Police call for weekday only derby matches in Sheffield

[davieG]

Police in Sheffield have said they no longer want football matches between the city's two teams to take place at weekends.

South Yorkshire Police said they had to balance policing matches "while maintaining our high levels of service for the public whom we serve".

The force has written to the English Football League (EFL) to ask for derby fixtures to take place on weeknights.

The March game between the Championship sides has been moved to Monday night.

A BBC investigation showed that last year's fixture between Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United at Hillsborough was the most expensive policing operation in England, costing £203,000. The home club was billed £41,000 by the police.

Deputy Chief Constable Mark Roberts has said the force makes a "significant loss" policing football games across the county.

 

In a statement, DCC Roberts said: "We must balance this type of operation and the resource it requires against our resilience to provide a service to the wider public of South Yorkshire, to ensure that everyone continues to receive the support and response they quite rightly expect from their local police."

He said he had told the EFL that "this support is achievable and sustainable if derby fixtures take place on weeknights".

The force said it was consulting with fans about the change.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-46760669

[davieG]

Just now, davieG said:

Deputy Chief Constable Mark Roberts has said the force makes a "significant loss" policing football games across the county.

I'm sure they make a loss policing all sorts of community events.

[Asha]

Well it's just the next step, all the big derbies have been neutered a lot by early kick-offs or Monday night games for a while. I guess that's partly down to TV schedules as well, but even so. 

 

When was the last Saturday 3pm Man Utd-Liverpool game? Or old firm derby? Or Norwich-Ipswich? Or Tyne-Wear derby?

[Voll Blau]

Absolutely pathetic. They want to inconvenience tens of thousands of law-abiding citizens more just because they can't adequately police the minority out for aggro? I'm not naive enough to think policing that game is a walk in the park for SYP, but come on.

[SAFC1]

26 minutes ago, Asha said:

Well it's just the next step, all the big derbies have been neutered a lot by early kick-offs or Monday night games for a while. I guess that's partly down to TV schedules as well, but even so. 

 

When was the last Saturday 3pm Man Utd-Liverpool game? Or old firm derby? Or Norwich-Ipswich? Or Tyne-Wear derby?

13 years ago back in 2006, iirc. 

[Otis]

2 hours ago, davieG said:

I'm sure they make a loss policing all sorts of community events.

Just wondering which events they make a profit on? 

[davieG]

3 hours ago, Otis said:

Just wondering which events they make a profit on? 

I nearly wrote that but I think they do charge for policing some things like inside football grounds.

[boots60]

Villa & Brum & Old firm games have got it right. 12.00 kick offs so when they batter each other in their respective city centres later in the afternoon the club's don't have to shell out for it.

[Guest MattP]

If only they had a team who only played on Wednesdays.

[cambridgefox]

3 minutes ago, MattP said:

If only they had a team who only played on Wednesdays.

Kin hell Matt.

You are better than that.

[Stadt]

SYP shit the bed at literally everything.

[Sir Shep]

To be fair, the amount of money the clubs make they could throw a few more pounds to the rozzers, might actually get to see one then outside of the city centres. 

[Kitchandro]

Ridiculous.

 

The police are there to serve the people. If people can't have their traditional weekends, including football on a Saturday afternon, then they're failing us.

 

The authorities are always spouting this stuff about we won't have our daily lives affected by the actions of terrorists, but apparently we will by the horrors of a football match.

[foxile5]

23 hours ago, davieG said:

I'm sure they make a loss policing all sorts of community events.

Are they supposed to be a for profit company? 

 

Just lazy and over zealous. The less trouble at the football the more they seem to invest. 

[The Doctor]

23 hours ago, davieG said:

Deputy Chief Constable Mark Roberts has said the force makes a "significant loss" policing football games across the county.

What even is this comment? The police is a public service, profit/loss shouldn't be a consideration. Start moving to policing for profit and you'll end up with people being arrested for nothing to meet targets.

[Finnegan]

20 hours ago, The Doctor said:

What even is this comment? The police is a public service, profit/loss shouldn't be a consideration. Start moving to policing for profit and you'll end up with people being arrested for nothing to meet targets.

 

The treatment of the police is one of the biggest crimes of this tory government tbf and I'm amazed that successive Labour leaders haven't tried to canvas the middle ground floating voters by talking about the lack of investment they get. 

 

Police in this country are awfully under staffed and under budgeted, its ridiculous. 

 

Instead of everyone circle jerking about how the evil police are so nasty to saintly football fans, why not actually be grateful for the fact we don't live in Italy or Spain, actually be grateful for the fact that our police are widely decent and actually think "hmm, maybe the police in Yorkshire have a point."

 

Policing a football Derby can't be easy, it does bring out the worst in fans, it does cost a shit tonne and they are already under resourced like the rest of the public sector. 

 

And of course public sector areas need to consider loss. They have smaller budgets every year, they need to be aware of their finances, you don't expect them to just spend blindly do you!? He's not talking about policing for profit ffs he's just trying to stay within what his authority can actually afford. 

 

Christ @Voll Blau and Doctor, you're two of the biggest lefties on the forum, you can't seriously be turning blindly on the public sector just because a 3pm Saturday kick off (which sky will probably move anyway because its the "Steel City Derby" ) is being moved ffs. There are bigger things in life than the "rights" of football fans. 

[The Doctor]

1 hour ago, Finnegan said:

 

The treatment of the police is one of the biggest crimes of this tory government tbf and I'm amazed that successive Labour leaders haven't tried to canvas the middle ground floating voters by talking about the lack of investment they get. 

 

Police in this country are awfully under staffed and under budgeted, its ridiculous. 

 

Instead of everyone circle jerking about how the evil police are so nasty to saintly football fans, why not actually be grateful for the fact we don't live in Italy or Spain, actually be grateful for the fact that our police are widely decent and actually think "hmm, maybe the police in Yorkshire have a point."

 

Policing a football Derby can't be easy, it does bring out the worst in fans, it does cost a shit tonne and they are already under resourced like the rest of the public sector. 

 

And of course public sector areas need to consider loss. They have smaller budgets every year, they need to be aware of their finances, you don't expect them to just spend blindly do you!? He's not talking about policing for profit ffs he's just trying to stay within what his authority can actually afford. 

 

Christ @Voll Blau and Doctor, you're two of the biggest lefties on the forum, you can't seriously be turning blindly on the public sector just because a 3pm Saturday kick off (which sky will probably move anyway because its the "Steel City Derby" ) is being moved ffs. There are bigger things in life than the "rights" of football fans. 

I'm not turning on the public sector. I'm well aware the sort of attitude I quoted is an inevitable result of the austerity politics the Tories have enforced on the poorest and the public sector, but no-one wants to see another rant about how right wing economics boils down to "sod the poor, socialism for the rich" and relies on the occasional charitable billionaire to hide that the system is rotten and unsustainable.

 

I don't even disagree with the suggestion of local games being midweek ones - for me, midweek and public holiday games should be local ones wherever possible (for instance Newcastle-Brighton should never be a Tuesday night game, Brightons midweek and boxing Day games should be Southampton, Bournemouth and a London club). My issue is that a public service shouldn't be viewed in terms of making a loss on a particular event, a loss should be a given as it's not a money making entity. That it is betrays a failure to fund the service properly

[Finnegan]

Many areas of the public sector get paid back money to help function. You pay to park in the city, where do you think the money goes? You pay rent on a council house, where do you think the money goes? Football clubs pay for their policing, that's not new, no? 

 

If the only money the public sector received was direct from central government, you'd have to pay a shit lot more in tax than you currently do. And it would mean getting taxed for things that never really apply to you. 

 

You pay road tax when you drive a car, you pay a TV licence when you watch TV, your club pays policing costs if you take up a massive amount of police time and resources. 

 

There are things we pay tax for regardless, the NHS, defence, education, etc, but they're things we all use. 

 

It's not like it's some dystopian future where the police chief is selling his security services to the highest bidder so that he can make millions living in some penthouse. 

 

Almost all the decisions our senior managers and directors at work make these days in the council are based on money and trying to save it. Not really sure he's said anything shocking.