- Four grounds from across the women’s Championship will see trials take place
- Drinking alcohol in the stands is banned in the top five tiers of men’s football
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Women’s football matches will trial drinking in the stands, in a move that could see a change to the sport’s rules around alcohol moving forward.
Drinking alcoholic beverages in the stands and in view of the pitch at men’s games in the top five divisions has been banned since the Sporting Events Act 1985.
As such, fans caught in violation of the Act can be punished by being banned from grounds, handed hefty fans and, in extreme circumstances, given three month prison sentences.
However, women’s football is not governed by the same restrictive legislation surrounding alcohol consumption at matches.
As such, after discussions last year, there will be trials at select matches across the country held from January 19 to the end of the season.
Test grounds include, Newcastle, Bristol City, Birmingham and Southampton, all of whom are in the Championship.
A trial event in the Women’s Championship is set to see the ban on alcohol being consumed in the stands temporarily lifted
The WSL is not subject to the 1985 Act, however the competition’s rules still ban drinking from the stands
The stadia were believed to have been selected due to their spread across the country, safety procedures, and the fact that Bristol City’s Ashton Gate and Newcastle’s Kingston Park already see fans drinking in the stands at rugby games.
Over the course of 2024, there were no arrests at any women’s games, which stands in stark comparison to the increasing numbers at men’s games, with 2023-24 seeing 96 football-related arrests.
‘We are testing that actually in a couple of teams in the Championship this season and we’ll see what we learn from it,’ Nikki Doucet, CEO of Women’s Professional League Ltd, said back in October.
Doucet’s WPLL has been set up to run the Women’s Super League (WSL) and Women’s Championship, the top two tiers of women’s football in England.
‘Our fan base and the behaviour is different to the men’s game,’ she added.
‘It is about giving our fans choices while maintaining safety and being responsible.’
Success in the trials could see the measures rolled out to wider women’s fixtures with a view to becoming a permanent feature across the Championship and WSL.
The women’s game does have its own rules against drinking from the stands, but rather than lobby parliament for a change to the law, it would only have to alter its own guidelines to bring about the change.
Nikki Doucet is the CEO of Women’s Professional Leagues Limited – the body in charge of the WSL and Women’s Championship
As such, the path to a rule change is far easier than it would appear to be for the men’s game to adopt a similar protocol.
Further success therein may then have a knock-on effect in the men’s game, with potential to review the measures across stadia.
However, one would imagine that such an event would require a reduction in behaviour-related issues at men’s games, which could encourage further amendment.
According to q report in October from The Sun, the position of the police has not changed with regard to the men’s game, though they would have no ‘mechanism’ granting them the ability to prevent the trial at women’s fixtures.
