# Unauthorised Entry to Football Matches Act 2026, Section 1: Offence of unauthorised entry to designated football matches

Extent: E+W

In the Football (Offences) Act 1991, after section 1 (designated football matches) insert—
“Unauthorised entry
1A (1) A person (“P”) commits an offence if—
(a) P enters, or attempts to enter, premises for the purpose of attending a designated football match, and
(b) at the time of entry or attempted entry, P does not have a match ticket for the match that P is eligible to use.
(2) It is a defence to prove that P had lawful authority or lawful excuse for entering, or attempting to enter, the premises.
(3) It is a defence to prove that—
(a) P entered, or attempted to enter, the premises through an entry point normally used by spectators,
(b) at the time of entry or attempted entry, P had something that they reasonably believed was a match ticket for the match, and
(c) the thing that P had—
(i) was not a match ticket for the match, or
(ii) was a match ticket for the match but P was not eligible to use it.
(4) In this section—
“match ticket” means a ticket or other thing (whether in physical or electronic form) which authorises a person to enter premises for the purpose of attending a designated football match;
“premises” includes any place.”

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2026/1/section/1 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/unauthorised-entry-to-football-matches-act-2026/section-1
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.