A MORE aggressive pricing policy being adopted by police forces for controlling football crowds at matches outside the usual league programme has had an unwelcome impact.

An international friendly tomorrow evening between Albania and Democratic Republic of Congo at Leyton Orient’s Brisbane Road stadium has been cancelled at the last minute, apparently because the Metropolitan Police wanted to charge £85,000 to control the crowd. Not that much of a crowd was expected, with officials at the Coca-Cola League One club predicting about only 4,000 spectators would turn up.

The Met’s rate — about £21 for every spectator — would have made it tricky to turn a profit on the match. To put those costs in perspective, Chelsea were charged only £134,000 for the whole of the 2003-04 season, the last for which figures were available to The Insider.

However, the Met are merely trying to cut their football losses: they can charge only for providing officers inside the ground for league games and not outside. In 2003-04, policing Stamford Bridge and the surrounding area cost £800,000. A recent review encouraged forces to try to recoup as much of their losses as they could from profit-making events — such as tomorrow evening’s friendly.

None of this is much comfort to Orient, who have an admirable community scheme that helps youngsters from immigrant communities in East London, including people from Albania and DR Congo.

Nor does it cheer up poor Havant and Waterlooville, who were playing an historic FA Cup first-round match against Millwall last night at Portsmouth’s Fratton Park. Hampshire police dictated a move from Havant’s Westleigh Park home to Portsmouth for better security, but then slapped a bill for £35,000 on the Nationwide Conference South club, whose usual crowd is about 500. They will now struggle to make a penny from their first match against League opposition.

Hold the entries for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year competition, for The Insider has uncovered a new contender. Step forward Bob Cooper, our newest world champion. Admittedly, his speciality is not exactly physically demanding, but Cooper, from London, beat 500 competitors from around the globe in the World Rock Paper Scissors Championships in Canada last weekend. Cooper is, of course, the only sportsman who can legitimately put two fingers up at his competitors, although he is likely to have them blunted by rock.