'Pay full police costs or play football matches behind closed doors'
A former councillor and businessman has called on football matches to be held behind closed doors if clubs will not foot the whole bill for policing.
Waheed Saleem, who served as a councillor in Walsall, wants football clubs to pay for all matchday policing, including both inside and outside grounds.
Currently clubs only have to pay for policing on their "footprint" – such as inside the ground and on club car parks – meaning the cost of police patrolling nearby streets and keeping the peace is billed to taxpayers.
Mr Saleem's comments come after he observed the recent Aston Villa versus Birmingham City game as a guest of West Midlands Police.
That game has since become infamous after Paul Mitchell ran onto the pitch and punched Villa player Jack Grealish, landing himself in jail for 14 weeks.
Mr Saleem, who is a member of the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner's Strategic Board, told a meeting earlier this week: "I had the unfortunate experience of seeing the policing of Aston Villa vs Blues.
"We had 500 officers out on that one day.
"This is a normal derby game between football clubs in one city yet West Midlands Police has to use 500 officers and spend six months planning just so that one event goes off peacefully.
"That cost should all be charged to the football clubs because of their inability to control their fans in and out of the stadiums."
He continued: "I think if the Home Office really want to support police forces they should put legislation in place to allow forces to charge clubs when there is very clearly danger created because of a football match being played in a town or city.
"Witnessing the Blues vs Villa game first hand, the behaviour of fans was astonishing so I understand why we needed 500 officers just to keep the peace. But that would not have been the case if there was no game on.
"Those 500 officers could have been doing other great work rather than policing this football match. It is not just that it is the knock-on effect with rest days and the impact that has on local communities.
"It is not fair for people in the West Midlands to be subsidising a football match and for football clubs to then be able to generate huge profits off the back of the game. Perhaps if they played matches behind closed doors they would have an idea of what policing should and should not be charged for."
