Have You Been Banned For Unlawful Drinking?

I did once see stewards eject someone from the Holte for having a beer in the stand, it was obvious he was a visitor to the ground, he was in a party of four or five blokes. Even though he appologised profuslel to the stewards they were having none of it. He even offered them the bottle in a genuine gesture of sorry I did not know. The bottom line was the four or five people left with him after some very unsavoury confrontations. All it needed was the Steward to ask for and take away the plastic beer bottle. Over reaction? I think so, in any other walk of life the "customer" would have been spoken to as someone of worth to the company treated as a client with a little more respect. I dare say thats 4 customers Villa will never see again.

Stewards are jobworths - I've been one and seen them in action. If you fall asleep at a boring footy match you get kicked out for being drunk, even if you're teetotal. They don't allow drinking because of the very few small-minded yobbish idiots that can't take their drink. Fortunately for other sports you only find them at footy games.

I find this whole scenario a bit of a farce. What is to stop somebody from drinking 7 or 8 pints "legally" in the concourse before the match and then going into the stands tanked up and causing trouble? The majority of people act and drink responsibly anyway, it's just the moronic minority who get the headlines and demonise the whole drinking issue. I would enjoy the odd beer at a match and as I always take my young son with me the last thing I would do is get drunk and cause trouble. As an aside, when my son was very young we used to sit in the family stand below the hospitality boxes. One particular game, I think it was Leicester, a couple of away fans were being "entertained" during the match and obviously after having one too many, took to leaning over and abusing the families below. When people complained to the Stewards absolutely nothing was done. If we are to move away from the stigma attached to alcohol in this country, and move towards the continental attitude to drinking in moderation which the government stated as one of it's aims when introducing extending licensing hours, then we need to be able to trust people and as Fear stated above, if anyone is drunk and causing trouble there are already measures in place to eject them from the ground and prosecute them. Football has moved on since the dark days of the seventies and eighties, it's about time the authorities acknowledged this and started treating fans with a bit more dignity and respect and bring us into line with other sports.

if i owned newcastle i would be hitting harder stuff than lager! what a dick.

col8 totally agree. Tez86 that is exactly the point I was making. If we were able to take drinks into the stands we could drink in a more relaxed manner plus it would ease the scrum in the concourses a bit.

I wonder whether, with our lines of communication to the board, it is worth asking them to maybe contact the boards of the other clubs to see if there is anyway to look at getting this out-dated and rather draconian ruling overturned. Or even a small group of clubs being allowed to have a trial period to see how things go. After all if you don't ask...........

Why wasnt he drinking Newcastle Brown Ale? Bloody traitor!!!

Cant recall when this law came in, but back in the 70's I regularly drank a beer or two from my seat in the Trinity Road Enclosure, no problem. Presumably its a ruling brought in back in the hooliganism days, and one that has remained because its never been challenged.

Guy up the row from us, season ticket holder, always brings his flask of whisky to the game, and sups away throughout the ninety minutes plus. Doesn't hide the fact, in fact he couldn't if he wanted to. By half time he's always got a decent buzz.