{"id":781424,"date":"2026-09-24T20:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T20:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/781424\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T20:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T20:12:12","slug":"uk-football-police-unit-accused-of-bringing-hillsborough-into-alcohol-debate-soccer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/781424\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Football Police Unit accused of \u2018bringing Hillsborough\u2019 into alcohol debate | Soccer"},"content":{"rendered":"

English football\u2019s leading fans\u2019 group has criticised the UK Football Policing Unit for \u201cbringing Hillsborough into the debate\u201d around drinking in sight of the pitch.<\/p>\n

Talk of changing the law to allow fans to drink at their seat or in the stands has resurfaced after Andy Burnham, the prime minister, said the rules were outdated and discriminatory and should be scrapped<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Football Supporters\u2019 Association (FSA) immediately backed his call but the UKFPU urged caution, stating: \u201cFollowing a number of football-related tragedies, changes in legislation were implemented after the Taylor Report for good reason and we are currently in the longest ever period without a significant football-related disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UKFPU added it would be \u201cincredibly rash to make fundamental changes without a full examination of the evidence\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UKFPU would welcome a meeting with the prime minister to discuss his views and explain the challenges these proposed changes would bring to policing and the safety of staff and fans at football games.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther sports simply don\u2019t see the violence and criminal behaviour from their supporters that football does, albeit a minority, with alcohol often playing a significant part in violent and disorderly behaviour. It would be irresponsible to fuel this by allowing greater alcohol consumption during games.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Taylor Report referenced by the UKFPU was commissioned in the wake of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, which resulted in the deaths of 97 Liverpool fans.<\/p>\n

The FSA published a thread on its X account<\/a> setting out its position on drinking in the stands, which began: \u201cArguably the most important point is that the UK Football Policing Unit\u2019s comments bringing Hillsborough into this debate have to be corrected. The disaster was not caused by alcohol. Full stop.<\/p>\n

\u201cFans were \u2018unlawfully killed and a catalogue of failings by police and the ambulance services contributed to their deaths\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the UKFPU said: \u201cIt was not our intention to link the issue of alcohol with the Hillsborough tragedy. The laws around alcohol, which we acknowledge were first introduced in 1985, are one of a range of measures in addition to the subsequent Taylor Report recommendations that have contributed to making football much safer for fans in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burnham\u2019s comments have sparked social media debate in which differing views have been expressed by match-going fans.<\/p>\n

The FSA\u2019s post on Thursday added: \u201cIt\u2019s unfair to criminalise fans for having a pint \u2013 especially since you can sit in the same seat drinking alcohol whilst watching an Oasis gig or rugby league. We are fundamentally sceptical of any law which is only targeted at football supporters.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean every club should be forced to serve alcohol to every seat! A club should have the choice to do what is right for its fans. Consultation is critical, some stadiums or stands might not be suitable (eg family areas) whereas it might be popular elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, we think clubs, in liaison with their supporters, should be able to determine what is best for themselves, rather than relying on legislation which is decades old and was written through the prism of viewing all football fans as potential hooligans.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sporting Events (Control of Alcohol) Act 1985 prohibits drinking in sight of the pitch in England and Wales in the top five men\u2019s leagues.<\/p>\n

Burnham said on Wednesday: \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair for football fans to be singled out in that way and I made that point. I think that legislation dates to an era where football was very different. And I do believe there is a case to remove that discrimination. There are different ways it could be done, perhaps on a trial basis.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m not going to back away from what\u2019s been a long-held view of mine. I don\u2019t see how it can be fair that some supporters of one sport can be treated differently from others.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"English football\u2019s leading fans\u2019 group has criticised the UK Football Policing Unit for \u201cbringing Hillsborough into the debate\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":781425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-781424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=781424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}