Opposition parties at Holyrood have united in favour of repealing laws aimed at tackling sectarianism in football.

The motion lodged by the Scottish Conservatives, which calls for the repeal of the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act "as a matter of priority", passed by 64 votes to 63.

The act criminalises behaviour and communications related to football matches which are offensive, threatening, or incite religious hatred, including sectarian behaviour.

It was passed by the majority SNP government during the last parliament and came into force in 2012 but had little opposition support.

While this vote will not be binding, Labour MSP James Kelly has brought forward a members' bill aimed at scrapping the legislation, which has the support of the Tories, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens.

Introducing the Tory motion, the party's justice spokesman Douglas Ross told the chamber the legislation is "deeply flawed" and claimed the Scottish Government had "failed in its duty to ensure the law was indeed fit for purpose".

He said: "To put this through when you are in a majority is bad enough.

"To ignore the outcry following the implementation and to cover your eyes and ears pretending nothing is wrong is lamentable and is a failure of the government's duty to Scotland.

"It's an act the SNP will defend to the hilt, blinkered to its failings and ignorant to the calls of its critics."

He added: "They are behaving like a football club that has used all their subs but would rather leave an injured player on the pitch instead of removing him for the benefit of their team.

"There are occasions when remedying behaviour through changes in criminal law is appropriate, but on this occasion the view of legal practitioners is that there were already adequate laws in place.

"Those can and should be used to prosecute offensive behaviour, rather than vilifying football and its hundreds of thousands of fans."

Ross said: "It's time this flawed act was repealed.

"Not only does it unfairly target those civilised law-abiding fans who simply want to enjoy Scotland's beautiful game, since it was introduced it has simply served to create confusion rather than clarity," he said.

"The SNP always bring out this mantra, well what would you do if you want to repeal the act?

"To use a footballing analogy, this act doesn't need a substitution - it needs the full-time whistle blown on it and that's exactly what we intend to do here today."

In response, community safety minister Annabelle Ewing said while the majority of football fans are well behaved "there is a stubborn minority who still believe that it is acceptable to be abusive, offensive and violent at football".

She said: "The Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Act was introduced in 2012 to rid Scottish football of this abusive behaviour - to differentiate between supporting your team and descending into threatening and abusive targeting of the opposition."

Ewing recalled an incident where an 11-year-old boy was hit by a bottle on the way to an Old Firm game at Hampden last month.

She said: "Some have argued that the act unfairly targets football supporters and asked why it does not apply to rugby or other sports?

"The simple answer is that there isn't the same problem at these events."

She also hit out at the "misconceptions" the legislation was ineffective due to a lack of convictions or could be replaced with sufficient existing legislation.

Ewing added: "The principles and reasons behind this legislation are robust and it is important to point out that this legislation is part of a broader approach to tackling issues like sectarianism."

Labour MSP Claire Baker said the act had created a "culture of mistrust" towards the police and that legal alternatives to deal with the behaviour, such as breach of the peace, are already in place.

She said: "Officers now have to become judge and jury for when, as put by one sheriff, 'bad sentiment becomes hatred'. This has led to claims of misapplication and misuse.

"We have a situation where many people have been arrested without there being an identifiable victim and many charges failing to lead to convictions.

"Instead of cooperation and self-policing, we have fans being filmed, followed and searched and, according to Fans Against Criminalisation, they say the whole atmosphere at football has become one of antagonism, not between opposing fan groups but between fans and the police."

Baker added: "Yes, there are a minority of fans who let the side down, yet having an act that says fans must be treated differently from fans of other sports, such as rugby, golf or ice hockey, is not the answer.

"This is not a time for arrogance or stubbornness, it is time for the Scottish Government to accept the need to repeal the act."

Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur said the act was "flawed from the start".

He said: "We do need to show sectarianism the red card but that can be done more effectively by sending this ill-conceived Act for an early bath."

Green MSP John Finnie said his party believes there may be case for incitement to hatred legislation based on evidence and consensus and called for the Act to be repealed.

He said: "There is no place for sectarianism in Scotland. The Scottish Green Party believe that the Football Act unnecessarily restricts freedom of expression and has not been the most effective way of addressing these concerns."

The vote comes after the Scottish Government suffered a similar Holyrood defeat in September, when opposition parties united behind Labour demands to "call-in" proposed local NHS changes.