Only rival fans of women's matches allowed in Wembley pub - not men

The Arch pub is on Harrow Road, roughly half a mile from the national stadium

Rival football fans for women's matches - not men's - will be allowed to watch games at a pub near London's Wembley Stadium after police said these supporters did not "have the same violent mentality".

The Arch has had restrictions lifted to allow rival fans to be there together.

Licensing restrictions had previously been in place to prevent disorder.

Pub owner and landlord Indes Bar Ltd had complained, saying some of the rules "stopped him from trading".

Brent Council agreed to lift some of the restrictions that were in place, but not all.

The pub, which is on Harrow Road, about half a mile from the stadium, will be allowed to host both sets of fans on match-days for women's football after the police said it was "much lower risk" than for men's matches.

However, the council's licensing sub-committee decided to keep a ban on the sale of alcohol an hour before kick-off as well as a restriction that stops the pub showing games taking place at Wembley.

'Ticketless fans'

Many pubs near the stadium operate under strict rules, such as discouraging ticketless fans by not showing the games on TV, only allowing in one set of fans or not selling alcohol in the hour before a match starts.

PC Phil Graves told the committee that removing conditions on match-days was "not the way to go" and highlighted the pub's "long history" of breaching its existing licence.

Over the past six years, the pub has been issued five warnings from officers after being caught for multiple infractions, including overcrowding, not closing on a match-day, and using the garden later than allowed, the hearing was told.

However, the licence-holder's solicitor argued that most of the warning letters were from many years ago and his client had fully complied with the conditions without any issues for the past two years.

PC Graves added: "What we would like is for people to come to the stadium, have their drinks in the pub, and then go to the stadium to watch the game. The problems have been caused by fans without tickets."

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