Call for review of football match policing

WEST YORKSHIRE Police charged Leeds United more for policing football matches than Huddersfield Town, despite more officers being sent to Terriers matches, figures show.

An organisation representing football fans has called for a fullscale review of the way matches are policed.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that the Whites pay nearly three-quarters of their match-day policing costs while the Terriers pay less than half, because of the rules surrounding how clubs are billed. Now new figures show Leeds gets fewer officers despite paying more.

On average, in the first half of the 2017/18 season, there were 103 officers at Leeds United home games, compared to 110 at Huddersfield Town. This equated to about 300 supporters per officer at Town’s Premier League matches and about 500 supporters per officer at Leeds United’s Championship matches, the BBC Shared Data Unit found.

Amanda Jacks, caseworker for the Football Supporters’ Federation, said: “Perhaps there should be a country-wide review of how matches are policed, particularly in very obvious times of austerity when police budgets are stretched.”

She said there was an argument that many matches were over-policed, which added to clubs’ costs, adding: “That isn’t to argue every single game should be police-free but I think for the vast majority of games, you shouldn’t see police inside a football stadium.”

West Yorkshire Police did not respond to a request for comment but in the past has said that it follows the national protocol for billing football clubs.