Football clubs should pay for matchday policing – not you

By the time the transfer window ends on 1 September, Premier League clubs will have spent hundreds of millions of pounds on boosting their squads.

- CHRIS BLACKHURST

Liverpool alone has already spent more than £200m - and we're only at the start of July. Player contracts are being negotiated, with £125,000-a-week now commonplace - even at teams outside the top six, such as Brighton. That's the basic figure. Chuck in bonuses, appearance money, possibly the use of free luxury cars and other perks, and their earnings will be much higher.

Meanwhile, in the ticket offices, the staff are frantically selling seats for the coming season. Fans will be charged higher prices - none more so than at Fulham, where the most expensive packages in the new £100m-plus Riverside Stand, complete with rooftop swimming pool and Michelin dining, cost £20,000.

The preseason warm-ups begin shortly. For the major clubs, that will see them attending luxury resorts for training and earning yet more millions from promotional overseas tours.

Then the competitive fixtures begin. At many games, there will be a heavy police presence outside the grounds. Those matches deemed “high risk” will require up to 400 officers, comprising individual units, each led by an inspector, three sergeants and 21 constables.

If there was no match, there would not be any need for the officers, horses and, in some cases, helicopters overhead. Yet, the clubs that pay their players colossal sums and rake in vast amounts from ticketing - not to mention advertising, endorsements and TV rights - are not paying. You are. And not just for one game - but for all of them.