GET THE BEERS IN: 'Let football fans have a pint — it’s time to scrap this outdated drinking in stands ban'

The ban on drinking alcohol in the stands is horribly outdated.

And it is great that the United Kingdom has a real football fan as a Prime Minister who is ready to change the law which is so unfair on supporters. Everton fan Andy Burnham is right to speak up and push for supporters to be able to enjoy a pint within sight of the pitch.

You can have a drink at cricket and it is time football fans were allowed to do the same. Times change and it is wrong for football fans to be treated as second class citizens.

In my experience, if you treat people as grown ups - then they will behave like adults. Of course we should be sensitive. Just as we have been in the reintroduction of safe standing. Do it sensibly and, as Burnham suggests, even on a trial basis. Fans will prove him right.

No one can forget the booze and drug fuelled scenes outside Wembley ahead of the Euros final in 2021. It has to be policed but being able to drink in your seat would actually ease the binge drinking culture which exists at football games before and at half time.

We have moved on from the bad old days of hooliganism in the 1980s which led to this ban in the first place. Football has a new generation of fans and stadiums are generally safer, there is a different vibe within grounds and it is time to move on.

The other compelling argument which emerged in Tracey Crouch’s independent review into football back in 2021 was that League Two and National League clubs lose up to an estimated £100,000-per-year in sales because of the ban.