‘Exceptional’ festivals praised by police chief seeking more money from football

Efforts of music event organisers have reduced policing costs outside sites ‘over a number of years’

(l-r) A crowd at a UK Festival; Chief Constable Mark Roberts, head of UKFPU

Chief Constable Mark Roberts, head of the UK Football Policing Unit (UKFPU) singled out music festival organisers for praise this morning as he appealed for a greater proportion of football policing to be paid by clubs. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said that police in England and Wales were footing the bill for policing outside stadiums on match day, a cost which he believes should be passed on to football clubs.

According to the programme, the total bill for policing football last season was nearly £72 million, of which £15m was paid by clubs, with the remainder paid by the taxpayer. Roberts clarified that, following a 2017 court ruling between Ipswich Town FC and Suffolk Constabulary, the police were unable to recover £37m of football-related costs last season.

Although policing inside stadiums on matchday is covered by the clubs, he said, “Immediately outside the ground, where there is a requirement for police to manage the entrance and exit of fans, we can no longer recover that cost… anybody who goes to football will be familiar with those streets that need to be closed off to allow people entrance and exit.” He pointed out that clubs pay separately for additional medics and surgeons to attend on matchday, but are not required to cover the extra policing outside the ground.

BBC presenter Mike Williams suggested that football pays £4.2 billion to the public purse, including £1.7bn from players’ salaries, and that fans may feel they’re being singled out, compared to other mass gatherings including music festivals.

Roberts replied that procedure for recovering police costs from music and football events are identical and that, “Having policed [large music festivals] for many years now, the level of safety and security that professional promoters put in place is quite exceptional. Over a number of years that’s worked to minimise the deployment of police [outside festivals] but those officers we deploy onto the site we charge for in the same way that we do for football.”

He added that, in cases where police have challenged the 2017 ruling, judges have admitted that the law appears unfair. “We’re making the case to the government and supplying the facts  and figures, which I think speak for themselves… this falls on the clubs with the bigger crowds and the bigger revenue. Government seem to be receptive so I am hopeful that common sense will prevail and we can lessen the burden on the public purse.”

© Mike Gartside