Four clubs in the Women’s Championship will allow fans to drink while in their seats during home matches this season, in a bid to help create the game’s own distinct atmosphere.
Birmingham City and Southampton are understood to be part of the four-club trial, which is being put in place by the Women’s Professional Leagues Limited (WPLL).
The WPLL took over ownership of the Women’s Super League and Women’s Championship from the FA last August, with Nikki Doucet, the chief executive of the company, having previously discussed the desire for the trial to take place. The WPLL want to assess whether drinking in seats would contribute positively to the creation of a better atmosphere, or if it will lead to worse behaviour from fans.
Though the selection process hasn’t been finalised yet, the trial will likely take place across Birmingham and Southampton as well as two more clubs, and the identity of the other two is not yet known, reportsThe Times.
The women’s game has previously adopted the same alcohol laws as men’s football, where alcohol has been banned from consumption in view of the pitch since 1985 in the top five tiers.
And a change to the rules in the women’s game would not require a change to any FA rules or legislation, but merely an alteration of the WPLL’s own rules.
The trial is set to begin after the new year, with clubs required to meet certain criteria to be involved. These inlclude sufficient hospitality offerings, the ability to gather necessary data from sales, and high-quality CCTV.
Both Birmingham Women and Southampton Women play at their respective clubs’ ‘main’ stadium – St Andrews’ and St Mary’s – so they will likely meet these criteria, and they are sufficiently large that any crowd trouble would likely be limited.
Speaking at Leaders Week London last month, Doucet announced the trial and said: “We are going to test it in a couple of teams in the Championship this season and we will see what we will learn from that”.
“I think the behaviour of our fan base is different. It is about giving our fans choices while maintaining safety and being responsible,” she added.