Why pubs should support football in its clash with the police

Pubs and Premier League football are not the greatest of friends. The top football clubs' uncompromising position over satellite TV transmissions has seen to that.

However, the pub and bar industry might want to lend its support following the assertion by the Association of Chief Police Officers that football clubs should pay all the costs of policing games, and not just the costs incurred inside grounds.

It's a similar argument that's been used about pubs and nightclubs, and a united front might be what is needed to halt what is looking increasingly like a slippery slope towards paid-for policing across the board.

The argument with football is that local communities are in effect subsidising the clubs, with police budgets being taken from communities to be spent on policing football grounds.

There is an implication that people who go to football are not somehow part of the community. A not dissimilar argument has been used about pubs and clubs and their customers.

Acpo has told the Home Office it would like to see a change in the law to allow it to charge clubs and other money-making events for the full costs of policing them.

The parallels between football and pubs are clear, even down to the counter arguments being used. As the Premier League's head of communications Dan Johnson pointed out, top clubs already contributed £700m a year to the Treasury through taxes, not to mention the tax take from the 13 million fans who attended Premier League games in a season.

The long-established principle of the state providing policing applied to all individuals and organisations in the UK, from private individuals to shopping centres, pubs and major events, like the Notting Hill Carnival, he said.

Perhaps pubs and football should set aside their differences over TV, and united over what is potentially a much bigger issue?

First published in M&C Report, September 2008