Clubs can cut costs for police

COURT RULING SHOCK WITH HOOLIGANISM ON THE RISE

Football clubs are looking to reduce policing costs — despite disorder at games doubling in four years,

Sportsmail can reveal.

Previously unpublished figures reveal that the pitch invasion which saw Manchester City striker Sergio aguero spat at and verbally abused after his side’s Fa Cup fifth-round defeat at Wigan last month reflects a rising tide of anti-social behaviour, with 853 incidents of disorder inside stadiums last season.

that was nearly three times the number 10 years ago and included 154 attacks on clubs’ own stadium staff — a five- fold increase in the last decade.

the figures are giving rise to fears of the creeping return of hooliganism, propagated by a new young breed of male fan with no recollection of the wholesale violence of the 1970s and 1980s.

but to the dismay of police chiefs, a significant court ruling has now found that forces cannot claim back from clubs the costs of putting officers on roads and thoroughfares directlyy outside stadiums.

at the conclusion off a long-running case — brought by Suffolk Police when Ipswich town refused to pay £ 500,000 covering costs for officers patrolling Portman Road and Sir alf f Ramsey Way between n 2008 and 2013 — the Supreme Court has ruled that the Championship side do not have to pay up.

It means that even when a club control the road and is able to close it on match days, they will be able to avoid paying police for patrolling it.

the decision, which overrules an initial High Court decree that the side must pay up, could see many other clubs also refusing to pay for police support, despite the Premier league’s new multibillion-pound tV deal.

Senior police officers are staggered by the ruling and have warned that they cannot subsidise football clubs at the expense of local policing and answering 999 calls.

the development comes after the Mayor of london, Sadiq Khan, told Premier league chief executive Richard Scudamore that some of the wealthiest clubs in the country were only meeting five per cent of the overall bill to keep stadiums safe on match days.

Khan said that the Metropolitan Police were spending almost £7million a year policing football matches in the capital.

but he said the force recovered less than £350,000 from the clubs — little more than the weekly wages of some of the country’s top players.

South Yorkshire deputy chief constable Mark Roberts, head of the UK Football Policing Unit, and Essex deputy chief constable bJ Harrington, who leads on policing other sporting and music events, said in a joint statement to Sportsmail last night: ‘It is beyond irony that the court ruling comes as an updated broadcast deal is announced, extending the multi-billion pound flow of cash into the football industry. It will also impact on other sporting and music events.

‘Police do not have to provide officers to support what is ultimately the commercial activities of football. the current charging arrangements are now so heavily weighteweighted against the financial cialfinancial interests of forces, thathat we are approaching inapproaching the point where we will decline to support events in order to maintain an effective service to tthe public. ‘ In those circumstances, stcircumstances, clubs will hahave to take other measmeasures to satisfy safety advisory groups and licensing authorities that they can safely manage events without the police present.

‘that may include reducing capacities, reducing or excluding away support or a combination of other measures.’

Security experts say there is a direct link between the number of officers in grounds and the ability of stewards to control potentially anti-social fans. the number of police inside stadiums has decreased at a time when funding cuts have seen 20,000 fewer officers in service. Forces already recover only a third of their costs in policing football matches.

Even the Supreme Court judge who ruled in Ipswich town’s favour on the basis of the law suggested the club might have a duty to pay up.

‘Notwithstanding my conclusion on the law as it stands, I confess to some sympathy… especially having regard to straitened police resources,’ said lord Justice Gross.