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Police chief urges Premier League clubs to contribute more to match day policing costs amid £28m blackhole
16 May 2024, 06:01 | Updated: 16 May 2024, 06:46
One of the UK’s top police officers has told LBC he would like to see Premier League football clubs contributing more to covering the cost of match day policing.
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Stephen Watson, Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, revealed that the policing of match days costs the force around £28 million per year more than they're able to recoup from Premier League clubs.
He said the figures now leave a notable "question-mark" over whether that level expenditure is "entirely appropriate".
“Of course, we work very closely with our Premier League clubs, as you might imagine, across Greater Manchester and I think that which we do jointly is at the very professional end of effectively policing these events," he told LBC.
"There's always a debate about the charging mechanisms whereby policing can recover the full cost of policing.
“The current legal position is that police can only claim from clubs that which happens within the footprint of the ground, so it doesn't, for example, cover the cost of police in the city centre before and after a match [or] on transport infrastructure.
It comes as the police chief noted there was a "balance' to be struck between forces and the Premier League clubs, highlighting that at present, policing "expends rather too much.”
"So, there was always a bit of attention in the sense that policing expends more on the policing of football than football is able to contribute back into policing,” he added.
The Chief Constable was speaking following comments made to LBC by Met Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, which revealed football matches cost the force £18.5 million in 2023.
Former Met Commissioner, Lord Hogan Howe, has previously told LBC: "The easiest way to resolve it is to make the clubs pay for policing which is not at the grounds.
"I would target the Premiership. Charlton, Leyton Orient and a few others are probably going to be put out of business if we put too much of the public cost of policing [on them].
"But the Premiership pay £100 million for a player, they have the money available.
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"It's the rest of us that are picking up the bill. I would target the Premiership and change the rules so they have to pay for what's not at the ground."
Chief Constable, Watson, added: “Policing probably expends about £28 million per annum more than it can recover from Premier League clubs and question-mark whether that is entirely appropriate.
"I happen to think that the balance is somewhere closer to fuller cost recovery whilst accepting that actually football clubs themselves cater to mass audiences.
"They have every right to exist and they create a great deal of economic generation within a city and all the rest of it. So of course there's a balance in all things, I just think at the moment policing expends rather too much.”
CC Watson was speaking to LBC about his three years as Chief Constable in Manchester where he has succeeded in bringing the force out of special measures and into one of the most improved in the UK.
He said: “We pledged a ‘back to basics approach’ to fighting crime, protecting victims, and keeping communities safe.
“We have picked up the phone quicker, responded to incidents more speedily, arrested more suspects at scene, solved more investigations, seized more assets from criminals, reduced crime, and kept victims and communities safer.
“We have recruited more officers than GMP has had in a decade (8,200).
“We have invested in key areas to increase capacity and capability, and to ensure that our officers are able to fulfil their role to the best of their capability – including new uniform to look smart, new body worn videos to gather evidence, and new vehicles to be more efficient.
“Our restructured neighbourhood teams are proactively problem-solving in our communities.
“We are doing the job the public expect us to do. Criminals fear enforcement again.”
