Tailgating and other forms of unauthorised entry are an increasing problem that regularly takes place – successfully and not – at major, high profile football matches – internationals, cup finals and Premier League matches.
That’s according to an impact assessment for the Unauthorised Entry to Football Matches Bill, as prepared by Home Office, and placed on the Home Office website this week. The assessment goes on:
The practice takes safety and security stewarding and policing resources away from where they would otherwise be deployed and can contribute to entry delays for legitimate ticket holders. Additional persons gaining entry to sold-out football stadia creates health and safety risks linked to overcrowding (for example, gangways and entrances become blocked), and an increased risk of conflict and disorder between fans with tickets and those without.
The UK Government is proposing, to cover England and Wales (Scotland has its own relevant laws), to add unauthorised entry as an offence to the Football (Offences) Act 1991 and the Football Spectators Act 1989, laws passed after the Hillsborough crowd crushing disaster of 1989 and during the era of football hooliganism.
As the document begins, the Football Association (FA) commissioned Baroness Louise Casey to make an Independent Review into the dangerous mass unauthorised entry by force and other disorder at the Euro 2020 Final, at Wembley in July 2021. “The report recommended strengthening the legal framework to deter football-related disorder, including ‘tailgating’ (the act of a ticketless person following, or attempting to follow, a legitimate entrant into a stadium) at football stadia. The report recommended that the practice should be made a criminal offence.” As the document points out, Britain has no football-specific legal consequences for gaining unauthorised entrance to a football match.
The regulator of stadia, the Sports Grounds Safety Authority (SGSA) advised Home Office officials that while mass forced entry (as at the Euro final) does not happen frequently, ‘attempts to force open doors and other access points are not uncommon’. While they do not pose the same ‘mass public order risk’ given that a single person may seeking to enter the stadia by posing as a player or staff, or using a forged ticket or pass, they are a threat to safety and security, according to the assessment.
The document quotes a police estimate that 3,000 to 5,000 persons gained entry without tickets to the Euro final – that the stadium could hold, due to the social distancing still in place at the end of covid pandemic restrictions; and a significantly higher number than the roughly 1800 given in the Casey report. The policy intention, the Home Office says, is ‘to deter persons from seeking to gain entrance to regulated football matches by tailgating, or other forms of unauthorised attendance, through the creation of a clear, easily understood bespoke football-specific offence’. The football authorities and police support such a new law, the document states.
SGSA date
‘Illegal activities’ are among the topics for the SGSA annual conference in Manchester on May 14.
Photo by Mark Rowe: entrance to Ebbsfleet FC, the Kuflink Stadium in north Kent, National League fifth tier club.
