Plan to combat football hooligans

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/6989150.stm

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New laws to combat football hooligans in NI are to be considered by Culture Minister Edwin Poots.

He told the Assembly he would work with Criminal Justice Minister Paul Goggins to create a new range of public order offences at sports events.

These would deal with unauthorised pitch invasions, offensive chanting, missile thowing, bringing bottles and flares to grounds and ticket touting.

The Assembly was debating an Alliance proposal for a Football Offences Act.

Alliance MLA Kieran McCarthy said some local sporting events have been "hijacked by individuals and groups of individuals and used as an outlet for expressions of bigotry, hatred and intolerance".

He added: "Although any legislation should cover all spectator sports, and may need some tweaking for the specifics of Northern Ireland, the GB Football Offences Act 1991 is, in our view, the best place to start.

"Not only does it avoid us reinventing the wheel, but this is tough legislation which has proven effective in stamping out hatred and hooliganism in English club football."