life”.
She ruled football fandom doesn’t have “larger consequences for humanity as a whole”.
The devotion of fans wasn’t deemed to have the necessary “level of cogency, seriousness, cohesion, and importance” to constitute a philosophical belief such as humanism, pacifism, or atheism.
The judge added: “The only common factor linking fans would be the fact they wanted their team to do well/win.”
Following the ruling, Eddie vowed to appeal the decision as the “discrimination was obvious”.
He described himself as the “little guy who has been failed by this justice system currently”.
During the June hearing, Eddie told the judge: “I live my life in accordance with being a Rangers fan.
“I don’t go to church. I go to Rangers. It’s a belief to me.”
He added: “Going to games has left me with memories I will never forget.
“If people say their religion is protected, how many times do they go to church? I would argue it’s as important to me as someone who has a religion.”
But lawyers for his ex-bosses told the hearing that “support for a football club is not a belief system”.
Eddie launched the action against energy construction firm Doosan Babcock, recruitment firm NRL, and his former boss Donald Ross.
He claimed he was let go after managers said there was not enough work for him, but he was actually targeted for supporting Rangers.
Eddie said a toilet at the site, where a large number of Celtic and Hibs fans worked, was defaced with graffiti mocking the 1971 Ibrox Disaster where 66 people lost their lives.
Judge Lucy Wiseman ruled Eddie's support of Rangers didn’t satisfy four of the five tests to qualify as a true philosophical belief protected under law.
Although she accepted his “belief” was genuinely held, she found it was “akin to support for a political party” and that previous cases made clear a particular political affiliation “does not constitute a philosophical belief”.
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