Football policing bill tops £1.6million

Football clubs in the West Midlands spent more than £1.6 million on policing at matches last season – a new record for the region.

Clubs paid up to £567,000 each to cover officers' costs in and around grounds.

Download the football policing reports - see the cost of policing each match by clicking here.

The total cost is a rise of nearly £500,000 compared to four years ago. The force says 50p of an average £25 ticket price goes towards policing games.

Wolves were charged £324,111 last season, with the local derby with Blues on in November 2008 proving the costliest match at £34,654.

That was followed by the clash with Cardiff City, whose fans have a history of tension with Wolves, on February 22 last year.

Aston Villa had the largest bill last season, with the £567,132 total swelled by a number of international matches.

Walsall, which only has a handful of games which need to be policed, saw its bill nearly double from £31,156 to £60,794 when it was promoted from League Two to League One in 2007.

West Bromwich Albion's home tie against Wolves in May 16, 2007, left the Baggies with a bill of £45,099 – more than twice the cost of many of its other games.

Football clubs are legally obliged to pay for officers in the stadium and surrounding car parks. The cost of deploying officers at train stations and in city centres has to be met by taxpayers.

West Midlands Police spokesman Jim Levack said today: "Each match is allocated a category for which there is an agreed number of officers and number of hours.

"The category is allocated according to various factors such as crowd size, timing and previous crowd behaviour record.

"Officers are provided on overtime to preserve our ability to police the community at large and are charged at overtime rates."