Inside alcohol trial at Scotland match and what fans made of it

Scotland’s women’s national team were 80 minutes from facing Czechia in a World Cup play-off second leg and, for the first time in 45 years, supporters at a professional football match in Scotland were being offered a chance to purchase a pints of Tennents, Magners or Magners Dark Fruits at £4.50 a pop and enjoy it in their seat, while watching the action.

Surrounded by a bank of press photographers, there was a brief moment of indecision before the pair giggled, reached for a bank card and took the plunge.

“It’s a novelty to us and we thought, ‘why not?’ said Laura Murney. “We were saying coming in here that it’s good that you can have a drink, but I’m not sure it would work at the mens’ games.

“This environment is alright. This is just about having a bit of fun and everyone is here to support the national team.”

Both Murney and fellow tippler Amy Davies are supporters of Glasgow City, Scotland’s most successful professional womens’ club. The duo share a mutual pal with City and Scotland full-back Amy Muir and were in their local stadium to lend some support.

“It’s nice to have a drink and in an environment like this where its families and a friendly atmosphere,” says Davies.

“It’s the same at the rugby, but they’re a different crowd aren’t they?

“You hear some of the stuff said in a football stadium when fans are sober and think, ‘what’s it going to be like when they’ve had a drink?”

On a cold autumn night in Paisley she had just posed the question furrowing brows up and down the country.

None more than that of John Swinney, the First Minister who said in March last year that he was ‘not sympathetic’ to the reintroduction of alcohol at football games.

Football supporters have always harboured the suspicion that the Scottish Government views the national game as a pursuit for second class oiks. Young working class men who can’t be trusted.

The degree to which they can be trusted is a matter football is now putting to the test via controlled, police-approved pilot projects.

Last season clubs applied for temporary licenses to sell drink at 20 matches on a controlled basis across the William Hill Premiership, William Hill Championship and Premier Sports Cup.

Aberdeen, Motherwell, St Mirren, St Johnstone, Dunfermline, Kilmarnock, Partick Thistle, Stirling Albion, Arbroath and Queen of the South took part in a pilot scheme while the recent Scotland game against Japan and Curacao and Switzerland at Hampden were part of a wider push to improve the matchday experience for fans.

Figures compiled by the SPFL revealed that 200,000 attended those games, with 96,938 attending SPFL matches and no recorded incidents at all of misbehaviour relating to alcohol in the stands.

The shameful scenes at the Scottish Cup quarter-final between Rangers and Celtic in March failed to close the door completely. And, while the sale of alcohol at big city derbies or high risk games is not on the table, the Scottish FA and Scottish Professional Football League football are trying prise the door open where they can by utilising licensing regulations, security and stewarding measures at selected fixtures.

The first appearance of the SWNT in Paisley in five years drew a healthy crowd of 6321 far removed from the typical fans found at a club game in the SPFL Premiership. There were no ultras, no banners, no evidence of the anger or tribalism or anti-social behaviour liable to spill over when inhibitions are lowered after a few beers.

The First Minister even overcame his own recent reservations to take his seat in the Paisley directors’ box to judge for himself whether football and alcohol may be the kind of powerful cocktail society can live with. As yet the jury is out.

Shortly after Laura and Amy from Paisley marched off to their seats with pints of Tennents and Magners Dark Fruit, Gerry Donnelly pitched up with his friend Ewan to buy a plastic cup  hot coffee.

His choice of refreshment said less about plunging temperatures in Paisley than it did about the 65-year-old’s recollections of boozing at football when he last lived in Scotland four decades ago.

Before he left Neilston for a new life outside Philadephia 43 years ago he was a Hampden regular. Back home for a visit, he took in the 3-2 win over Czechia which earned Scotland’s place in the play-off final, but retains strong reservations over the return of alcohol to grounds.

“Anybody can have one drink and feel okay,” he reasons. “It’s the excess which poses the problems.

“I used to go to Hampden back when I was a teenager and it was a terrible experience because of people chucking cans and bottles around.”

Football in Britian is still living down the events of the eighties and nineties. The sale of drink at Scottish matches was banned when violence flared in the aftermath of the 1980 Scottish Cup Final between Celtic and Rangers.

Across the country overcrowding in standing sections, poorly maintained stadiums, inadequate crowd control and hooliganism dragged the reputation of football - and those who watched it - through the mire. While much of the reporting around the Hillsborough disaster was disgraceful it reflected the way society viewed football supporters in general. And, despite the passage of time, still does.

While rugby fans can go to Murrayfield and enjoy a sociable drink the same privilege has been largely denied to their football for four decades. Politicians stand accused of classism with many making the point that they drink in local pubs close to the stadium until 15 minutes before kick-off in any case. Why not let allow that revenue go to the club by selling beer in stadia under controlled stadium conditions?

Until recently concert goers could go to Hampden, the home of Scottish football, to watch Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen and drink freely. When they went to the same venue to see the national football team in action they were restricted to Coke Zero and Seven Up.

Football argues that those supporters should be trusted to drink in a policed environment where stewards can keep an eye on what’s going on. The empty cans which once rained from the terraces at Hampden, Ibrox or Parkhead when Gerry Donnelly watched games in days gone by would now be safely deposited in plastic recycling bins.

“You go to the stadia in the States there and you see people walking around with trays full of beer,” counters an unconvinced Donnelly.

Alcohol was sold at Scotland Women v Czechia (Image: Stuart Wallace / Shutterstock)

“But the amount of time it takes to queue up and get that beer means that you are only having one or two.

“It’s different here. I was just at the Kevin Bridges concert and they let people in two hours before it started so that people could have a skinful.

“On the ground floor there was one food stand and eight drink stands. What does that tell you?

“I’ve been coming back and forward between the States and Scotland for years now.

“I remember the drinking culture here well, but am I fan of that culture? Absolutely not.”

Travelling to the game from the Manchester area, a kilted Robin Dalglish bought himself a can of Tennents then offered a view from the middle ground. A fan of non league football in England, he goes to games at venues like Prestwich Heys and West Didsbury and stands with a pint in his hands unmolested. While reservations over big city derbies are natural he sees no reason why the likes of East Fife, Cove Rangers or Edinburgh City can’t rake in some much needed revenue by selling beer to supporters.

“The games I watch are in the tenth tier of the English pyramid and it’s an extremely valuable revenue stream for clubs,” says Dalglish.

“If you are a club in League One or League Two up here and you can sell booze to fans safely then that’s a revenue stream they should have.

“Do they want to be selling booze at an Old Firm game? Probably not.

“But at a SWNT game in Paisley? I think it’s perfectly acceptable.”

Essentially a start-up operation womens’ football has found it difficult to attract supporters in the numbers needed to deliver a return on the investment clubs have made in full-time professional teams.

Co-hosts of the 2035 Women’s World Cup with England, Northern Ireland and Wales the event is still some distance away and in the here and now women’s football in Scotland is battling to stem annual losses and budget cuts. Selling alcohol at games might not prove a game changer, but seemed to enhance the matchday offering for supporters in Paisley.

“What it showed was that we have a unique fandom in the women’s game,” said coach Melissa Andreatta. “It added to the fan experience and I am all for making our matchday unique to us and to the womens’ game. We will build on that and see where it goes, but I think the atmosphere was perfect. It was still that family vibe and loud ….and we are focusing on what works for us and what Scotland is all about.”

The family vibe was enhanced by the Andreatta clan travelling from Australia to see their girl lead SWNT to next month’s play-off final where they meet a Sweden side which beat Lithuania over two legs by an aggregate of 15-0.

Asked if her own flesh and blood partook in the local grog in the Paisley stands, Andreatta laughed. “Yeah…we are Australian!”

Since moving to Scotland last April her father has even acquired a taste for the nation’s favourite cooking lager and partook of a pint or two on Tuesday.

“My dad loves a Tennents and when we go somewhere and there is only Madri or something he says, ‘no, I’ll wait for my Tennents…’

“I’m not sure if it was bottled on on tap. But, yes, he definitely did have a beer…”