Row over 'closed period' football screenings
A Newcastle licensee has attacked football chiefs for allowing one city bar to show live matches on Saturday afternoons.
No pubs are permitted to show games during the 'closed period' but the FA Premier League has made an exception for a bar in Newcastle United's stadium.
"It's not just us who have suffered, it's happening all over the city" Licensee Michael Hill loses customers every Saturday.
Local licensees are incensed at the exemption for the 1,200-capacity Shearer's bar, below the club's Gallowgate Stand.
'It's not just ourselves who have suffered. It's happening all over the city.'
Newcastle Licensee Michael Hill is losing every Saturday.
Illegal screenings
The FA has placed adverts in the trade press warning
licensees that 'closed-period' screenings are illegal.
Newcastle licensee Michael Hill, whose pub the
Strawberry is just 30-yards from Newcastle's ground, blasted: "It's one rule for them and one rule for the rest of us."
Losing £500 a day
Hill's takings are down by about £500 every time a Newcastle game is shown at Shearer's.
Pubs emptying
Trade consultant Phil Dixon, an adviser to the BII (British Institute of Innkeeping), complained to the FAPL last month, saying: "Our problem at the BII is that our north-east members are pretty miffed at their pubs emptying every Saturday as hundreds watch the footy in Shearer's Bar during the closed period."
Nothing Illegal
However, Media Protection Services (MPS), which investigates illegal screenings at pubs, said there is nothing illegal about Shearer's showing matches because the FAPL owns the copyright and has given its
