A POLICE force could be caught offside if Middlesbrough FC is promoted to the Premiership, with not enough officers to cover matchdays, The Northern Echo has learned.

Cleveland Police has seen a reduction in officers by 400 since 2010 - and the chair of its Police Federation Paul Brown said "the public should be frightened" because there were not enough officers to do the job.

The claim came as it emerged that all officers' rest days had been cancelled ahead of Boro's home clash with Leeds on February 21.

The match is classed as category C plus in policing terms - meaning there is a high possibility of criminal behaviour.

Cancelling officers' rest days is so that there are enough officers on the streets - and some have expressed concern that there are not enough officers to police higher-profile matches if Boro reaches the Premiership next season.

Mr Brown said: "What we would find if Middlesbrough went into the Premiership is that police officers' rest days will get cancelled an awful lot more than they do now.

“The bottom line with all of this is because of the massive reduction in police officer numbers, the only option they have if anything occurs is cancelling rest days.

“They are just about managing to cope with the day-to-day business. To put something on top of that like industrial action or a football match, they can’t cope.

“Police officers work nine to ten hour shifts at the moment without meal breaks. It is one of the reasons why sickness levels in Cleveland are really high, police officers are getting burned out.

"It is going to get to the point where the public should be frightened because there are not enough police officers to do the job.

“As a federation we appreciate the work Cleveland Police does to try and manage this, but the bottom line is that too many police officers have been slashed.”

A spokeswoman for Cleveland Police said: "We are currently assessing the potential impact should there be any movement between leagues by either Middlesbrough or Hartlepool Football Clubs.

"Any football match deemed to have an increased requirement in terms of police input will be policed appropriately.

"This would place additional demands upon the police service and its employees however it is obviously impossible to state to what extent at this stage and without knowledge of the exact details."