Exclusive: Arsenal and Chelsea under pressure after Met Police claim
Arsenal and Chelsea would need to be forced to pay policing fees for their rivals after a statement from the chief of the Metropolitan Police.
That is the view of football finance expert Dan Plumley, who told Football Insider exclusively that the Premier League giants would avoid paying policing costs unless they were forced to do so.
Speaking to The Times (6 July), Met chief, Mark Rowley, said it was “particularly astounding that the Met is still being asked to pick up 80 per cent of the £24million annual cost of policing football matches in London, including the Premier League’s.”
The police chief cited the Premier League clubs in London’s ability to “splurge over £100m on a single player and pay them a weekly wage equivalent to more than 600 constables”.
Clubs pay towards the cost of officers who enter their grounds, but those costs do not account for other police activity, such as patrolling the streets and transport hubs on match days.
In recent seasons, Arsenal have signed Declan Rice from West Ham for a fee of £105m [Sky Sports] while Chelsea brought in Enzo Fernandez from Benfica for £106.8m [Sky Sports], and Moises Caicedo from Brighton for £115m [Sky Sports].
The Blues have already spent over £200m [transfermarkt] this summer, signing Jamie Gittens from Borussia Dortmund, Joao Pedro from Brighton, and Estevao from Palmeiras, whilst the Gunners are also facing outlays of over nine figures when Viktor Gyokeres completes his long-awaited move from Sporting CP.
Arsenal, Chelsea need to be ‘forced’ to pay policing costs
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, finance expert Plumley explained that whilst Chelsea and Arsenal would be able to afford to foot the costs of policing, “they’re not going to want to”.
The issue is that even if the Met Police wanted to make it happen, it would require the Premier League clubs to vote on the issue, and come to an agreement to cover the costs, something the senior lecturer from Sheffield Hallam University can not see happening.
Plumley previously told Football Insider that such costs could have a wider impact on the entire “football ecosystem”, and that it was easy to just focus on bigger teams like Chelsea and Arsenal.
He said when asked if big Premier League teams could be forced to cover policing costs: “Yeah, and then we’re back into similar conversations, aren’t we?
“And again, not just in police terms, but we’ve seen this with background considerations around the regulator and people talking about the bigger clubs should pay for the regulator, and they should proportionally cover most of that bill.
“But they’re not going to want to. And they’re not going to vote for that. So you’ve got to force them to do it, and you can see the same argument here.
“It’s okay to say your big London clubs in the Premier League pick up more of the bill, but they’ll say, well, why? Because you’ve got to run the same operation, or at least to a similar degree, at other clubs in London, so why are we paying for it? I think unless you can force them to do it, it becomes really tricky.”
Ex-PGMOL chief wants Chelsea, Arsenal to cover Met Police costs
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, ex-FIFA and Premier League referee Keith Hackett gave his verdict on the debate.
The former PGMOL chief said that Chelsea, Arsenal, and other Premier League clubs should be covering policing costs.
Hackett said that £24m was a “drop in the ocean” for England’s top-flight clubs, and “police should not have to pay to offer a service to Premier League clubs”.