Football clubs urged to ease police cost burden on taxpayers

Football clubs urged to ease police cost burden on taxpayersImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, There were 40 fewer football-related arrests in total last season compared to 2024-25ByPaul BattisonBBC Sport JournalistPublished2 minutes agoFootball clubs have been urged to contribute more to the cost of match policing to ease the burden on taxpayers.The current model whereby clubs are not responsible for policing expenses outside stadiums "simply cannot continue", according to Chief Constable Mark Roberts, the UK's football policing lead.Statistics released on Thursday, external by the Home Office show incidents were reported at 1,644 matches last season in England and Wales - the highest figure since the UK Football Policing Unit (UKFPU) started collecting the data in 2017-18.Chief Constable Roberts says taxpayers shouldered £70m of police funding for football matches last season, as part of a model which he believes "doesn't work"."Football-related crime doesn't simply stop when fans exit the stadium, but under the current system multi-billion-pound football clubs do not have to pay a penny towards the policing outside their grounds," he said."This means that taxpayers are left footing the £70m bill each season, which simply cannot continue."Roberts' comments come as statistics show an increase in "high severity" incidents at football matches last season.Of the incidents reported, 159 were classed as "high severity" - up from 106 in the previous season.Geoff Pearson, a professor of law at the University of Manchester and leading researcher in crowd behaviour, says he is not alarmed by the figures.He points to reported incidents being different to football-related arrests and other police actions - of which there were 1,963 last season, down on the previous campaign.The increase could be because clubs using improved recording systems and devices, he says.Pearson says that arrests for...