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London clubs face 'hooligan tax'
By Hugh Muir, Evening Standard Last updated at 00:00am on 25.10.02London's Premiership football clubs may be forced to pay a "hooligan tax" of up to £1million each for policing outside their grounds.
Officials from London's police authority have been ordered to recover the costs of policing outside the grounds of Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, West Ham, Charlton and Fulham.
Mayor Ken Livingstone and Toby Harris, the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority ( MPA), have agreed to pursue the clubs for money but the move will be resisted by the Premiership.
The demand has been triggered by a Metropolitan Police cash crisis which could see council taxpayers being asked to pay 18 per cent more for policing than last year. Even then, the Met will have to find savings worth £20million from elsewhere.
Eric Ollerenshaw, a member of the MPA's finance committee and Tory leader on the London Assembly said: "The big clubs should be made to pay because the poor old council taxpayer is suffering enough. It is not just that so many officers have to be there, patrolling the high streets, but they also have to be taken off other duties.
"We have started with a minimum figure of £5mil-lion, but I would expect it to be a lot more than that."
Mr Ollerenshaw said the clubs must recognise the level of disruption they cause.
He added: "If they say that this is a problem for society, they should try actually living near a ground such as Arsenal on a match day or trying to run a business nearby. Football is a great game but at the end of the day it is a big business and why should ordinary people pick up their bills?"
Last year policing football cost the Met £11million, of which £ 2.4 million was recouped from the clubs as the price for policing inside football grounds.
Philip French of the Premiership said national talks to draw up a standardised charging arrangement are already under way between clubs, the Home Office and the Association of Chief Police Officers.
But he also called on critics to consider the value of work done by the clubs in their communities. He added: "We are saying we hear you in terms of where there are clubs that are a persistent concern, but the vast majority of the clubs with this sort of problem are outside the Premiership."
