Football should trial return of pints in the stands… but can minority of fans be trusted to show we’re past dark days?
Football should trial return of pints in the stands… but can minority of fans be trusted to show we’re past dark days?
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Sponsored by. AS ladies say ‘cheers’ to drinking alcohol in the stands at Women’s Championship matches, the chance of a return to a beer or two on all the men’s terraces are about as high as Accrington Stanley winning League Two. Actually, Accrington’s average attendance of 2,509 would be a very good ground at which to start serving alcohol as policing any noisy drunks would be a simple process.
![[West Ham United fan in a fluffy coat drinking beer at a soccer match.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/west-ham-fan-dressed-fluffy-966366576.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
But it isn’t going to happen at Wham Stadium which, incidentally, is not named after (the late and great) George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley’s pop pairing. Nor anywhere else, at least not in the near future. Drinking alcohol within view of the playing field was stopped in 1985 after a sequence of events involving noisy, sometimes violent, spectators.
![[Baroness Karren Brady at the Sunday Times Sportswomen of the Year Awards.]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/baroness-karren-brady-cbe-arrives-966089639.jpg?strip=all&w=632)
There are no moves to change the law although there are many ways of buying alcohol beyond a pitch view, and a recent study showed Chelsea fans top the beer table, drinking on average six pints a game. At that rate, they might need a half-time substitution for their liver more than their team.
The police and stewards are on the look-out for drunks or people bringing alcohol into grounds although some still try. A Leeds supporter succeeded in 2012 and, should anyone need convincing that the ban should end, the facts were he assaulted Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper Chris Kirkland after running on to the pitch.
