UK prime minister, Andy Burnham has spoken out about football fans facing “discrimination” because they cannot drink alcohol in the stands, signalling that he may change the law.
The ban was hastily introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s government in 1985 to crack down on football violence, which had blighted the domestic and national games for several decades. Excessive alcohol consumption was seen by the authorities as a significant factor in disorder.
The violence at the infamous 1985 FA Cup match between Luton Town and Millwall in March 1985, along with the Heysel Stadium disaster, hastened the political and legal push for tougher measures to curb trouble. These included the Sporting Events (Control of Alcohol etc.) Act 1985, which banned alcohol from football grounds in England and Wales. Alcohol had already been banned in Scottish football grounds since 1981.
After pressure from clubs, the 1985 Act was amended the following year by the Public Order Act 1986 to ease the rules on alcohol being served in executive boxes and boardrooms.
Football fans in England and Wales can currently consume alcohol at men’s football matches in areas of stadiums that do not have a direct view of the pitch.
PM to meet FA officials on soccer hooliganism
By Colin Brown and Robert Armstrong
15 March 1985
The prime minister yesterday invited officials of the Football Association to a meeting to discuss countermeasures against hooliganism at grounds.
Tougher court penalties, a ban on alcohol at grounds, and discipline for ‘offending’ clubs are likely to be high on her agenda after the riots which followed the Luton-Millwall FA Cup tie on Wednesday night.
The home secretary, Mr Leon Brittan, facing Opposition criticism for failing to police the match at Luton adequately, yesterday called for a report by the Bedordshire chief constable, Mr Andrew Sloan, to be on his desk by this morning, and the sports minister, Mr Neil Macfarlane, told MPs in the Commons that he had asked the FA for a report within a week.
He wants to know what action the FA intends to take to deal with clubs with supporters who have a history of violence. “When that report is available, the prime minister intends to meet the officers of the FA,” he said.
Mr Macfarlane believes that violent behaviour by football fans is predominantly a London problem. In an interview at the Department of the Environment he said that the large number of league clubs in the south-east created a rivalry which sometimes broke into open violence among fans.
His remarks followed a fact-finding meeting with Mr David Pleat, the Luton manager, and Tony Shaw, the Millwall chief executive, at the DoE. The minister said he had been given a detailed account of events leading up to the riot at Luton’s Kenilworth Road stand after the home side won the sixth round tie 1-0.
The minister expressed concern about the possibility of violence at tomorrow’s games between Brentford and Millwall at Griffin Park and Watford and Chelsea at Vicarage Road. He said the police would need to exercise extra vigilance. “I am also anxious about what might happen when Sunderland come to town for the Milk Cup final on 24 March,” he added.
Mr Macfarlane declined to comment on the performance of the 200 policemen who had to deal with a mob of Millwall fans who wrecked a stand at Luton and caused extensive damage to property in the town. He stuck by his Commons statement that it would be wrong to pre-judge a report from the chief constable of Bedfordshire and the findings of the FA inquiry.
Forty-one people, including 31 police officers, were injured on Wednesday night, and the cost of damage to the ground was put at £15,000. Shops, homes, and cars were damaged, and a British Rail football special was wrecked on the way back to London.
Mrs Thatcher’s involvement is intended to show the seriousness with which the government views soccer violence, but she was criticised in the Commons by the Labour leader, Mr Neil Kinnock, for tackling the symptoms but not the cause of the violence.
He did not specifically link unemployment and deprivation to Wednesday’s violence, but he said they were factors.
He said: “I don’t think there is any simple answer. I believe we have to consider some way of attacking the roots of the problem, instead of hanging on hoping that some form of sentencing or admonishment can deal with what is an epidemic problem ranging from offences to people and property to using narcotics.”
Mrs Thatcher firmly rejected Mr Kinnock’s analysis by concentrating on the single issue of soccer violence. She argued that it could be a problem of parental and teacher discipline which could be tackled with more police and more equipment.
She laid heavy stress on the importance of deterrent sentencing, but Whitehall sources indicated last night that although a Criminal Justice Bill may be included in the Queen’s speech for the next session of parliament, sentencing power are already adequate for magistrates to deal with soccer hooligans. They range from sending an offender to a detention centre to long terms of imprisonment.
Mr Macfarlane faced demands from MPs to follow the Scottish example of banning alcohol from grounds, and he invited clubs to impose their own voluntary ban pending possible Government legislation.
MPs condemned the violence. Mr John Carlisle, Tory MP for Luton North, who was at the match, said: “My constituents are very angry indeed at the destruction of their homes, their shops, their town, and their football club. They demand nothing less then revenge on’ those who inflicted that damage.”
He added: “The only answer is to inflict upon them the physical pain which they so readily inflicted upon others.”
The shadow sports minister, Mr Denis Howell, said that the entire police force had been mobilised by the government to deal with the miners’ strike, and demanded: “Why don’t you do the same to deal with these rampaging mobs, who are a national scandal?”
But Mr Macfarlane, of the DoE, stressed his belief that football clubs have to deal with a “new order of individual who goes to football because he has a lust for violence.”
Luton Town directors yesterday took a policy decision not to play Millwall again “for the time being,” or any other clubs which are likely to be accompanied by violent supporters. “We feel we should not subject the people of Luton or our supporters to those kinds of incidents in the future, even if that means forfeiting the points,” said Luton’s chief executive, Mr John Smith.
Mr Smith admitted that more could have been done to prevent trouble. “It was a sad thing that groups of supporters were arriving on coaches drunk,” he said. “We have taken the name of these coach companies and forwarded them to the police to take the necessary action.”
Luton officials revealed that the club received abusive telephone calls before the game, many of them threatening personal injury. Ticket office staff were so frightened that they went home early without watching one of the club’s most important matches.
“A mob was pressed up against the glass, and some of them were frothing at the mouth,” said the office manager, Mr John Gornell.
Luton yesterday produced statistics to show that only 5,185 fans paid to enter the visitors’ end, despite the fact that it was packed to its capacity of 8,700.
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