Cost of Policing Wear-Tyne Derby Sharply Increases for Clubs
Written by Ciaran Myers on 12th June 2026
Newcastle United and Sunderland AFC have incurred 107.2% increased costs for policing the Wear-Tyne Derby from Northumbria Police since its return in 2024.
New data uncovered after a Freedom of Information request by Spark reveals the cost invoiced to clubs for the policing of the Wear-Tyne derby, since its return after an eight-year hiatus, has risen sharply. For the March 20 2016 game £58,191.44 of the police costs was put onto the organiser, this rose to £120,586.66 when the two clubs met in January 2024.
The high costs continued for the first fixture of this season. £120,283.93 was invoiced after The Black Cat’s won 1-0 over their rivals at the Stadium of Light.
Prior to this, the April 5, 2015, fixture cost the clubs £82,705.12 and £58,191.44 was invoiced for the October 25 match of the same year.
These figures are charged to the football clubs and do not cover spending from the Northumbria police budget. This also does not include the costs of paying the officers who worked as part of their normal hours. The cost from the police’s budget is unknown.
A spokesperson for Northumbria Police said: “As a Force, we put comprehensive plans in place to ensure everyone attending each Newcastle United v Sunderland AFC fixture is as safe as possible for all of those attending.
“This includes liaising with both clubs and partner organisations in the build-up to the game.
“We have an increased policing presence on duty for all fixtures of this nature and that includes in our city centres.
“Policing costs to our football clubs have increased over time due to inflationary factors as well as rises in the cost of mutual aid from other police forces.
“For season 2023/24, the UK Football Policing Unit found that nationally, policing services provided to football were at a cost to the taxpayer of £72 million, with £15 million recovered by policing.”
According to the Bank of England’s inflation calculator for goods and services, £58,191.44 in 2016 would be £77,380.47 in 2024 which is £43,206.19 below the figure of the increased cost.
Mutual aid costs are registered separately and only held for the January 6 2024, fixture which was £196,055 with Northumbria Police incurring fees for overtime of £35,640.
As well as inflation there are many different factors that could have contributed to this rise in costs. Including, the number of specialist officers and the risk assessment prior to the game. It is likely that the first derby after eight years would have had a higher risk of violence, as well as the first fixture back in the Premier League which no doubt contributed to the rise in costs for those two matches.
There were 1,023 officers deployed for the January 6 2024 fixture compared to 787 on the October 25 2015. There is no information held for the March 20 2016 game. This reflects that the return of the derby after a long hiatus increased the amount of police presence.
A spokesperson for the Sunderland Supporters Association said: “It’s a shame a very small minority behave the way they do on both sides that spoils it for everyone else to a degree and if the behaviour was better then maybe not as much policing would be required.
“I think both clubs should come to some sort of arrangement where the Metros are Sunderland and Newcastle (fans) only. Surely that could not be difficult.”
The Newcastle United Supporters Trust was contacted for this article but did not want to comment.
There has been a history of violence associated with the Wear-Tyne Derby, including the infamous 2013 incident where a Newcastle fan punched a police horse.
This has led to away supporters being forced to travel on provided coaches and refused entry into the game if they took any other form of transport. The first instance of this occurred in 2014 and was implemented again for the FA Cup fixture in 2024.
For the two Premier League matches this season fans were allowed to travel freely. The December game resulted in just one arrest while three arrests were made at the March fixture. There was one further arrest of a man accused of directing racial abuse towards Sunderland players, Lutsharel Geertruida, in the days following the match.
Generally, the cost of policing football matches are met by the local police force but under section 25 of the Police Act 1996, police forces can charge football clubs for policing that occurs on leased or owned land by the football club under special police service arrangements.
Last year, the Metropolitan Police, Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley questioned football clubs’ contribution to the cost of policing matches. He said: “Why isn’t the organiser paying for that, rather than local communities?”
In 2018 the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) stated that the average cost of policing a Premiership football game is £29,789 and the average amount received from a club towards costs is £2,977.
For the recent derby game, (for which we do not have the figures for), played on March 22, lots of policing was done on land not owned by either club. It is unknown whether the organisers requested the special policing services and so unclear how much Northumbria Police will recover.
Discussions will continue on who should foot the bill for football policing but in the last year, police forces in England spent £57 million of the taxpayer’s money that was not recovered by the force.
Both Sunderland AFC and Newcastle United have been contacted for this article but are yet to reply.
