Andy Burnham wasn’t intending to start a nationwide debate when he said this week that football fans should be allowed to drink alcohol in the stands.
The Prime Minister was simply answering a question regarding an interview from years ago, so don’t expect this change in the law to be on his agenda.
The UK has more issues to fix than where a supporter can have a pint inside a stadium.
Yet, asked to clarify his opinion on the subject during his United Nations visit to New York, the PM stressed there has been little reason for his point of view to have changed: that when attending an Everton game, the idea that he can only consume alcohol away from his seat is dated and even discriminatory towards those who follow football, as reported by The Guardian.
It is the only sport in Britain that has so many limitations on the consumption of alcohol.
The argument is you can have a day out at the tennis, cricket, rugby, boxing, darts, etc., and be trusted as an adult to have a pint where you’re sat and act responsibly.
Why does football have different alcohol rules?
Since 1985, the Sporting Events (Control of Alcohol etc.) Act has dictated that in the top five divisions of the footballing pyramid, beer can be sold at grounds but not in view of the pitch.
Essentially, that’s why you have men and women rushing at HT because they have 15 minutes for refreshments. That’s why you tend to see so many empty seats at the start of a second half.
The man in charge of a country clearly believes that if other sports have proved it can be done safely, why should the national sport of England not trust supporters to drink alcohol beyond the concourse?
The issue, though, isn’t a football fan proving they can behave while watching a match while drinking. It’s first giving evidence you can behave better sober.
Last season, the Home Office reported 1,963 football-related arrests and other police actions across England and Wales. That is by far the highest number of spectator arrests of any sport in the UK.
That’s before we even mention the issues Celtic and Rangers are having in Scotland.
Just think about that.
The sport that has the most alcohol restrictions has the most arrests. That’s why no politician would recommend a change to laws that have worked for over four decades.
I have long written that my nation has a serious issue of thinking that, in their footballing bubble, they can act how they want.
Would relaxing the rules make the Emirates safer?
That needs fixing.
Allowing the same cowards to be drunk wouldn’t help that, and it would only put off Gooners from bringing their family to the Emirates.
A crowd feeling safe is more important than what someone would like to drink, and let’s be honest… if you can’t go 45 minutes without drinking alcohol, then you have a problem.
Let’s not forget why this legislation was introduced in 1985.
Margaret Thatcher got tired of the amount of crowd violence that ultimately got English clubs banned from Europe.
It would be an insult to anyone impacted at this time to gamble on going back to that era.
Since then, with the invention of the Premiership, football has become one of the UK’s most lucrative brands.
If it’s not broken, why try to fix it?
If one person got emotionally or physically hurt by even a trial, it’s one too many.
The juice isn’t worth the squeeze.
Dan Smith
Would you like to see supporters allowed to drink alcohol in their seats at the Emirates, or do you think the current restrictions should remain? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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It would be a backwards step to allow drinking during a game. Leave well alone.
If supporters are allowed to take their pre-match and half time drinks to their seats and the bars are closed from kick off to the end of each halves so it’s not possible to buy another through times of play then I don’t see a problem.
You’d be up and down like a yo-yo. It’s bad enough as it is with beered up people heading for the toilets midway through the half without them returning with drinks slopping everywhere as well.
People arriving late at the start of both halves/leaving early at the end of the first half is bad enough. There’s not enough drinks stations to cope with demand so returning late for the second half is the result. Then there’s the litter…
If they can’t wait 45 minutes, there are excellent facilities on the inner concourse for drinking and watching the game (at least, there used to be).
The toilet breaks would still be an issue.
TBH, I have never had a drink at a match, and would support a total ban, but they make too much money from it, so no chance.
Yes there are. Just the queues to contend with means people not getting served quickly enough to be able to return to their seats in time.
Jax, one can’t watch the games from the concourses anymore, as the club have stopped it in order to get fans back in their seats and supporting the players from the terraces….and it has worked well.
Ken, some time since I’ve been to The Emirates. Good idea to stop the drinkers drifting in as and when they please.
Total ban would be better, I’ve never understood why anyone should want to drink at a game anyway. It would cause total carnage with a lot of so called supporters not being able to control themselves once they have had there fill of booze. Just enjoy the game and have a drink after
For me it should stay as it is. If you can’t last 90 minutes plus time added on, then maybe you’ve got a drinking problem.
Just another thought to throw in. Watching England, when they score people chuck their beers all over the place in celebration. Now I don’t know if it would happen in a domestic game, but if it did there’d be carnage.
I agree.
They try to promote the game as a family sport – I’m not a parent but I would object to seeing my child being soaked in lager when we scored a goal…
I don’t know – perhaps its just me 🙂
Leon,
No it’s not just you, there’s at least two of us. 👍
Just to throw another thought in while I’m a it. I think Andy Burnham should concern himself more with getting this country back on its feet, rather than concern himself with people drinking at a football match. Just saying. 🤷♂️🤦♂️
With everyone seated (well mostly) now, there would be so many “did you spill my drink pal” incidents and people getting up and down with others in and out for another drink and many more needing the toilets. As Derek said above, Burnham needs to get his priorities right more than suggesting stupid populist ideas like this.
After fourteen years of CONservative sleaze corruption and austerity I suggest we give Andy Burnham a chance to do what Derek says.
However the idea of allowing drink back onto the terraces is a backward move in my opinion, especially as we now have standing areas for both home and away fans.
It will be interesting to see what the plans are for improving the concourses for the lower tiers but in my opinion Andy has got this one wrong.
Just stating the number if arrests without giving the number of patrons and a ratio of the two compared to the number of arrests, number of patrons, and the ratio of the two for other sports is misleading. I do not know if football supporters have a disproportionate problem with alcohol, but this article does not inform us.
No mate it’s getting that many arrests when drinking away from the pitch
So common sense says increasing drinking can’t help
I looked it up for you, there were around 55,000,000 spectators at UK football matches that year. If there were 1963 arrests (not all of the arrests were alcohol related, but whatever), then 0.00357% of football spectators were arrested.
but how will alcohol help bring that number down ?
There are 3.6 arrests per 100,000 people at football matches per year in UK. There are 7200 arrests per 100,000 people in the UK per year. Not sure why you view football stadiums as dens of depravity.
Yeah so if you want to get that number down how would alcohol help ?
When we have evidence of what it did in the past ?
Because I seen grown men and women act at a football stadium how they wouldn’t act elsewhere so the solution can’t be lets give them more alcohol lol
I think it has more to do with the tribalism among football supporters. You never hear of cricket fans drinking lager in the summer heat, having issues or middle-class rugby fans getting drunk. and causing problems, because there’s no hatred among the opposing fans.
You can bring a piping hot tea to your seat and potentially cause harm by throwing it at someone nearby but you can’t bring a cold beer, make that one make sense? Whats the difference between having a beer on the concourse and sitting in your seat? Daft rule that makes no sense.
I think it’s more about drunkenness in the stands, rather than on the concourse. Also, the disturbances caused by people going backwards and forwards to get refills and, inevitably, to regularly use the toilets.
It’s a very good rule, and personally, I’d ban drinks completely. If you can’t last the better part of two hours, something is seriously wrong.
Jax,
You’re last sentence I have echoed in my post to.
Derek, it’s obvious really, people don’t go to football to drink, so it shouldn’t be an effort to go without for the match duration.
The only time that I can remember drinking at a game was a pint at Wembley some years back, and only then because my friends with me were celebrating.
Jax,
I guess that’s you’re story and you’re sticking to it.😂🤣😉
True, just one pint😏, of Fosters (“Brewed under licence in the UK”), which I detest.
I look at having a drink before or during half time as a personal choice. It’s part of the experience if I choose and no different to buzzing off to the bar between acts at the theatre.
Now I know what the P in your name stands for🥃🍺🍸
Sue Pimms – quintessentially English as opposed to a French Suzanne Pernod ? Or just plain Sue Pale-ale. Otherwise Jax, I’ve no idea what you’re referring to?🤥
I daren’t say SueP
i think its because Alcohol is a depressant, meaning it slows down activity in the central nervous system and interferes with neurotransmitters that regulate mood, decision-making, and self-control