Andy Burnham was in New York for the United Nations General Assembly when he was asked about a 41-year-old piece of domestic legislation, and the Everton supporter turned prime minister did not hedge. “I don’t think it’s fair for football fans to be singled out in that way,” he said on 23 September. “That legislation dates to an era where football was very different, and I do believe there is a case to remove that discrimination.”
The law in question is the Sporting Events (Control of Alcohol etc.) Act 1985, which makes it a criminal offence to drink alcohol in sight of the pitch at designated matches across the top five tiers of men’s football in England and Wales. Fans can buy a pint. They can drink it on a crowded concourse with no view of the game. Step back to their seat holding it and they are breaking the law. At the same stadiums, on rugby weekends and concert nights, nobody is.
A rule written for a different game
The Act was passed under Margaret Thatcher’s government in the aftermath of a decade of hooliganism and crowd disorder — terraces, fences, and a policing model built on containment. Burnham has campaigned against it since long before Downing Street, first as an MP and then through eight years as mayor of Greater Manchester, arguing that the treatment of football supporters as a uniquely suspect class outlived the conditions that produced it.
The anomaly he points to is real. Cricket crowds at Lord’s, rugby crowds at Twickenham and racegoers at Aintree drink in their seats without legal restriction. Football is the only sport in England and Wales where the offence exists at all, and it attaches to the fixture rather than the venue: the same seat, the same stand, the same steward, different rules depending on which sport is on the pitch.
The evidence fans have actually generated
The strongest argument for change has come not from Westminster but from the women’s game, which falls outside the 1985 Act. WSL Football ran a phased trial that grew from four second-tier clubs into the largest piece of live research anyone has on the question:
- The initial pilot covered Birmingham City, Bristol City, Newcastle United and Southampton across 19 fixtures between January and May 2025, involving more than 51,000 supporters.
- It expanded to 14 clubs across WSL and WSL2 for 2025-26, eventually reaching 20 clubs, 29 venues and 190 fixtures.
- More than 4,000 supporters were surveyed. Support for giving fans the choice rose from 58% in summer 2025 to 69% after the 2025-26 season.
WSL Football has since removed the restriction from its competition regulations entirely, meaning fans in the top two tiers of women’s football can drink in the stands from 2026-27. A Sky Sports poll taken the morning after Burnham’s remarks put public support at 65%.
Those are clear majorities, but they are not unanimity, and the dissent matters. Roughly a third of supporters in the WSL survey did not want it. The objections raised are practical rather than moral: families priced into the cheapest blocks who do not want drink in the row behind them, away fans in tight corners, and a safe-standing rail seat estate designed on the assumption that nobody is carrying a full cup through it.
The policing problem, and what happens next
The UK Football Policing Unit responded bluntly, calling it “incredibly rash” to move without proper consultation with forces. “Other sports simply don’t 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,” a spokesperson said.
The Home Office data cuts both ways. Football-related arrests fell 2% to 1,963 in 2025-26, and banning orders issued between August and May dropped 17% year on year. But incidents were recorded at 1,644 matches, the highest since the UKFPU began collecting the figure in 2017-18, and 2,460 banning orders were in force on 1 June, the most since 2011-12.
Premier League chief executive Richard Masters has said the competition “hasn’t felt the time is right” previously, while signalling willingness to talk. The EFL has long backed a trial. The likeliest route is not repeal but a pilot — a handful of clubs, defined blocks, a season of data — which is roughly how the women’s game got here. Supporters’ advocates make the counter-intuitive safety case too: letting fans drink in their seats empties concourses that currently bottleneck at half-time.
Burnham has a majority of opinion behind him and a working model to point at. What he does not yet have is the police, and no government repeals a public-order statute over their objection without a trial to hide behind first.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
883 articles published
