12 Aug 2008Football clubs should pay more for policing

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Football clubs should be forced to pay more for the cost of policing matches, according to the Association of Chief Police Officers.

A report from BBC Radio 5 revealed that it costs as much as £7.5 million to police 13 Premier League clubs, with teams paying £4.3 million and the police paying £3.2 million.

The information was obtained using the Freedom of Information Act and all constabularies policing Premier League teams were contacted.

Data from six forces was compared and assistant chief constable Stephen Thomas said that taking officers away from local communities to police football clubs was costing too much.

"Our normal police budget is being used for that purpose which means we then have to provide a lesser service to the rest of the community," he claimed.

Arsenal paid £600,000 of the £890,000 needed to police their home games while Manchester United were the most expensive team to control with Greater Manchester Police spending £543,442 on policing the club.

Dan Johnson, head of communications at the Premier League, said enough money was paid to the government.

He said the Premier League contributed over £700 million a year to the Treasury as well as tax from 13 million fans attending games.

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