Footballers fined

POLICE fined 12 members of a football team who were drinking in a Wetherspoon pub and claimed to be from the same household, a force said.

The team was drinking in the pub in South Shields on Sunday night when a staff member saw they were wearing football kit under their jackets and challenged them, the pub chain said.

Northumbria Police said officers issued the group with fines. The group was fined £200 each, which will be halved if it is paid within a fortnight.