The Football Supporters’ Association (FSA) has long advocated for legislative change, arguing that the current ban on alcohol consumption in view of the pitch is unfair to football fans—a stance recently echoed by the Prime Minister. “I think it is outdated,” FSA chairman Tom Greatrex told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “If you go to watch football in Germany or in other places around the world, then it’s perfectly acceptable. It is civilised and appropriate. There’s no reason why that shouldn’t be the case for football fans, as it is for fans of rugby league, watching Oasis, or anything else that happens often in the same stadiums in the same seats.”
The FSA’s position is that individual clubs should have the autonomy to decide whether to sell alcohol, in consultation with their supporters. Clubs could choose to offer it throughout the ground, restrict it to designated areas, or decline to sell it altogether. Other sports already utilise designated alcohol-free sections, a model football clubs could adopt to accommodate families and supporters who abstain for religious or personal reasons. The FSA acknowledges this nuance but maintains that having the option to make such decisions locally is paramount.
The association believes relaxing the law would prove most popular in the lower leagues, where alcohol sales could provide a crucial additional revenue stream. However, the UK Football Policing Unit has rejected the proposal, arguing that alcohol plays “a significant part in violent and disorderly behaviour” and asserting that “other sports simply don’t see the violence and criminal behaviour” associated with football.
Greatrex counters that police opposition mirrors their previous resistance to the reintroduction of safe standing. Before its implementation four years ago, Mark Roberts, the national lead for football policing since 2014, warned the BBC that standing areas would make it “easier to throw missiles, engage in hate chanting, racism, sneak alcohol in, take cocaine.” Greatrex argues those predictions proved unfounded. “[The police] were telling everybody that we couldn’t have standing at football again, that it would jeopardise safety,” he said. “Actually, what we saw then was a controlled, managed pilot projects to get that re-established. There hasn’t been the level of disorder that some of the police sources were saying there would be. I think the police should have more of an open mind and engage in this in a sensible and mature way.”