I AM in total agreement with Philip Roe (Letters, May 2) on the subject of the “Beautiful Game”.

To me, there is nothing beautiful about the behaviour of the players and spectators. The amount of swearing and violence, to say nothing of the spitting that goes on, would not be tolerated for a moment in any other environment Apart from this there is the enormous amount of taxpayers’ money that has to be paid for the police coverage at some matches.

I know the clubs provide the stewarding inside the ground, but outside there are more policemen and women than some countries have soldiers!

Perhaps some form of standard could be set up.

According to the size of the crowd at an event, the local chief constable could decide how many officers he needs for traffic control and security.

His own experience should tell him how many he will need for traffic control, but if the ones needed for security are higher than the national average for other events, the club should pay the difference.

It probably takes more policemen to cover just one Premier League match than it does for a whole series of Test Matches.

Mike Usherwood, Mendip Close, Huntington, York.