Football stadium security has a new legal backbone this season. The Unauthorised Entry to Football Matches Act 2026 came into force on 22 March 2026, making it a criminal offence in England and Wales to enter or attempt to enter a designated football match without valid authorisation – whether by tailgating through a turnstile, using a forged ticket, or presenting fake accreditation. With the 2026/27 season now under way, clubs are applying the law for the first time at full capacity, week after week.
The Act, a Private Members’ Bill sponsored by Labour MP Linsey Farnsworth, adds a new offence to the Football (Offences) Act 1991 and allows a football banning order to follow conviction. It sits alongside – rather than replaces – existing ground regulations, and gives stewards and police a clearer statutory basis for acting against the kind of mass tailgating incidents that have periodically overwhelmed turnstile lines at high-demand fixtures.
Why tailgating became a legislative priority
Unauthorised entry is not a victimless nuisance from a security planning perspective. Every person who forces entry without a ticket adds to a crowd density figure the safety certificate did not account for, undermines the turnstile counts stewards rely on to manage capacity, and can trigger exactly the kind of crush risk that stadium safety regulation exists to prevent. The Act’s text, published on legislation.gov.uk, frames unauthorised entry explicitly around this capacity and safety risk rather than treating it as a purely financial matter for clubs.
The FA has confirmed that tailgating is now a criminal offence at designated matches, and several Premier League clubs, including Liverpool, have already moved to full-search entry and reworked stadium ingress to balance the new legal position with fan experience. That shift has knock-on implications for staffing: full-search entry needs more trained personnel per turnstile than a visual ticket check, and stewards now need to understand when a tailgating incident should be escalated for police involvement rather than handled as a ground-regulations matter.
What this means for clubs and venue operators
Clubs and multi-purpose venues hosting designated matches should treat the new offence as a reason to review three things this season. First, whether turnstile and search staffing reflects the higher throughput demands of full-search entry at peak arrival times. Second, whether stewards and manned guarding teams have been briefed on the distinction between a ground-regulations breach and the new criminal offence, since only the latter engages police powers and banning orders. Third, whether incident logging captures unauthorised entry attempts with enough detail to support a prosecution if one becomes necessary. This sits alongside – not instead of – the wider Martyn’s Law obligations that already apply to most stadiums as venues expecting 800 or more attendees.
For venues below top-flight capacity but still running ticketed, high-attendance fixtures, the same principles apply even where a match does not meet the Act’s “designated” threshold. Event security planning that treats unauthorised entry as a capacity and safety risk, not just a revenue leak, is the more defensible position either way.
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Our team supports stadiums, clubs and large venues with turnstile staffing, search operations and Martyn’s Law-aligned event security planning. Call us on 020 3700 0967, email info@secureonsitesecurity.co.uk, or visit our contact page. Related services:
- Event security services for stadiums, clubs and ticketed venues.
- Manned guarding for turnstile, search and crowd management roles.
- Corporate security services for club offices and matchday operations centres.
A season into the new offence, football stadium security is no longer just a matter of club policy – it is now underpinned by a specific criminal law that changes how tailgating incidents should be staffed for, logged and escalated.
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