The latest official Home Office statistics on football-related arrests and banning orders in England and Wales:
The release covers arrests at international and domestic football matches; and football banning orders in force as at August 1, 2016. Football-related arrests for possession of pyrotechnics (pyros, for short, such as flares and rickets) have shown a large increase over the last five seasons, from 32 arrests in 2011 to 2012 to 141 arrests in the 2015-6 season.
Overall the game in England and Wales had 2,085 football banning orders in force, a decrease of 4 per cent (down 96) from the number of banning orders as at September 2015. As a sign of how lower-profile, lower leagues have the bulk of trouble, supporters of Premier League clubs accounted for less than a third, 30pc (617) of the total number of banning orders, and nearly as many as those against supporters of Championship clubs, at 28pc of the whole (575). Police point to a steady decline in the total number of football banning orders in the last four seasons, falling by almost a quarter (down 646) from a high of 2,731 in November 2012. Some 542 new banning orders were issued between the end July 2015 and the start of August 2016, an increase of 58 when compared with the previous season. The number of new football banning orders issued in the last five seasons has ranged from 471 to 678.
The 2015 to 2016 season saw 1,895 football-related arrests, or an increase of 1 per cent (22) on the previous season. In another sign of how the Premier League, despite the bigger gates and what’s at stake, has more policing and private security to deter or displace disorder, the highest number of football-related arrests were in the second tier, Championship matches, a quarter of the whole (470) and more than in Premier League matches (431).
(For a recent study that points to different risks around stadium security at the top and lower end of the league spectrum, see the research for the Staffordshire police and crime commissioner, by academic Clifford Stott.)
The number of football-related arrests over the last five football seasons has ranged from 1,873 to 2,456. It works out at 4.8 football-related arrests per 100,000 attendees. That ranges from the League Cup that had the highest arrest rate of 8.1 per 100,000 attendees while European competitions had the lowest arrest rate, of 2.1 arrests per 100,000.
Of those 1,895 arrested, the three most common offence types were public disorder (31pc), alcohol offences (20pc) and violent disorder (19pc).
Euro 2016
As for the Euros in France in the summer of 2016, in advance of the tournament, individuals subject to football banning orders were required to surrender their passports to prevent them from travelling to France. This led to around 1,400 passports being surrendered to the police which accounted for almost all of the passports held by those who were subject to the banning orders. The Euro 2016 policing operation involved a ports operation, passport surrender associated with the enforcement of banning orders, England and Wales police deployments in France, UK based investigations and other administrative work, with policing costs estimated to be around £1m.
To see the stats broken down by club, regarding the football banning orders and arrests, England and Wales, season 2015 to 2016; they’re online at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/football-related-arrests-and-banning-orders-england-and-wales-season-2015-to-2016.
Pictured; by Mark Rowe, table football game dumped on street, Glasgow.
Comment
At the Football Supporters’ Federation (FSF), caseworker Amanda Jacks said: “It’s good to football arrests follow a downward trend over recent years and pleasing to see them remain at historically low levels.
“Football fans’ behaviour is improving, the policing is getting better and we’re seeing fans becoming more involved in match-day planning – all have these factors have ensured that disorder at football matches is very rare. The statistics don’t tell us how many of these arrests led to convictions, cautions or other actions such as fixed penalty notices. It would be very helpful for supporters too see the figures broken down in that way.”
Visit http://www.fsf.org.uk.
