West Ham United supporters led the way in total arrests, the most likely division to see a fan led away in handcuffs is League Two and the only area where there was not a rise in disorder appeared to be on transport.
Those are just some of the headlines from the Home Office’s annual report into arrests and banning orders across England and Wales, which indicates a significant rise in disorder across the board as arrests reached their highest total since 2013-14.
In total 2,198 fans were arrested at games last season, with incidents of disorder reported at 53% of matches (1,609 of 3,019). In 2018-19, the last full season with supporters pre-Covid, there were reported incidents at 1,007 matches, equivalent to one third of the games played.
There were 441 pitch invasions reported last season – up by a remarkable 127 per cent on the 2018-19 campaign – and 384 hate crime incidents, an increase of 99 per cent.
“Our football clubs are at the heart of our communities, and it is unacceptable that the game we all love is tarnished by a minority of selfish troublemakers," Home Office minister Jeremy Quin said.
The concluding weeks of last season saw a number of high-profile incidents at games, including Sheffield United captain Billy Sharp being assaulted by a Nottingham Forest supporter after the Championship play-off semi-final and Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira being abused by an Everton fan at Goodison Park.
And authorities have already reacted by clamping down with severe punishments for anyone who encroaches on the playing surface or is found in possession of pyrotechnics or class A drugs.
Chief Constable Mark Roberts, the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for football policing, said: “The statistics show a worrying rise in these crimes, which are both extremely dangerous for players, staff and fellow fans alike.
"We know that drug use, along with alcohol, is one of the key factors which leads to disorderly behaviour, and we are pleased that the Government is adding Class A drugs offences to the banning order legislation. This will provide police with another option to tackle criminal and anti-social behaviour by those who are under the influence of drugs.
”Anyone who commits a criminal offence either outside or inside a football ground can expect to face the consequences of their actions.”
But how bad are the numbers, really?
Here is a full breakdown of the numbers released by the Home Office.
Top five clubs with most arrests
West Ham led the way on 95 arrests, with 40 of those for public order offences, as Manchester City and Manchester United complete the top three. City’s title-sealing final game of the league was partially marred by a pitch invasion in which Aston Villa goalkeeper Robin Olsen was allegedly assaulted by a fan. However, these figures are contextualised by all three having additional European games.
Top five clubs with most banning orders
While the overall number of banning orders fell to 1,308, Championship clubs Birmingham, Millwall and Bolton (who were relegated to League 1) led the way.
All but six orders were for males and 910 of those were issued to those between the ages of 18 and 34. Only 36 were for under-18s.
1 Birmingham 57 banning orders
2 Millwall 52
3 Bolton 46
4 Liverpool 38
5 Everton, Leicester 36
Arrests by division
Weighing total arrests against attendances, the FA Cup came out on top as the competition most likely to see a fan being led away by officers, with 8.7 per 100,000 fans arrested. League Two (7.7) is the top league, followed by the National League (6.4) and Championship (5.6) - but the Premier League (4.1) ranks below the nationwide average of 5.2.
Although arrests at international games increased, it still came in lowest among the different competitions at 3.2. That category included the women's European Championship, where there were five arrests (two of those in games not involving England).
Types of disorder
The leading causes of arrest have not changed since 2018-19, with the report stating that the most common offence types were public disorder (36%), violent disorder (20%), and pitch incursion (14%) but the number of arrests for most offences increased - including 186 (72 per cent) more for violent disorder - and the graphic below shows an increase in arrests following missiles being thrown and pitch invasions.
And where do they happen?
A far larger percentage of arrests were made inside stadiums compared to previous years, while British Transport Police did not report an increase.
“Nearly two-thirds (64%; 1,404) of the 2,198 arrests in the 2021 to 2022 football season occurred inside the football ground, which compares with 59% in the 2018 to 2019 football season (and 37% in the 2020 to 2021 football season),” the Home Office said.
There were 140 arrests reported by BTP, compared to 24 last season but down from the 155 registered in 2018-19.
