Whether it’s getting some footage of a famous player, capturing the reactions of opposition fans, or just filming something funny happening in the stadium, fans pulling out their phone to film is a common site in football stadiums around the UK.
In November 2025, footage of a confrontation between Aston Villa fans and protestors went viral, gaining hundreds of thousands of views and attracting a large number of comments.
But legal expert Theodore Martin of Ex Offender Grants, an organisation that supports ex-offenders to help them access financial, practical support and avoid re-offending, is warning that filming others inside a stadium poses a risk of breaking the law, especially when shared to social media.
Do supporters need permission to film someone?
“It depends. It’s always polite to ask permission before filming, that courtesy would mean the most controversial and therefore viral content wouldn’t get made. And in some stadium scenarios, people are zooming in on fans in other parts of the ground, which makes soliciting permission almost impossible” says Mr. Martin.
“Many believe that they can’t be filmed without giving consent, which isn’t true,” says Mr. Martin.
“As a rule, if you’re in public, you can expect to be recorded. It’s about whether or not you have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Football stadiums and the surrounding areas are covered with CCTV and film you without capturing your consent on the basis that you do not have that expectation”
When does filming become harassment?
“Nobody needs permission to film others in public, doing so can still lead to a breach of the law”, says Mr. Martin.
“If someone being filmed says they do not want to be filmed or makes attempts to leave the area, a court could see attempts to continue filming or follow them as harassment.”
People filming themselves
“People love filming their own reactions when their team scores. The law around people filming themselves in public has a number of grey areas. The biggest legal landmine people face when filming themselves is when they capture other people in the process, whether inadvertently or deliberately.
“Many content creators appear to assume that if they are filming themselves, they can do it wherever and whenever they feel like. That’s not the case.”
“It’s not hard to imagine a scenario where an innocent member of the public may have a legitimate complaint about invasion of privacy.
“For example, lots of fitness influences like to film themselves in the gym, but make very little effort to protect the privacy of others while doing it. It gets even more risky when filming in ostensibly public places where a person would still have a reasonable expectation of privacy, such as the gym changing room or swimming pool area.”
The difference between making images of people and publishing them
“The law treats filming and publishing very differently. Both acts may come under either the Human Rights Act 1998 or the Data Protection Act 2018. These laws exist to protect people from having others meddle in their private affairs. However, they can become relevant for filming and publishing content.
“Let’s say for example you’re filming a goal celebration in the stand. By chance, someone in the frame has an accident or falls ill, which is actually quite common at sports matches. What you do with the footage can influence whether or not you breach any of that person’s rights.”
Martin explains that how and where people share footage can have serious legal implications.
“Most of us wouldn’t even think about sharing a video of an innocent person in distress, regardless of where they were.
“Some may share the video privately, for example by sending it to a friend using a messaging app. In that scenario, it’s as good as posting it to the Internet. You’ve lost control of who can access the footage.”
“In those extreme scenarios, it’s possible that the subject’s rights could have been breached. In fact, under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a person’s health status is considered “special category data”.
Take a scenario where a person is suffering an epileptic seizure in the ground. It’s possible that by sharing the content to the public, the person publishing the content is breaching that part of the regulation by disclosing a person’s health status.”
Mr. Martin’s final warning for anyone filming in public is this: “Ask yourself if you’d appreciate the same footage of you going viral. Because that’s the risk you’re taking.”