Other website sections

»Sports Market Reports

»Sports Jobs

»Tenders

»Directory

»Conferences

Violent clashes between West Ham United and Millwall fans could not have come at a worse time for all football clubs, with the Home Office considering proposals for an increase in policing costs for matches.

The Home Affairs Select Committee has been formally reviewing the matter, with forces across the UK arguing strongly that clubs should foot the expense for policing public transport and town centres to prevent hooliganism. The Premier League's director of public policy, Bill Bush, argued in oral evidence that the status quo should be maintained. "When fans are moving to and fro between town centres, transport intersections, hubs and the ground, they are there as citizens rather than as precisely taking part in being spectators," he said. Bush believes that the estimated £700m contributed to the exchequer by football in taxes every year covers the expense.

The estimated cost of policing football which is chargeable to the 92 league clubs is between £12m and £15m, in addition to the £11.5m spent on stewarding at Football League clubs and more than £10m in the Premier League. But the police want new powers to recover up to an additional £10m "full-cost policing".

The select committee made its recommendations to the Home Office in a report last month, among them that "consequential policing" costs should be met by clubs. It also thinks the government should legislate on a precise definition for what is the "footprint" around a club's ground, which could challenge Bush's assertion that fans in town centres are citizens not spectators. Tuesday night's ugly scenes in E13 have hardly aided football's case.

(Source: Guardian.co.uk)