Leeds United set for legal battle with police over costs of matchday cover

The Championship club has issued a writ against West Yorkshire Police chief constable Sir Norman Bettison demanding a reassessment of its recent matchday costs.

It says it has been overcharged by thousands of pounds for policing at home games. The case is due to go before the High Court in London in July.

Leeds has previously argued that the club should not be billed for the cost of policing land around Elland Road that they neither occupy or own.

Before the start of the 2009-10 season, however, the West Yorkshire force decided it wanted to widen the area where it could charge for having its officers on duty, so that it took in local roads and car parks.

Speaking last June, West Yorkshire’s then deputy chief constable David Crompton denied that the force was profiting from the policing arrangements. He said police were deployed inside the crowd, immediately outside to deal with crowd dispersal and traffic and also in Leeds city centre in case of trouble. The force used 100 staff per game, but United only contributed towards 40 of them.