Premier League teams in the UK are worried about new Home Office plans that could make football teams pay for all the costs of policing matches,which is thought to be £71 million a year.Clubs say that the changes being suggested will put a lot of stress on their finances,especially since their operating costs are already going up.
Football officials, police, and government officials don't agree on the proposals.
Clubs currently help pay for police work inside stadiums and on some match-day perimeters, but the Home Office proposal would make them fully responsible for it.The Premier League says that this kind of approach doesn't take into account bigger issues of public order, since there are often large crowds around stadiums that the club can't control.
Some clubs say that taking on tens of millions of extra fees could hurt community programs, ticket prices, and budgets for youth development.
Football Officials Are Opposed to the Proposal
The Football Association and the Premier League have asked the Home Office to reconsider, saying that taxes and payments made on match days already help pay for police work.They also say that clubs shouldn't have to deal with all security problems because the fun on match days is open to everyone.
Football organizations and government officials are still talking to each other.
The government says the changes are meant to make sure that funding is fair
The Home Office said that the plan is meant to make sure that police get fair and long-term funding.Ministers think that football games need a lot of police work and that making clubs pay for everything would help local police budgets.
There will be more talks before a final decision is made, which means that teams don't know how much money they will have to pay in the future.
