The AFL has told unions to stop campaigning outside of football games, after police were contacted during a game in Launceston in February.

Unionists collected names and phone numbers from members of the crowd at the gate of a Hawthorn-Carlton game on February 18, 2016, with the intent of creating a database for the federal election, according to a News Ltd report.

Police told the offenders, some of them from the Health and Community Services Union, to leave the ground, but a number of them then entered the stadium.

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In 2015, police were also called in to disperse activists handing out anti-Tony Abbott material at every entrance to Kardiana Park in Geelong during an AFL match.

In Victoria, it is illegal to campaign at sports events under the Major Sporting Events Act, while, it is also a condition of entry to AFL games that you don’t hand out political material.

The AFL’s Patrick Keane told the newspaper that football matches were not the place for political statements, and that union advertising had been rejected in the past by the AFL.

It’s a strong stance from a code that appears to be ramping up its advertising at every turn, including with the use of flashing digital banners on the actual ground.

Last weekend, a large banner was unfurled by members of the United Patriots Front at the MCG during a Collingwood versus Richmond match with the slogan ‘Stop the mosques’.

The offenders were removed from the ground and Collingwood president Eddie McGuire indicated they would be banned from club membership.