Soccer special clampdown
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CALLS for legislation to apply special conditions to the operation of football coaches have been made following last Saturday's soccer riot in Birmingham.
The West Midland Police have asked for the restrictions introduced experimentally last July by the Northern Traffic Commissioners to be applied nationwide.
These ban the carriage of alcohol on coaches and insist that they only arrive one hour before kick off and leave one hour after the end of the match. All football licences issued in the Northern Traffic Area after April 7, 1976 have these conditions attached to them.
The restrictions were first thought up in June 1975 by a Government working party on soccer hooliganism. They were then issued as guidance to all coach operators. But only the Northern Commissioners officially adopted them.
Denis Howell, Minister for Sport, met the Home Secretary on Monday to discuss the situation and neither were prepared to make a statement.