A BAN on cigarette smoking is being considered for the whole of the McAlpine Stadium.

Talks are being held after a plea for restaurants, cinemas and other public places to be fume-free.

Huddersfield Giants are already backing the idea.

The move would delight some sports fans - but anger others.

Many parts of the stadium are now smoke-free, with the executive seats recently seeing a ban on smoking introduced. The Panasonic stand is non-smoking and also many of the offices.

Now stadium officials are talking about a blanket ban.

Malcolm Pickup, health and safety official for Kirklees Stadium Development Limited, said he supported a total ban on smoking in public places.

He said he would like to see such a ban at the stadium.

One upset football fan said: "Having a quick fag is sometimes something you feel you have to do when matches are going badly."

The talks were revealed after Giants players lent their weight to an anti-smoking campaign.

Lorraine Bradbury, health promotions worker at Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Trust, said: "Smoking is one of the major causes of early death in the UK.

"We also know that passive smoking - the breathing in of other people's smoke - also causes major health problems and is extremely dangerous, especially to children and babies."

A free NHS smoking advice service started in Huddersfield two years ago.

Since then 3,200 people have made an attempt to quit and almost half of those have been successful.