I just walked past my local train station and there was a crowd of football fans yelling abuse at a line of 50 or more police officers. There were police vans backed up along the high street, and I don’t doubt that there were more police stationed all along the route. Not such a rare occurrence (I do live near a particularly notorious football club to be fair), but [I checked](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45837613) and apparently the cost of providing police to stop these twats from killing each other / smashing up the place falls [squarely on the taxpayer](https://www.itv.com/news/london/2017-11-10/exclusive-true-cost-of-policing-football-in-the-capital-revealed).

Football clubs are multi-million pound profit machines – how can it be OK for them not to pay for the huge costs incurred? Why should they get away with causing all this disruption and making the rest of us foot the bill?

EDIT: A lot of people are saying that in Manchester the clubs do pay for the police at train stations and such. Can anyone can point me to a source on that? So far everything I’ve read (including quotes from senior GMP officers) says otherwise.

FURTHER EDIT: Thanks to [u/EricUtd1878](https://www.reddit.com/u/EricUtd1878/) for posting this link which pretty confirms what they’re saying [https://www.skysports.com/football/news/2788817/wigan-anger-at-police-bill](https://www.skysports.com/football/news/2788817/wigan-anger-at-police-bill)

BTW: I didn’t mention it but the football club in question is Millwall. Most of the time the supporters are fine (family atmosphere and all that), but it seems when it’s a bitter rival we get trouble.

For the record, it’s not the policing inside the stadium that I’m talking about, but the extra police swarming around my local area every time Millwall plays someone tasty.

ANOTHER EDIT: Thanks to u/dreamerboy007 for a great comment that actually lays out the legal & financial situation instead of all the best guesses out there.

26 comments

  2. I have zero interest in football, but I accept that lots of people enjoy it and want to go to matches. I’d be pretty unhappy about the police giving a bill to protest movements, or to parades etc., so I think it’s fair enough that society pays for policing of football too.

    I actually thought football clubs did pay towards policing costs, but a quick Google appears to show i was incorrect.

  4. 😂 Grow up.

    Football as industry gives far more to the taxman than its takes away in policing costs. It’s not even close.

    You don’t like football, fine. But you clearly have no idea on the positive impact in it has this and many more countries around the world. I’m just talking tax money. You should look into the community work these million pound machines do. It’s staggering. The good FAR outweighs the negative.

  5. Highly recommend watching this clip: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl0aEz34A4o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl0aEz34A4o)

    This argument could be made for all manner of things – at some point state spending such as police will go on something that could be argued it shouldn’t. However, that’s the whole point of taxes is to cover a lot of spending for everyone to protect society.

  6. As far as I’m aware, the taxpayer pays the policing costs for everything that happens in society – protests, G7 conference security, sticking policemen on the door of No 10 to ignore parties – so why *wouldn’t* football matches (and other sports fixtures) be paid for out of normal police budgets?

  8. But surely football clubs pay their fairs share of corporation tax so why should they pay extra for cops at the game?

  11. The FOOTBALL CLUBS foot the bill for match day policing. Not the tax payer. Do some fucking research.

  12. > Football clubs are multi-million pound profit machines – how can it be OK for them not to pay for the huge costs incurred?

    These profits will be taxed, along with taxes and VAT on all the ancillary revenue a big football match brings to an area.

    In addition, a lot of clubs *do* contribute to the cost of policing in and around the grounds.

  13. Why did the tax payers have to pay to remove a statue from Bristol canal? Cause people do things and we all must suffer

  14. There’s a drama running on ITV at the moment about what happens when matches aren’t policed effectively.

    The nature of all public services is that they don’t benefit everyone equally all the time.

    We could just as easily ask why taxpayers have to fund police in city centres on Friday and Saturday nights.

  15. Guess you missed the news on how much money they give their pals at the start of the pandemic. They have no money hence the tax rises etc. They wasted billions

  16. I’m sure the tax’s that the football industry pays makes up for it anyway.

    Remove football from the UK to keep a minority happy about stuff like this and a lot of tax will go with it

  17. The provision of policing at a football match is governed by section *25 of the Police Act 1996*.
    In effect *special police services* are extra police officers provided for the purposes of security at the stadium. **That is billed and paid by the club.**

    Full-cost policing would extend the definition of *special police services* beyond the “footprint” of the event and include so-called *“consequential policing”*, that is policing which is provided beyond the event itself at train stations or town centres to deal with crowds arriving at and leaving a commercial event. **That is paid by the taxpayers.**

    [Met Operations – Football Data – 2018/19 Season](https://www.met.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/foi-media/metropolitan-police/priorities_and_how_we_are_doing/corporate/met-operations—football-data—201819-season)

    Example:

    – 19/12/2018 Arsenal – Tottenham Hotspur

    1. Total police: 448
    2. Total cost: **£193,979.31**
    3. Total cost charged to the club: **£14,858.20**
    4. Invoice sent: 21/12/2018
    5. Total paid by the taxpayers: **£179,121.11**

  18. Aren’t the police just taxpayer funded in general? So whatever they’re doing, we “pay” for, in that sense. And if people are killing each other and smashing up the place, then it is their job to deal with it.

  19. I mean, the entire footballing pyramid and everything that surrounds it is worth an eye watering amount of £billions. Can you imagine the amount of corporate tax, VAT, income taxes etc that it generates for the government? I’m sure it more than covers anything it costs the taxpayer in public services.

  20. Clubs and players paid over 3 billion in tax for the 2016/2017 season, given that even considering the pandemic wages and the amount of money thrown about has only risen it would be hard to believe their policing costs exceeding that

    (aside from where there is trouble at games.. and clubs usually get fined for that)

    I don’t follow the footie but I certainly am not looking in that direction in regards to the state of policing.. thats down to government cutting them to shreds

  21. But when FC United play ANYBODY with any following we have to have a larger police presence because we have a large following of our own. We don’t exactly have money to burn and neither do Chester, York, Darlington, South Shields, Hereford etc who get similar big crowds. This police level is mandated by the council and not by the clubs. It’s also a public service and public expense. You don’t have to pay for police when you plan marches or protests and shit like that. They judge when it is needed and then use them accordingly. This is exactly the kind of thing the police are there for and this is exactly the reason tax is paid to fund them in the first place.

    So, “big” non-league clubs would suffer and would have to pay for the police to do the job they are meant to be doing. It doesn’t really make any sense to make the police service essentially a hireable security firm.

  22. Because the billionaires and share holder want to get richer, at the taxpayers expense. You know how Boris Johnson like giving taxpayers money to the rich, well this time, he’s not giving them the money, he’s just saving them money, and making you & me pay for what they should be paying.

  25. ‘ate reading

    ‘ate sobriety

    ‘ate civility

    ‘luv chanting

    ‘luv hooliganism

    ‘luv attacking charity shops

    simple as

  26. sick of mods abusing the contest mode feature, the comments section might as well be deleted with it

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