§ Mr. Monroasked the Secretary of State for the Environment, in view of recent publicity given to the matter, what further steps have been taken to combat football hooliganism; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Denis HowellThe Working Party on Football Crowd Behaviour is continuing to develop an integrated strategy for preventing and containing crowd violence in consultation with the football authorities, police, transport operators and other interests.
The working party decided at its recent meeting that the controls on the sale of terrace tickets to Manchester United or Chelsea supporters for away matches involving their clubs, which were announced last July, should be retained. All such matches will consequently remain all-ticket until further notice
804Wunless special arrangements are made. The working party has re-emphasised its previous recommendation that both home and away clubs should sell tickets for such matches only to registered supporters such as season ticket holders, shareholders and members of official supporters' clubs whose good behaviour can best be guaranteed.
The working party's previous recommendations on integrated ticket and travel arrangements for matches in Europe will remain in force. Similar arrangements will henceforth apply to away international matches in which British national teams are involved. Although such controls are most effective at the ticket distribution stage I shall be discussing with my European fellow Ministers whether equitable means can be found to prevent ticketless and potentially disruptive supporters entering other countries on short-stay passes.
805WThe working party considered that the recent BBC "Panorama" programme on football hooliganism presented an unbalanced view of the football supporter and could even act as an inducement to spectator violence. I have already asked the Chairman of the BBC to receive a delegation which can express its concern about the damage which such programmes can cause and he has agreed to do so.