Unauthorised Entry to Football Matches Bill

Earl of Courtown Excerpts

Friday 24th October 2025 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Courtown (Con)]

My Lords, I am extremely grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Brennan, for giving the House the opportunity to debate this Bill. I regret that we did not manage to pass these measures before, due to the general election last year, but I am glad we are picking up where we left off and following the advice of the 2021 report from the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, to legislate on tailgating and other forms of unauthorised entry at the earliest opportunity.

Tailgating and ticket fraud present both a financial blow and a great unfairness to clubs and fans alike. The great success of football lies in its accessibility for players and fans of all ages and abilities. Clubs become the bedrock of communities because they give people a shared purpose and responsibility in the upkeep of their team. This is undermined by those who breach entry. These clubs lose out on revenue, and genuine fans pay the price by being undercut. It is a wholly unjust practice.

There is also the danger that comes with the practice of unauthorised entry. Even lower and non-league clubs impose a maximum capacity for safety reasons, but the risk is exponentially heightened as the size of the stadium increases. At big events, where capacity is reached, there is simply no room for extra supporters in the stadium. When the capacity is breached, serious dangers arise,

As the noble Lord, Lord Brennan, referred to, the report on the Euros final by the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, outlined risks of crowd collapses, door wedging, trampling and barrier collapses. These were very real possibilities that were narrowly avoided, but they were made possibilities only because of those entering the stadium unauthorised. Those events and the more recent 2024 Champions League final demonstrate why legislation to deter tailgating and other types of unauthorised entry, such as ticket fraud, are so important.

Those who are caught committing this infringement, as it stands, are likely to be thrown out of the stadium without further repercussions. Those who are caught before they have entered are simply turned away to attempt re-entry at another turnstile. Considering the very real risks posed by this practice, notwithstanding the thorough unfairness that it represents, these measures have not proved sufficient.

The Conservatives agree with the attempt to deal with this in a proportionate way. As the noble Lord, Lord Brennan, said, introducing a summary offence, with a maximum fine of £1,000 and the likelihood that a conviction will lead to a court-imposed football banning order, seems to provide the proportionate deterrent. I hope that it will indeed, in practice, put an end to this conduct, once it is seen that attempting unlawfully to enter a stadium will bar those attempting it from far more than a single match in the future.

My two concerns lie with the drafting and implementation of this Bill. On drafting, proposed new Section 1A(3) appears quite broadly drafted and may inadvertently allow those who have committed this offence knowingly to be successful in mounting a defence in the courts. Could the Minister reassure me on this issue? On implementation, police numbers are down this year and forces are already stretched. As my noble friend Lord Moynihan said, we must ensure that we have the numbers needed to police this crime. If we manage to charge an unauthorised entry only every now and again, it will not have the intended impact and we here will have been paying lip service to this issue and no more. As the noble Lord, Lord Shamash, said, I hope the Government have a clear plan on implementation. Can the Minister provide us with some detail on this when he replies to the debate?

Similarly, a deterrent is successful if it is seen to work immediately. This means demonstrating, after this Bill has passed, that its powers will be used swiftly and effectively. I hope that the Government understand the importance of appearance and have planned how they might immediately demonstrate the law’s effectiveness.

I wholeheartedly support this Bill and congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Brennan, on bringing it before the House.