Should Football Fans Be Allowed to Drink in the Stands?

For 41 years, football fans in England have had to follow a strange matchday rule. You can buy a beer inside the stadium. You can drink it in the concourse. You can even sit in the same seat with a pint during a concert.

But once the football starts, that same drink has to stay away from your seat.

Now, Prime Minister Andy Burnham wants that to change, wanting the long-standing ban on drinking alcohol in view of the pitch scrapped or relaxed on a trial basis. 

Burnham argues that football supporters are being treated differently from fans attending sports such as rugby and cricket.

The Football Supporters' Association agrees, but football policing leaders are far less convinced.

So, what would actually happen if the pint came back to the football stands? Football Ground Guide looks at all sides of the argument. 

The case for lifting the ban

Let's start with the obvious question, which is why can rugby fans do it?

A supporter attending a rugby league match can sit in the stands with a beer. A cricket fan can do the same. Someone watching a concert from the same football stadium can enjoy a drink from their seat.

Yet football supporters are treated differently, and that is the heart of Burnham's argument.

The Sporting Events (Control of Alcohol etc.) Act 1985 was introduced during a very different period for English football. Hooliganism was a major concern and the sport's stadiums were often associated with serious crowd disorder.

However, football has changed considerably since then.Modern grounds have CCTV, sophisticated stewarding systems, dedicated safety operations and far greater control over who enters stadiums. 

The English Football League has also said it would be receptive to reviewing legislation that it believes has not kept pace with developments in stadium management and safety. 

So there is a reasonable question to ask.

If football has changed, why should the rule remain untouched?

It could make the matchday experience better

There is also a simple convenience argument. At present, supporters who want a drink have to leave their seats, which means missing part of the match, standing in a queue or trying to get back to their place before kick-off resumes.

At half-time, the problem becomes even more obvious, as thousands of supporters suddenly head towards the concourses at the same time. 

Queues form, people rush to buy drinks and food, then they rush back before the second half begins.

Allowing supporters to drink in their seats would not necessarily make people drink more, it could simply change where they drink.

That distinction matters, as a supporter having one pint slowly during a 90-minute match is very different from somebody consuming several drinks before kick-off and during half-time.

A properly designed system could regulate the amount sold, the strength of drinks and the times during which alcohol is available.

There is money on the table

For clubs, particularly those outside the Premier League, this is not just about giving supporters more freedom, it could be about revenue.

Matchday income matters enormously to clubs operating with smaller financial margins, with food, drink and hospitality all important parts of the stadium business.

If supporters are able to purchase and consume drinks in their seats, clubs could potentially sell more products during matches.

The biggest beneficiaries could be lower-league clubs, as a packed League One or League Two ground might not have Premier League broadcasting money behind it, but it can still make money from the people walking through its turnstiles every weekend.

The 2021 Fan-Led Review of Football Governance also recommended examining trials involving alcohol sales in lower-league football, with the potential financial benefits forming part of the argument for testing the idea. 

That makes a trial particularly interesting, and rather than changing the rules across English football overnight, why not find out what actually happens?

Women's football has already provided a test

There is already some experience to examine, with supporters at Women's Super League and WSL2 matches permitted to drink alcohol in view of the pitch following an 18-month trial.

The change became part of the women's game regulations this summer, with clubs given the option to allow it, and almost every club across the two divisions has taken up that option. 

That does not automatically prove the same approach would work in the men's game, with women's football historically having experienced fewer incidents of crowd trouble, meaning the environment is different.

But it does provide something extremely valuable to this debate, which is evidence from football itself.

And then there is the other side

The argument against lifting the ban is not simply that football fans cannot be trusted with a pint.

It is about the consequences when a minority of supporters cannot handle it, and football has a particular history with crowd disorder, a major reason the 1985 legislation exists in the first place.

Police representatives have warned that alcohol can play a significant role in violence and disorder involving football supporters. The UK Football Policing Unit has described it as potentially “irresponsible” to encourage greater alcohol consumption at matches without properly examining the consequences. 

And there is an important difference between saying most supporters behave responsibly and saying alcohol has no effect on crowd behaviour.

The first is obvious, but the second is much harder to defend.

Football can turn nasty very quickly

This is where the debate becomes more complicated.

A rugby match can be intense, a cricket match can become hostile, but football can turn from calm to chaotic in seconds.

A disputed penalty, a late equaliser, a red card, a derby, a supporter celebrating directly in front of an opposition fan – now add alcohol to that environment.

The concern is not necessarily that an entire stadium would descend into disorder. It is that even a small increase in alcohol-related incidents could create additional problems for stewards and police.

There is also the issue of throwing drinks, as football supporters already throw objects when emotions boil over. If supporters are holding open cups of beer, that creates another potential problem.

It may sound minor, but in a stadium holding tens of thousands of people, it is not necessarily minor.

What about families?

This is another question clubs would need to consider, with football having spent years trying to present stadiums as places for families.

A father taking his children to their first match does not necessarily want to sit next to a supporter who has had several beers and becomes aggressive after a controversial decision.

Of course, drinking in the stands does not automatically make somebody aggressive, but most people who drink at football matches would likely continue behaving exactly as they do now.

Stadium safety is built around managing risk rather than assuming everybody will behave perfectly, and that is why the police argument deserves to be taken seriously.

The answer could be somewhere in the middle

Perhaps the biggest mistake would be treating this as an all-or-nothing argument.

Lifting the ban does not have to mean turning football grounds into giant beer gardens, which is why a trial is great as it could impose strict conditions.

Alcohol could be limited to lower-strength drinks. clubs could restrict sales after a certain point before kick-off or during the second half. 

Certain sections could remain alcohol-free, clubs could monitor incidents closely and withdraw the privilege if problems emerge.

Lower-league grounds could provide the testing ground before the Premier League follows, which would allow the authorities to measure what actually happens rather than arguing about what might happen.

And that is arguably the most sensible part of Burnham's proposal, as he has raised the possibility of a trial rather than demanding an immediate free-for-all.

FGG Says: So, should football bring back the pint?

There is a strong argument that the current rule belongs to another era.

Football stadiums are safer, better managed and more sophisticated than many of the grounds that existed when the law was introduced.

It is also difficult to explain to supporters why they can drink in the same seat during a concert or rugby match but face different rules when football is being played.

But football's history cannot simply be ignored, and the police are right to demand evidence before a major change. The potential for alcohol to contribute to disorder is not something clubs can wish away.

The real question, then, is not whether every football fan deserves a pint, it is whether the modern football stadium can safely accommodate one.

After 41 years, the only way to find out may be to let some fans have one and see what happens.