WATCHING FOOTBALL IS NOT A CRIME!

The Act gives Old Bill/Dibble/Bizzies/Rozzers the power to require an individual to leave a locality for a period of 48 hours by a route the police decide. The Home Office guidance to police on how this power should be used says, 'supervising officers must monitor the use of the power to consider whether there is any evidence that it is being exercised on the basis of stereotyped images or inappropriate generalisations.' All good stuff.

We wish. We`ve now got cases of eighty Stoke City fans peacefully drinking in a pub in Irlam near Manchester before their game at Old Trafford a few weeks ago being "locked" in the pub, then bussed back to Stoke, missing the game. We`ve got the case of nine Plymouth Argyle fans who`d flogged all the way up the motorway from Devon to South Yorkshire being escorted out of a town centre pub in Doncaster before their match against Rovers, put back in their mini-bus and escorted down the motorway south in relays by South Yorkshire, then Derbyshire, then Leicestershire police. In both cases, no offences had been committed and the pubs` landlords were happy with the fans` behaviour.