Wealthy football teams should pay the full costs for the policing of games

At a time when the Met is facing serious budget pressures London’s football teams are forcing the Metropolitan Police Service to pick up a policing bill of over £4 million a year.

Following a written question to the Mayor of London it has been revealed by Caroline Pidgeon, Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group, that between the start of last year’s football season and May of this year the cost of policing outside football stadiums generated a bill of £4.2 million for the Met.

The largest policing costs came from Chelsea, creating a bill of £627,275, followed by Arsenal with a bill of £491,869 and Tottenham Hotspur with £480,433.

Commenting on these figures Caroline Pidgeon said:

“Just this week the Met’s Commissioner has warned Londoners of the immense budget pressures now facing our police service with the possible prospect of thousands of police officers' posts being lost.

“At a time when budgets are so incredibly stretched it is simply madness that commercial football teams, some of which are owned by billionaires and paying out million pound salaries to their players, are not paying the full police costs generated by their matches.”

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