From listening to 5live today, it appears that they are trialling random breathalyser tests at the Cambridge United game today.  With claims that says if it's successful it may be rolled out across the country. They had a copper on the radio saying that it was quite a high limit (two pints?!?!) and said that the stewards would have the power to bar people.  This is a power the stewards already have and seems to be another attempt by a jobs worth to try and dampen the atmosphere at grounds and slow entry for others.

 

Cannot see the point in this whatsoever? Especially since football violence is practically non existent within the grounds these days.

From listening to 5live today, it appears that they are trialling random breathalyser tests at the Cambridge United game today.  With claims that says if it's successful it may be rolled out across the country. They had a copper on the radio saying that it was quite a high limit (two pints?!?!) and said that the stewards would have the power to bar people.  This is a power the stewards already have and seems to be another attempt by a jobs worth to try and dampen the atmosphere at grounds and slow entry for others.

 

Cannot see the point in this whatsoever? Especially since football violence is practically non existent within the grounds these days.

 

Polis got to justify the huge policing charges somehow.

By 'barring' people does that mean they can be removed from the stadium and told not to come back?

or does it mean they are not allowed to buy anymore overpriced watered down booze at half time?

 

Football violence isnt the only issue with booze at the football. There is a point where it is fucking irritating to have someone who doesnt know when enough is enough and you and several others are unfortunately stuck next to them. That goes against the 'family' atmosphere they claim they want.

However short of breathalysing every single person at the turnstiles I don't see this making any impact other than making a fair few volunteer stewards say 'fuck this I quit'

 

Police and government really want to make a difference with alcohol then I say they would need to start targeting the weatherspoons of this world who blatantly ignore the supposed laws regarding continuing to serve people who are intoxicated.  A 'brave' notion could be to restrict each customer to a max of 2 alcoholic drinks per sale (a much stricter version of the Kiwi stadium booze rules that were in force when I lived there) and banning the night club practice of selling bottles of Wines & spirits to customers thereby effectively killing the 'round'.

Cause extremely long queues, be about as popular as a thatcher impersonator at a Ravenscraig social club and the breweries and pub trade (and tax man) would have a fit but personally I think it would be interesting to see if it would made a difference to the booze culture?

It's not just football that has a booze culture tho so where does it end?!

 

I had a ladies lunch a couple of weekends ago - we had a private room with byob, no corkage charge - there were 10 of us and we each took 2 bottles - so 20 bottles between us at lunchtime!!

 

I also fail to see the point

I think it's ridiculous that you can't drink at Scottish grounds. Not everyone who boozes is going to inflict harm on someone or do damage to the stadium. At least I can speak formyself on that. I booze and I want to be everyone's friend, not harm anyone.

 

Here in the United States we allow people to drink in stadium to matter the sport and yeah there some idiots who try to start trouble or act like a fool but it's managed through good stewarding, limiting the amount of booze you can buy at a time and cutting off the sale of alcohol at a certain time of a game, like the 7th inning in baseball or when the 3rd period begins in hockey. It's that simple.