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Hello, I'm Alicia McCarthy.

Thanks for downloading the yesterday in Parliament podcast.

On Friday the 24th of October, a bill to crack down on ticketless fans getting into

top-flight football matches in England and Wales cleared its first hurdle in the House of Lords.

The move follows disorder at the Euro 2020 final between England and Italy at Wembley, when around

2,000 people got into the ground illegally. A report by the Whitehall troubleshooter Lady Casey

said ticketless, drunken and drugged-up thugs could have caused deaths.

Labour peer law Brennan explained that currently getting into a ground without a ticket wasn't an

offence. The intention is not to criminalise fans or create barriers to genuine supporters enjoying

the game. Instead, the focus is on preventing those who would seek to cause disorder

and harm from entering stadiums. The bill brings in fines of up to £1,000 and could see

fans banned from grounds for between three and ten years. There was backing for the move across

the house, but some, including the Lib Dem, Lord Addington, worried about enforcement.

It's the elephant in the room, if you like.

It's the elephant which has now been disguised, talked about and put a howdo on.

Lord Man, a Labour peer, revealed how he'd got into games as a youngster.

Until school dinners became particularly good with service treble massives,

I was capable of being easily lifted at a very quite mature age, really, over said turnstile. Which reminded a former minister, the Conservative

Lord Moynihan, once affectionately known as the miniature for sport, what happened when he'd

been steering a football bill through the Commons?

And there was that moment that always is before the minister winds up when the House goes

...